Rejection at The Old Course

[philsRHman]

Not sure if they all go at the same time, but I got my rejection for a single time for 2024. I know there are lots of ways to make it happen if I find my way to St. Andrews, but the truth is, the tee time is the gateway to plan the trip. I'd talked to my wife about making St. Andrews and London our family summer vacation next year with hopes of saying "We HAVE to go! I won the tee time lottery!!!" I guess I could have just told her I won, but would rather not, feels like bad karma for all future attempts.

 

All the best to everyone who secured a time. I'm thrilled to see they're back to even offering it after several years being stuffed the gills.

[Quebec Club Ho]

Sorry you didn't get chosen for you tee time 😞

But I hope you move forward and go anyway as there are so many courses to see and play it will still be worth going! 🙂

[hammergolf]

I got my sad news email yesterday as well. Oh well, there’s always next year…

[El Gringo]

8 hours ago, Quebec Club Ho said:

Sorry you didn't get chosen for you tee time 😞

But I hope you move forward and go anyway as there are so many courses to see and play it will still be worth going! 🙂

Absolutely spot on.

 

 Ciao 

[GolfChicago91]

It's definitely a bummer to not get in the lottery. 

I did recently go as a single.  The way I positioned it to my wife (which, you also have to be willing to do), is that you're basically giving up one night and one full day in St. Andrews.  If you camp out early enough as a single, you'll get on. You can see the ballot results to estimate how many singles spots there will be, and there is usually a handful available, although I have heard of extreme instances where there were none, but it doesn't seem like that's very likely.

 

With that, if you go early enough the night before, you can get on, hence why I said you're giving up one night and one full day.  I camped out at 6 pm the night before.  Was it overkill? Sure. But I wanted to make sure I was on.  My wife got dinner and ate with me, I got my tee time the next am, and the next morning was spent sleeping prior to my tee time.

 

So it's up to you.  If you want to camp out the long hours, you can get on. It's just not going going to be the guaranteed tee time slot you were hoping for with the lottery.

[flognut]

On 10/19/2023 at 10:44 PM, hammergolf said:

I got my sad news email yesterday as well. Oh well, there’s always next year…

i never got an email saying yes or no. can i assume its a no? 

[hammergolf]

2 hours ago, flognut said:

i never got an email saying yes or no. can i assume its a no? 

Send them an email, but I would say you didn’t get it.

[enfuego]

One other option to sleeping overnight is to find a ballot buddy to enter the 48 hour ballot, online service to match people up. I tried twice with randoms and didnt get it but it gave me a small chance before ultimately staying up overnight.

[philsRHman]

5 hours ago, GolfChicago91 said:

It's definitely a bummer to not get in the lottery. 

I did recently go as a single.  The way I positioned it to my wife (which, you also have to be willing to do), is that you're basically giving up one night and one full day in St. Andrews.  If you camp out early enough as a single, you'll get on. You can see the ballot results to estimate how many singles spots there will be, and there is usually a handful available, although I have heard of extreme instances where there were none, but it doesn't seem like that's very likely.

 

With that, if you go early enough the night before, you can get on, hence why I said you're giving up one night and one full day.  I camped out at 6 pm the night before.  Was it overkill? Sure. But I wanted to make sure I was on.  My wife got dinner and ate with me, I got my tee time the next am, and the next morning was spent sleeping prior to my tee time.

 

So it's up to you.  If you want to camp out the long hours, you can get on. It's just not going going to be the guaranteed tee time slot you were hoping for with the lottery.

I feel bad, my post sounds sad. But it was partly in jest. I actually spent 3 weeks in Scotland on my own, the solo golf trio of my lifetime, 2 years ago. I chronicled the entire process here on GolfWRX (it was years in the making due to Covid). While I was in St Andrews I played the Old 3x. Once on a pre-Covid lottery time that carried over a couple years. The other two were Ballot Buddy.

I’m fully satisfied with that experience, it was beyond all my dreams. It fulfilled me in every way - spiritually, historically, physically, emotionally - like the pilgrimage I realized it was. 
 

But I loved it so much, I put Scotland right back at the top of my vacation wish list. I’m about to take the family to Disney for a second straight trip in hopes the karma gods will smile upon me again soon and bring me back to the Old.  

Edited October 23, 2023 by philsRHman

[Chanceman]

12 hours ago, philsRHman said:

I feel bad, my post sounds sad. But it was partly in jest. I actually spent 3 weeks in Scotland on my own, the solo golf trio of my lifetime, 2 years ago. I chronicled the entire process here on GolfWRX (it was years in the making due to Covid). While I was in St Andrews I played the Old 3x. Once on a pre-Covid lottery time that carried over a couple years. The other two were Ballot Buddy.

I’m fully satisfied with that experience, it was beyond all my dreams. It fulfilled me in every way - spiritually, historically, physically, emotionally - like the pilgrimage I realized it was. 
 

But I loved it so much, I put Scotland right back at the top of my vacation wish list. I’m about to take the family to Disney for a second straight trip in hopes the karma gods will smile upon me again soon and bring me back to the Old.  

God Bless You, man!

[GolfChicago91]

On 10/23/2023 at 3:47 PM, philsRHman said:

I feel bad, my post sounds sad. But it was partly in jest. I actually spent 3 weeks in Scotland on my own, the solo golf trio of my lifetime, 2 years ago. I chronicled the entire process here on GolfWRX (it was years in the making due to Covid). While I was in St Andrews I played the Old 3x. Once on a pre-Covid lottery time that carried over a couple years. The other two were Ballot Buddy.

I’m fully satisfied with that experience, it was beyond all my dreams. It fulfilled me in every way - spiritually, historically, physically, emotionally - like the pilgrimage I realized it was. 
 

But I loved it so much, I put Scotland right back at the top of my vacation wish list. I’m about to take the family to Disney for a second straight trip in hopes the karma gods will smile upon me again soon and bring me back to the Old.  

Ah if you already played it then that's a different story.  First time in Scotland for me and didn't know when I'd be back so it was worth it.  I also had the added element of being there the same week as the Walker Cup and their practice rounds really limited what was available. 

 

On 10/23/2023 at 2:19 PM, enfuego said:

One other option to sleeping overnight is to find a ballot buddy to enter the 48 hour ballot, online service to match people up. I tried twice with randoms and didnt get it but it gave me a small chance before ultimately staying up overnight.

 

Ah yeah, I forgot to mention that.  I did that as well but just didn't have any luck.  Met a fellow WRXer to enter with.  Still got a chance to meet him and see him around town a few times, which was awesome!

[italianstallion]

On 10/23/2023 at 1:27 PM, GolfChicago91 said:

It's definitely a bummer to not get in the lottery. 

I did recently go as a single.  The way I positioned it to my wife (which, you also have to be willing to do), is that you're basically giving up one night and one full day in St. Andrews.  If you camp out early enough as a single, you'll get on. You can see the ballot results to estimate how many singles spots there will be, and there is usually a handful available, although I have heard of extreme instances where there were none, but it doesn't seem like that's very likely.

 

With that, if you go early enough the night before, you can get on, hence why I said you're giving up one night and one full day.  I camped out at 6 pm the night before.  Was it overkill? Sure. But I wanted to make sure I was on.  My wife got dinner and ate with me, I got my tee time the next am, and the next morning was spent sleeping prior to my tee time.

 

So it's up to you.  If you want to camp out the long hours, you can get on. It's just not going going to be the guaranteed tee time slot you were hoping for with the lottery.

 

This was literally my exact scenario. Went on a trip to Ireland and Scotland with my wife. I asked for one round the whole trip, with the caveat that I would need to camp out. While she does not play, my wife fully understands what St. Andrews is to the game of golf and thus to me, so she agreed. I got there at 5:45 the night before and had a guaranteed time for the next day. We split a pizza and a beer, and we watched the sunset over the links before she departed for the comfort of the airbnb. The next morning I was back in bed by 6:15AM where I slept until 11:30 when I got up for my 12:30 tee time. She was very excited to walk the course with me and she genuinely had a great time. We capped off the day with dinner and drinks at 18 at Rusacks. One of the best, if not the best, 24 hours I've spent on golf in my life and I'm glad she was there for it. It might not have been her personal favorite day of the vacation, but it was far from the worst for her.

 

In short, get a nice Airbnb or hotel, get a nice dinner reservation on the calendar, map the plan of the day out for her, and do it.

Edited October 25, 2023 by italianstallion

[Hawkeye77]

My app for the wife and myself was confirmed but given the cost and the fact we had a memorable family trip there and played a few years ago, we are likely to forego the offer and spend 10 days in and near London instead - and maybe no golf. 

[enfuego]

9 hours ago, GolfChicago91 said:

Ah if you already played it then that's a different story.  First time in Scotland for me and didn't know when I'd be back so it was worth it.  I also had the added element of being there the same week as the Walker Cup and their practice rounds really limited what was available. 

 

 

Ah yeah, I forgot to mention that.  I did that as well but just didn't have any luck.  Met a fellow WRXer to enter with.  Still got a chance to meet him and see him around town a few times, which was awesome!

The process really brings people together. My 3 random ballot buddies from all over the world did not elect to stay up but came and hung out with me for a little to help pass the time. My night was the Sunday after the open and was pretty full. I had a guaranteed spot but only because I was there before 10pm. Of the 20 people that night I ended up randomly pairing up at other courses with 3 of them and still keep in touch with a few more.

Edited October 26, 2023 by enfuego

[Hawkeye77]

On 10/25/2023 at 5:26 PM, Hawkeye77 said:

My app for the wife and myself was confirmed but given the cost and the fact we had a memorable family trip there and played a few years ago, we are likely to forego the offer and spend 10 days in and near London instead - and maybe no golf. 

And yep, passed.  Was surprised by the $$$$ increase since the last time we went, but in the end, instead of trying to do St. Andrews, which we've done before, we decided money and time better spent going somewhere we hadn't been before. 

 

Now spending almost two weeks almost exclusively in London (a couple of days not far away taking in the Highclere Show to start things off).  Not taking the clubs, as it made little sense for this trip, which isn't golf specific.  All things tourist with the wife except for one afternoon when I'll be happy to rent clubs and will play Sunningdale New.  London has always been on the bucket list and we are going to do it justice - parks, museums, shows, food, rather than have a golf trip with a couple days they're just thrown in. 

 

 

Edited November 27, 2023 by Hawkeye77