Old Course Ballot Tips: How to Improve Your Chances

The Old Course ballot is, at its core, a lottery. You cannot cheat it or guarantee a result. But timing, strategy, and preparation make a measurable difference between visitors who get on and those who spend a week entering and never playing. These tips are ordered by impact — the ones at the top genuinely move the needle. For how the ballot actually works — entry times, group rules, the singles draw — start with our Old Course ballot guide.

1. Give yourself as many ballot days as you can

The St Andrews Links Trust publishes no ballot success rates, and nobody has published them by month, weekday or group size. The one published figure is an independent count: Ginger Beer Golf Travel's analysis of the Trust's daily draws estimated that about 10.54% of visitor ballot entries succeeded on an average day between April and October 2024, under the rules in force then.

At that rate one entry fails nearly nine times in ten, and the only lever you control is how many entries you make. Three entries give about a 28% chance of at least one round, five about 43%, seven about 54% and ten about 67%. A week in St Andrews holds at most six ballot days, because there is no Friday ballot (the course is closed on Sundays) — so the length of your stay matters more than anything else you can choose. The ballot odds breakdown has the full figures and what they do and do not measure.

Quieter months may well be easier, since fewer visitors are in town, but no one has published figures that show by how much. Pick dates for the weather and the rest of the trip, not for odds nobody can quote.

2. Enter as a group of two to four

A ballot entry needs at least two players and at most four, with every name, home club and handicap on it, and only the named golfers may play. A solo golfer uses the Singles Daily Draw described in tip 5. The Trust does not publish whether pairs fare better than fourballs, and the old claim here that they did had no source behind it.

For a larger group travelling together, entering as separate groups of two to four is allowed, as long as no one appears on more than one entry — duplicate entries are disqualified. You may get one group out and not the other.

3. Enter every eligible day of your stay

The ballot for a given day closes at 2 pm two days before it; entries open from about 2.15 pm the day before that, once the previous ballot has closed, and results are out after 4.30 pm the same day. If you're staying in or near St Andrews for multiple nights, enter for every day you can, regardless of whether you've already played — or already failed. There is no limit on how many days you can enter, but enter each group once: duplicates are disqualified.

Enter only for days you can genuinely play. We could not confirm what the Links Trust's terms say about declining a successful draw, so treat a win as a booking you intend to keep and check the current terms on standrews.com before you enter.

4. Know how the days line up

Each day's ballot closes at 2 pm two days before play, so the Monday ballot closes on Saturday afternoon and the Saturday ballot on Thursday. There is no Friday ballot, because the Old Course is closed on Sundays. Which weekdays are hardest has never been published, so this article no longer claims one — enter every day you can.

5. Solo? Enter the Singles Daily Draw

The ballot needs at least two players. For single golfers the Links Trust runs a Singles Daily Draw: enter in person at The Old Pavilion or the Links Clubhouse between 9 am and 4 pm on the day before you want to play, and any on-the-day tee times left for singles are allocated from the draw. It replaced the old dawn queue at the starter's hut that this article used to describe. The Trust publishes no success rates for it; the places depend on how many groups fell short of four.

What makes the draw work:

• Enter the day before, in person — there is no online entry and no queue on the morning
• Go as a single; it is a singles-only draw
• Have no fixed plans for the morning; the tee time you're offered is whatever is spare
• Bring your official handicap card or certificate — the 36 limit applies
• Accept that you might not get on — then enter the ballot for the day after tomorrow

It's a real option, not a myth. Particularly useful if you're staying in St Andrews for a week and are willing to take the early mornings seriously.

6. Check for course closures before you enter

The Old Course is closed for golf on Sundays, when it is open to walkers — a tradition St Andrews Links describes on its own blog (Sunday golf in St Andrews). It is also closed periodically for major tournaments, maintenance, and the Dunhill Links Championship in early October. Check the Links Trust website before entering to avoid wasting entries on closed dates.

Tournament closures affect several consecutive days and reduce available ballot windows, which is worth knowing when planning your trip dates.

7. Apply for the Swilcan Package the autumn before

The Links Trust's guaranteed route is the Swilcan Package: two rounds on consecutive days including the Old Course, applied for in a window each autumn (23 September to 6 October 2026 for the 2027 season), up to four golfers, with a lottery after the window setting who gets a time. It is not a rolling year-ahead booking and it is not accommodation-linked — this article said both until September 2026. Prices and dates are on the ballot hub.

The rate is higher than the ballot rate. The trade-off is certainty: you pay more, you book far in advance, and you get the round. (And if your dates brush against July 2027, note that The Open closes the course for several weeks and takes most of the town's rooms with it — the Open 2027 where-to-stay guide covers that particular scramble.)

Who it suits:

• Visitors for whom the Old Course is a bucket-list trip that needs to happen on this visit
• Groups who cannot afford the trip-planning uncertainty of the ballot
• Golfers staying in St Andrews anyway who don't want the daily ballot anxiety

Who it doesn't suit: visitors for whom the ballot is part of the fun, or those building a trip around multiple courses rather than one.

8. Don't rely on a tour operator's promises

Tour operators — golf package companies — sometimes imply or state directly that they can secure Old Course tee times. Some can, through shoulder-season Swilcan Packages (which commercial operators may apply for) or society slots. Some are overstating what they can actually deliver.

If a package includes a "guaranteed" Old Course round, ask specifically:

• Is this a Swilcan Package, and has it actually been drawn in the Trust's lottery?
• Is this through a society booking?
• What is the specific tee time, and when will I receive confirmation?

If the answers are vague, the guarantee may not be what it appears. Ask for written confirmation of the booking before paying.

9. Book the New Course or Jubilee as a safety net

The New Course (founded 1895) and Jubilee Course are both outstanding rounds in their own right — and unlike the Old Course, they can be booked in advance through the Links Trust. Booking one of them for the same window as your ballot entries gives every day a confirmed round regardless of ballot results.

This is the approach most experienced St Andrews visitors take. The Old Course is the goal; the New Course or Jubilee is the guarantee. The trip has a great round either way.

10. Prepare properly if you win

Getting on the Old Course through the ballot is genuinely exciting. A few things to have ready:

Before you enter:

• Official handicap card or certificate for every player — the limit is 36 for men and women
• All player names and handicaps ready (you'll need them for the entry)

When you win:

• Caddie booking — arrange immediately; caddies at St Andrews are in demand and the best ones are booked quickly. Contact the caddie master at the Old Course after confirmation
• Accommodation adjustment if your tee time requires an early start
• Transport to the first tee — check the exact starting time and factor in the walk from town (10 minutes from the Scores)
• The round takes 4–5 hours; plan nothing else for the morning

On the day:

• Arrive 30 minutes before your tee time minimum
• Sign in at the starter's hut
• The course is long (over 6,700 yards from the medal tees); consider taking a trolley or caddie
• The Swilcan Bridge photograph takes time; your playing partners will understand, but coordinate before you reach the 18th

The honest summary

The ballot is arbitrary. The Old Course is extraordinary. The gap between those two facts is best bridged by entering every day, genuinely enjoying St Andrews and its other courses if the ballot doesn't break your way, and treating a successful round as the bonus it actually is rather than the singular point of the trip.

Build the trip so it's excellent without the Old Course. Then the ballot becomes a lottery you're happy to win rather than a mechanism you're afraid to lose.

Use the ballot probability calculator to model your specific trip, or read the full odds breakdown to understand what to realistically expect.

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