Just back from 7 nights in St Andrews (8/4-11)

[CDM]

Looks amazing...!

[fredstar]

Great pictures. I need to get over there to play before I get to old.

 

Would going as a single be a terrible time over there? I know none of my golf buds could afford this and I know my dad would not be able to play this much golf.

 

I have been 3 times on solo trips, on busy courses you always get paired up and I have met some really cool people. Makes it simple to get on Old Course if you don't mind lining up early.

[Cwing]

Awesome thread. Flooding back memories from my trip in 2014.

[tiderider]

Great pictures. I need to get over there to play before I get to old.

 

Would going as a single be a terrible time over there? I know none of my golf buds could afford this and I know my dad would not be able to play this much golf.

 

you get one life ... get off your a** and go ...

[dpark]

Old Course Ballot info

 

So not having got into my pictures yet, as good a time as any to talk about the Old Course ballot. And given that my trip was in high season, thats probably all it applies to. If you go in January you probably wont have these problems. But then again I was in Scotland for 8 days and it was low 60s and sunny every single day so...they probably call it high season for a reason :-)

 

I guess the first thing is, if you really absolutely must play the Old Course, pay a company that has a guaranteed tee time. No matter what it costs. Plan your entire trip around it. Enter the advanced ballot in September for the following year - which you will probably lose - and then find a company that can accomodate you. If you want to go in July and August your chances might be limited in terms of a guranteed spot. But if there was one mistake we made it was this. The number of available slots can be SO SMALL on certain days but you wont know until you get to the Old Course that morning.

 

So we entered the annual ballot for a foursome like just about everyone else. And lost. So our next plan was entering the daily ballot 6 times. All losers.

 

Here's the one thing they dont really tell you. The "busy times" that they put on their website - which you are allegedly supposed to be able to tell how busy the course is going to be - they may be completely inaccurate. The R&A can have as big a block of times as they want and they basically dont have to tell anyone. I may write something on this later but talking to so many people that worked at the Old Course from managers down to caddies, the relationship between them and the R&A members seems...interseting. Dont rely on that list I guess is what I'm saying.

 

So we decided to wait in line on Wednesday morning. Showed up at 2:15am....to find that 13 people had spent the night in line. We knew right then there was basically no chance but we waited it out until 6am anyway when they called us in. At 6 they bring you into the pavilion in a nice calm line and you talk to the guy in charge one at a time. (another sidenote - the guys working the OC pavillion were some of the nicest and most patient people we met all trip). So that guy will have a tee sheet printed out for the day - which you can also see on the app - and he will tell you what he thinks. And they dont sugar coat it.

 

If you see blanks in morning tee times, chances are its a local member. So while that may look promising, they dont have to take people with them if they dont want to. And the people there really seemed to know, oh these guys are great they will take two, these guys not so much. So even if you look the night before and see ten "spaces" you will never actually know until @ 3-5 minutes before that tee time if they will take someone. So...no warming up, no time for a quick bucket - that will be 180 pounds, now get on the tee box lol.

 

BTW - you will have no chance of walking on as a foursome. None. Singles, absolutely. Twosomes, maybe. But no chance of a foursome.

 

There are also three or four "dark times" that are at the very end of the day. Up until 9am local members can call and reserve those tee times. That happened on both days. We were told that those are almost never available this time of year save for a spot here and there.

 

So we found out that we were 14-17 in line. We could wait around for cancellations in the dark times but at that point we decided it wasnt worth it. We grabbed our gear and walked over to the Links Clubhouse to have breakfast and hop on the New Course. Its...hilarious that the "fallback plan" for most people on days like this was to play the New or Jubilee Courses.

 

Success story post to follow.

 

Interesting your thoughts on the ballot. We have been there twice now. First time we did the guaranteed tee time (2006) and paid through the nose for it. Yes, we got to play for sure but it was expensive because in addition to the higher cost to play, we also had to stay at a particular hotel that was required by the tour organizer. After we felt like we were bent over a table, we said we would never go through a tour operator again. Fast forward 11 years, and that is when we finally got a slot on the annual ballot for a round in May. We booked an AirBnB in town and it was awesome. Total cost of the trip was 1/4th of the price compared to the tour operator. Obviously a big help was Brexit so the exchange rate went from 1.9USD per GBP to 1.2USD per GBP for our trip in 2017.

 

We prepaid as much as we could since we knew the exchange rate wouldn't get much better but it could get worse. By the time we went on our trip the exchange rate crept up to 1.3 which was still way better than 1.9.

 

The AirBnB was a fraction of the cost of staying in the hotels set up by the tour organizer and it was great to be in a big house with kitchen vs. having to eat out for every meal.

 

As for the 48 hour ballot, we were in town for a week and got the ballot for a 4some on the first try. Maybe it is harder in July/Aug but we did get it in May.

 

The other nugget that made the trip way less expensive was the 3 day pass. We went crazy on golf with that pass and played everything at St. Andrews including the Castle course twice (in the same day). I think the cost was around 200GBP. But considering the cost of 1 round at Castle was 120GBP, just the 2 rounds there paid for the 3 day pass. On the other days we played New, Jubilee, Eden, Strathtyrum. Didn't play Balgrove. Played the Himalayas putting course as well.

 

If you have to play in a particular year, I guess if you don't get the annual ballot, your only other option is to get gouged by the tour operators, but I would try to get out of using their hotels and staying in an AirBnb instead. As for the 48 hour ballot, our experiences were vastly different. Glad you got out eventually via the daily ballot. For us, we never had to lose a night's sleep or do the walk up daily ballot thing (thank goodness).

 

Now that we have played The Old Course twice, I would be willing to go again just on the 3 day pass and play all the other courses for an average of 35GBP per course. That would be a fun trip all by itself.

[fredstar]

Clearly May is different to August. It's holidays for all of Europe and being summer everyone wants to go to Scotland for golf in hopes of the best weather. I spoke to several people who had tried day after day in the ballot with no success. It was my 3rd trip and I have to say St Andrews was so packed with people around town this August.

[Gem]

Clearly May is different to August. It's holidays for all of Europe and being summer everyone wants to go to Scotland for golf in hopes of the best weather. I spoke to several people who had tried day after day in the ballot with no success. It was my 3rd trip and I have to say St Andrews was so packed with people around town this August.

 

living here in Scotland I am a fairly regular visitor to StAndrews with the family but not usually during the height of summer. We visited the other week and was amazed how busy it was compared to early/late in the year. There was a street festival blocking off Market street and the place was certainly lively so can imagine the golf times also being booked solid with long waits on the ballots.

[dcmidnight]

Clearly May is different to August. It's holidays for all of Europe and being summer everyone wants to go to Scotland for golf in hopes of the best weather. I spoke to several people who had tried day after day in the ballot with no success. It was my 3rd trip and I have to say St Andrews was so packed with people around town this August.

 

living here in Scotland I am a fairly regular visitor to StAndrews with the family but not usually during the height of summer. We visited the other week and was amazed how busy it was compared to early/late in the year. There was a street festival blocking off Market street and the place was certainly lively so can imagine the golf times also being booked solid with long waits on the ballots.

 

Yeah the fair was setup I think the last day that we were there.

 

The only thing about the summer that was nice - according to the cab drivers at least - was how much easier it was to drive around. They claim this was nothing compared to how it is when school is in session. I dont know, seemed pretty nuts to me given how many shuttles and tour buses were driving around town. Cant imagine it being *worse*.

 

My wife wants to go play at some point so maybe in two years. I think if we went back I'd go maybe in like late May or early September. Sometime just out of the high season/best weather window.

[scott_Donald]

May can be great weather and probably best month for golf.

 

I think I get my most golf in May, still very keen and lots of light and much better weather than the previous months!

 

September is ok, for me the nights are getting earlier and earlier so not as much time to golf. I played on Friday(24th August) night 18th hole at 8.45 and it was in the dark, couldn't see a thing, lucky straight 2 iron and 8 iron.

[TerpFangolfer]

Thanks dc...awesome thread. I keep meaning to also post some of my pictures - was there in June for the 1st time.

 

I do have a question about q'ing up...how does it work at 0200 or 0300 - in terms of your place in line.

Do they put a list out? Or is there an actual spot that you have to sit? Just an honor system? Because certainly there is no one from the club there to monitor - until you mention that someone shows up at 0600 to talk to the players.

 

Just wondering... I got my tee-time this year thru the advance lottery (one of the lucky ones) - and plan to go again in 2020. Will apply for Advance, but I know next time I want to spend more days in St. A, play more of the other courses, and try to play TOC more than just once - so will probably end up in ballot, or the "Q"...for at least 1 round

 

thanks

[dcmidnight]

Its very much the honor system and everyone sort of watches out for each other. There's no cutting in line, there's no saving spots - there was really no funny business when I was there. We showed up @ 2a and just found the back of the line. One morning one of the guys in the bigger group was helping people keep track, the Friday morning there were so few people it was easy to see. Couple guys were sleeping, couple guys were sitting on a bench. New people show up, they find the back of the line.

 

Public service announcement though - there are only a couple small benches out there for people to sit on. If you bring a pillow and two blankets, man just sleep on the ground. Its rude as hell to take a bench to lay down on when there are 20+ people waiting in line and standing around or sitting on the cold ground. You want to sleep overnight and stretch out, cool, more power to you. Just dont be a jerk about it.

 

I really do wonder why they dont have more benches out there.

[Walter]

What a great story / memories! I was in St andrews one year ago, great times!!! thank you for sharing !!!

[markste]

This is great reading, thanks for sharing. It must have been cool to play Carnoustie with a few of the stands still up?

 

One of my favourites in St Andrews has to be the Jubilee, as you say you could re-play that over and over again and its massively underrated. We played the final few at Sunset when you're heading back toward the clubhouse with the town in the background, it's pretty special.

 

Was it your first time in Scotland? Any plans to go back? There are also some great golfing areas outside of Fife with great pubs / food / atmosphere. St Andrews is special and in a league of it's own, but if you're considering a similar length trip you can easily reach other areas with a 2-3 night stop in St Andrews still - just a little bit more driving involved.

 

It would be great to hear your thoughts on the courses on our website - https://goandgolf.co.uk/

[Schley]

Don't forget about the heaters which are under the roof and benches. U didn't see anyone sleeping when I was there but certainly could see that happening.

 

Saw two guys who brought their own food out chairs with a cushion. They didn't bring their clubs and would just go back to their car for a quick walk.

[scott_Donald]

I am heading down to St Andrews tomorrow as a guest.

 

Was supposed to play the Old Course but friends wife is coming so we are playing the New instead now. not really disappointed as been told it is actually a better course. looking forward to getting some pics of the town, not been down since May.

[Schley]

I am heading down to St Andrews tomorrow as a guest.

 

Was supposed to play the Old Course but friends wife is coming so we are playing the New instead now. not really disappointed as been told it is actually a better course. looking forward to getting some pics of the town, not been down since May.

 

Yeah that is what they tell everyone who misses out playing TOC! Never do you hear anyone who gets on TOC that they should have played the New.)))))

[fredstar]

I am heading down to St Andrews tomorrow as a guest.

 

Was supposed to play the Old Course but friends wife is coming so we are playing the New instead now. not really disappointed as been told it is actually a better course. looking forward to getting some pics of the town, not been down since May.

 

Bit like saying that court 15 outside at Wimbledon is better than center court. Nope!

[scott_Donald]

I am heading down to St Andrews tomorrow as a guest.

 

Was supposed to play the Old Course but friends wife is coming so we are playing the New instead now. not really disappointed as been told it is actually a better course. looking forward to getting some pics of the town, not been down since May.

 

Yeah that is what they tell everyone who misses out playing TOC! Never do you hear anyone who gets on TOC that they should have played the New.)))))

I am heading down to St Andrews tomorrow as a guest.

 

Was supposed to play the Old Course but friends wife is coming so we are playing the New instead now. not really disappointed as been told it is actually a better course. looking forward to getting some pics of the town, not been down since May.

 

Bit like saying that court 15 outside at Wimbledon is better than center court. Nope!

 

Haha very true.

 

My dad is a guest at the Old course on Thursday with an R and A member and they are making a day of it with a driver so will see how his day compare to mine, I will get the Old Course next year so don't mind at all. Will get a nice lunch after the golf in the New clubhouse.

[dcmidnight]

Never do you hear anyone who gets on TOC that they should have played the New.

 

LOL true story.

 

That being said, I think the New and Jubillee are two must plays if you are there - I found both of them to be very enjoyable courses.

[ceejay81]

Never do you hear anyone who gets on TOC that they should have played the New.

 

LOL true story.

 

That being said, I think the New and Jubillee are two must plays if you are there - I found both of them to be very enjoyable courses.

 

Hey DC - what's the story on TOC on #18 with your tee shot hitting a building and you making par? Unless I missed the follow up to it.

[scott_Donald]

Never do you hear anyone who gets on TOC that they should have played the New.

 

LOL true story.

 

That being said, I think the New and Jubillee are two must plays if you are there - I found both of them to be very enjoyable courses.

 

Well I really enjoyed today, New was a good course but I do really realise after playing Cruden Bay yesterday and the New today that I am one lucky guy playing Royal Aberdeen daily as it is far better than both of them.

 

 

 

Got some great pics today and great to have lunch after the round in the New clubhouse.

 

 

 

Dad is playing the Old on Thursday as a guest with the R and A, hope he gets some good pics.

 

Will try and visit on the Sunday of the Dunhill Links.

[dcmidnight]

DC - what's the story on TOC on #18 with your tee shot hitting a building and you making par? Unless I missed the follow up to it.

 

I was playing so well that I got way too aggressive lol, setup to hit a big draw and just push it straight at the building. I knew for sure it was either going to kill someone or hit a car but I just see the marshall running the car crossing waving left. Somehow - God knows how - it manages to find the middle of the fairway, about 80 yards from the green. There were a handful of cars waiting to cross, no idea how I didn't hit one. Hit a wedge 20 feet past the hole, two putted for par.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[scott_Donald]

DC - what's the story on TOC on #18 with your tee shot hitting a building and you making par? Unless I missed the follow up to it.

 

I was playing so well that I got way too aggressive lol, setup to hit a big draw and just push it straight at the building. I knew for sure it was either going to kill someone or hit a car but I just see the marshall running the car crossing waving left. Somehow - God knows how - it manages to find the middle of the fairway, about 80 yards from the green. There were a handful of cars waiting to cross, no idea how I didn't hit one. Hit a wedge 20 feet past the hole, two putted for par.

 

 

we were having lunch in the New clubhouse in line with the cross walk and someone hit a car there, wasn't the range rover but a cheaper car one short.

 

great pics on 18.

[mci711]

Not sure if this was asked or mentioned, but how was getting back and forth from the Fairmont? Did you drive at all, or was it all by shuttle? trying to book our accommodations for next year and the Fairmont is attractive because it seems newer and a little more familiar to what we are used to.

[dcmidnight]

Not sure if this was asked or mentioned, but how was getting back and forth from the Fairmont? Did you drive at all, or was it all by shuttle? trying to book our accommodations for next year and the Fairmont is attractive because it seems newer and a little more familiar to what we are used to.

 

We had zero issues. The shuttle was great during the day, it runs every hour or so. Very easy to get back and forth. My only "complaint" is that it only runs back from town until 6p or so. But the cabs were very easy to find - there are a couple of cab stands in town that always had cabs waiting. I think it was about ten pounds each way.

 

On the mornings we went to wait in line at the OC, we scheduled cabs through the front desk and they were early both days.

 

I think now that we know our way around a little, we would rent a house downtown next time and schedule all our course transportation through one of the local transportation companies. But I have zero hesitation in recommending the Fairmont.

[davep043]

Not sure if this was asked or mentioned, but how was getting back and forth from the Fairmont? Did you drive at all, or was it all by shuttle? trying to book our accommodations for next year and the Fairmont is attractive because it seems newer and a little more familiar to what we are used to.

Different people like different things, but to me you're missing out on some of the charm of St Andrews if you stay out of town. The B&Bs and guesthouses are plentiful and reasonably priced, and if you're staying in town you can walk to anyplace you want to go. Even though most accommodations in town are in what we Americans would think of as "old" buildings, the places I've stayed have been fitted with pretty modern baths and extremely comfortable beds. I don't mean this to say anything bad about the Fairmont, or even the Old Course Hotel, but I really enjoyed being in the heart of the town. And really, why go to a foreign country only to stay in an American-style hotel? This is the same reason that I encourage people to go beyond the Dunvegan. Its a lovely pub, in a great locations, but I can drink with lots of American golfers when I'm at home.

[dcmidnight]

And really, why go to a foreign country only to stay in an American-style hotel?

 

Because its really nice, has great rooms/service and fantastic food?

[davep043]

And really, why go to a foreign country only to stay in an American-style hotel?

 

Because its really nice, has great rooms/service and fantastic food?

As I said, we all have different tastes. For me, the rooms at the Burness House were outstanding, the owner and her assistants were extremely welcoming and helpful, and there was a huge variety of great food within a few minutes walk. That, and we had a 3-minute walk to the first tee when we played the Old Course. There's something special about walking down The Scores, golf bag on your shoulder, with the Old Course stretching out beyond the R&A clubhouse into the distance. I just got goosebumps writing that.

[mci711]

And really, why go to a foreign country only to stay in an American-style hotel?

 

Because its really nice, has great rooms/service and fantastic food?

As I said, we all have different tastes. For me, the rooms at the Burness House were outstanding, the owner and her assistants were extremely welcoming and helpful, and there was a huge variety of great food within a few minutes walk. That, and we had a 3-minute walk to the first tee when we played the Old Course. There's something special about walking down The Scores, golf bag on your shoulder, with the Old Course stretching out beyond the R&A clubhouse into the distance. I just got goosebumps writing that.

 

I actually just booked a really good deal at the Golf Inn. Had some family stay there last year and they really liked it and it is close. I don't disagree about the old charm and it being part of the experience. I think that will be cool. We are going straight to Greece from Scotland for the luxury part of the trip anyway!

[davep043]

That's a great location. I remember that I watched a bit of the US Open there in 2012, a very nice wee bar.