St Andrews Questions

mel.b

My dad is coming over to visit me from Australia this Sept and he is also turning 60 this yr so we were thinking of golf at St Andrews for his birthday. Looking at their website it is already booked out for that time for the Old course and the daily ballot appears to need 2 people to enter it. It mentions that you can arrive in the morning and you might get to join another group...what are the chances of that? If he went and didn't manage to join a group what are the chances of playing another course that day or will he have missed out completely? Thinking we'll probably book 2 days for him and just wondering if we should leave one free to try for the old course, or just book the two days on other courses and if so which would people recommend?

mike12

There are loads of courses so if you dont make the ballot you will still get to play golf, enter the ballot on a Saturday for Monday if you don't make it turn up real early and get your name down. People seem to get all the time.

cairny

Don't some of the hotels have tee times, so that you can book a stay and play package?

I've never been so open to correction but Im sure I read that somewhere.

cackhanded

You can view the ballot for the following day online - if there are lots of 2 and 3 balls then you should be able to get on by turning up early on the day at the starters hut and putting your name down. The later in the season it is, the easier it is to get on.

Should be no problem getting a tee time on one of the other courses at that time of the year. The New, Jubilee and Eden courses are all excellent in their own right and well worth playing.

If you really want to push the boat out for his birthday get him a caddy for the round on the Old Course, they know every blade of grass round the course and most are great characters.

First Up

Remember that the Old Course is public land on Sundays so you can walk the course. Some very good tours as well.

bailey99

Went to St Andrews last March and going again this March. In terms of other courses, the Castle course is excellent as is the New course. The other courses are a bit below the quality of the Castle, Old and New I reckon so the JUbille would be in that category.

The Old course you have three options. Either booking through a hotel and booking the golf with them and paying a hefty premium of course for the priviledge. Try Fairmount St Andrews, a fantastic 5 star hotel if this is the option to go for.

Second option is entering the ballot. The ballot is done 48 hours in advance and half of the tee times at dedicated to the ballot. This is a great way of getting out and it's free to enter the ballot. You enter the ballot by calling into the clubhouses or else call into any of the starters huts. So calling in on say Monday enters you into the ballot for Wednesday. If you want to enter the Thursday ballot, then you need to call again on Tuesday.

Your final option is just go upto the starter on the Old course early in the morning. And see if he can fix you up. He will be able to tell you if there are any twoballs or threeballs on the timesheet. If there is, the starter will ask the twoball or threeballs if they would mind if you joined them as a single golfer. The groups have the right to refuse this request and the starter cannot compel them into letting you join them.

You would want to be fairly unlucky for a twoball of threeball to refuse the request, but I reckon he'll certainly get out over the two days.

razorblunt

FYI - if you're interested in the Kittocks or Torrance at Fairmont, keep an eye on teeofftimes.co.uk, they offer early rounds (before 9am) for peanuts, they then tend to be £100 or so in the midday.

bailey99

I have the Torrance booked in March, 99 sterling for a fourball