📄 Download the free Old Course Access Cheat Sheet (PDF) — the three routes, the ballot timeline and the authorised provider list on one printable page.
Everyone wants the Old Course. Almost nobody understands how you actually get on it. Here is the truth of it, from someone who has spent nearly thirty years inside Scottish golf.
The three ways onto the Old Course
There are only three routes that matter for a visitor: a guaranteed advance tee time, the daily ballot, or the singles draw. Everything else you read is noise.
1. Guaranteed advance times
The Links Trust releases advance tee times through authorised providers and package operators, and they sell out astonishingly early — the best of the 2026 season was gone before most golfers had even started planning. If a guaranteed time matters to you, you are booking a year or more ahead, usually as part of a package, and you will pay for the privilege — typically £300–£450 per person through an agency. The green fee itself in high season is around £340; always check standrews.com for the current rate.
2. The daily ballot — free, and better odds than you think
The ballot is how most visitors get on, and entering costs nothing. How it works:
- You need at least two players — the ballot takes groups of two to four. Singles cannot enter (see below).
- Enter online at standrews.com, by phone, or in person at The Old Pavilion or a Links clubhouse.
- The ballot closes at 2pm two days before you want to play. Apply Tuesday for Thursday.
- There is no Friday ballot, because the Old Course is closed on Sundays. She rests, like the rest of us.
- Results are out after 4.30pm the same day, on the ballot results page.
- On paper the Links Trust asks for proof of a club handicap (maximum 36) — in nearly thirty years in Scottish golf I have never once heard of it spoiling anyone’s round. Know it exists, then think no more about it.
The insider truth: your odds swing wildly with the season. Shoulder months, midweek, and flexibility on tee time all improve your chances enormously. If you can be in St Andrews for three or four days and enter the ballot each day, most groups get on at least once. Build your itinerary so the other days are spent on the New, the Jubilee or the Castle — no one has ever gone home disappointed by those.
Travelling alone? The Singles Daily Draw
The famous overnight queue is gone. Single golfers now enter the Singles Daily Draw: go to The Old Pavilion or the Links Clubhouse between 9am and 4pm the day before you hope to play and put your name in. You register in person and are notified of the result that evening. As a single you slot into gaps in the tee sheet, and your odds are honestly quite good — singles are the grease in the wheels of the Old Course.
The authorised providers — who actually sells guaranteed times
Guaranteed Old Course times are only sold through operators appointed by the St Andrews Links Trust. If a company promises you a guaranteed time and is not on this list, ask hard questions. These are the providers who publicly hold Links Trust appointment (check standrews.com for the definitive current list):
- PerryGolf — working with the Links Trust since 1984, the longest-standing relationship of any operator
- Links Golf St Andrews
- St Andrews Golf Travel
- St Andrews for Golf
- Scotland for Golf
- The Experience Golf
- DP&L Golf
- Celtic Golf
- Connoisseur Golf
Two things to know: these times are nearly always sold inside packages (accommodation, transport, other courses), not on their own — and they sell out a year or more ahead. If you want guaranteed, start early and expect the premium.
The mistakes I see every year
- Giving St Andrews a single night in the itinerary. One night means one ballot chance — give it two or three days and your odds transform.
- Treating the other courses as consolation prizes. The New Course is one of the finest links in Scotland in its own right.
- Booking non-refundable travel around a ballot you have not yet won.
Planning a trip? Tell me about it and I’ll give you an honest steer — it costs you nothing.
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