What It Costs to Play St Andrews Old Course
Playing the Old Course at St Andrews costs £355 per round in the 2026 high season (April 21–October 18), before a caddie, and getting that tee time at all usually isn't a matter of just paying — it's a matter of winning a daily public ballot. Add a caddie at roughly £75–£80 a bag, and a single round realistically runs £400–£450. The bigger obstacle for most visitors isn't the price; it's that there's no simple "book online" button for the world's most famous golf course, and a real chance you don't get on at all on your planned day.
Key Takeaways
- The Old Course green fee is £355 per round for the 2026 high season (April 21–October 18), with lower rates outside that window.
- Most visitors access a tee time through the daily ballot — a free public lottery entered by 2pm two days before the desired round, with results published that afternoon around 4pm.
- A handicap certificate is required to play, with a maximum handicap of 36 for both men and women — the only one of St Andrews Links' courses with that requirement.
- The Old Course is closed every Sunday, a fixed rule that shapes any trip built around it.
- St Andrews Links Trust also runs a heavily discounted access program for Scotland-based golfers — 2026's edition offers Old Course tee times at just £45 (an 88% discount) through a separate free ballot, alongside deeply discounted rates on five other Links courses.
How Much Is the Green Fee at the Old Course?
£355 per player, for the 2026 high season running April 21 through October 18 — the window when the turf is firmest, the days are longest, and demand (and the ballot odds against you) are at their peak. Rates drop outside that window, in the shoulder and winter months, though the ballot and access rules stay the same year-round. On top of the green fee, a caddie runs roughly £75–£80 per bag, which is close to essential on a course built around blind tee shots, seven double greens serving fourteen holes, and bunkers — Hell on the par-5 14th, the Road Bunker guarding the 17th — that can turn one bad swing into a ruined card. A realistic total for one round, green fee plus caddie plus tip, lands around £430–£480.
That figure is genuinely competitive with other bucket-list rounds — it's less than a third of what Pebble Beach charges in green fees alone. The real cost of playing the Old Course isn't the money. It's the access.
How Does the Old Course Ballot Actually Work?
The daily ballot is the route most visitors actually use, and it's exactly what it sounds like: a free public lottery run directly by St Andrews Links Trust. Groups of two to four players enter by 2pm, two days before the date they want to play, and results are published that same afternoon, around 4pm. If your group's name comes out, you have a confirmed tee time for the day after next — no more, no less notice than that.
Solo golfers can't enter the group ballot at all. Instead, single players use a separate singles draw, applied for in person the day before play, with successful applicants paired into a group by the Links Trust. Either way, the ballot is genuinely random — there's no way to buy, game, or reliably predict your way into a better outcome beyond simply entering every day you're in St Andrews.
What If You Need a Guaranteed Date?
Two other routes exist for golfers who can't build a trip around a random two-day-notice lottery. An advance reservation, released roughly a year ahead of the season and typically snapped up almost immediately, locks in a specific date well in advance. Alternatively, a guaranteed tee time booked through an authorised stay-and-play tour operator folds the round into an accommodation package at a premium price, trading the ballot's uncertainty for a fixed date. Neither is cheap or easy to arrange on short notice, which is why most trip planning around the Old Course treats the ballot as the default and the guaranteed routes as the fallback for golfers who can't risk missing out.
Do You Need a Handicap to Play the Old Course?
Yes — and it's the one course among St Andrews Links' full portfolio that requires it. Players need a valid handicap certificate (paper or digital) showing a maximum handicap of 36, for both men and women, before they're allowed to tee off. If you're not sure how that number gets calculated or what counts as an acceptable certificate, the World Handicap System is the framework behind essentially every recognized handicap worldwide today, and getting an official handicap covers what you'd need to arrange one before the trip if you don't already have one.
Is There a Cheaper Way to Play the Old Course?
For most visiting golfers, no — but St Andrews Links Trust does run a genuinely large-scale discount program for Scotland-based golfers called The Drive. In 2026, the initiative offers Old Course tee times at just £45 — an 88% discount off the £355 green fee — through a separate, free-to-enter ballot open specifically to golfers based in Scotland, alongside similarly discounted access to the Castle, Jubilee, Craigtoun, Eden, and Strathtyrum courses. St Andrews Links Trust nearly tripled the number of discounted tee times for 2026 versus 2025, spreading almost 2,000 discounted rounds across the six courses. It's not an option for international visitors planning a one-time trip, but it's worth knowing about if you're weighing where to send a golf-playing relative or client who happens to live in Scotland.
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Frequently Asked Questions
- The green fee is £355 per player for the 2026 high season (April 21–October 18), with lower rates outside that window. Add a caddie at roughly £75–£80 a bag, and a realistic total for one round runs around £430–£480.
- Most visitors use the daily ballot — a free public lottery entered by 2pm two days before the desired date, with results published around 4pm that afternoon. Advance reservations and authorised tour-operator packages offer guaranteed dates for golfers who can't rely on the ballot.
- Yes. A valid handicap certificate showing a maximum handicap of 36 (for both men and women) is required — the only course at St Andrews Links with that requirement.
- No — it's closed on Sundays, a longstanding rule at St Andrews. Trip planning around the course should never count on a Sunday round.
- Yes, but not through the standard group ballot, which requires groups of two to four. Solo players apply to a separate singles draw in person the day before play and are paired into a group by the Links Trust.