St Andrews Links rotation · Which to play
St Andrews Old Course vs St Andrews New Course
The Old Course needs a ballot and costs three times the New — and plenty of St Andrews regulars prefer the New.
| St Andrews Old Course | St Andrews New Course | |
|---|---|---|
| Green fee (2026) | £340–£355 | £45–£155 |
| Location | St Andrews, Fife | St Andrews, Fife |
| Region | Fife | Fife |
| Type | Links | Links |
| Holes / par | 18 · par 72 | 18 · par 71 |
| Designer | Evolved from medieval links; Old Tom Morris 19th century | Old Tom Morris with Benjamin Hall Blyth (Edinburgh engineer) |
The verdict
Which should you play?
The Old Course is the reason people come: links ground that has been played since 1552, evolved rather than designed, with Old Tom Morris's hand on it in the nineteenth century. It is also the hardest tee time to get in golf — most visitors go through the daily ballot or the singles queue — and at 7,190 yards off the whites it is a long walk for a course whose defences are the wind, the gorse and the double greens rather than raw length.
The New opened in 1895, which makes the name a joke that stopped being funny about a century ago. Old Tom Morris laid it out with the Edinburgh engineer Benjamin Hall Blyth on the same strip of linksland, it is shorter at 6,625 yards and par 71, and it needs no ballot at all. St Andrews Links Trust cut its fee by around 30%, so the shoulder-season rate is a fraction of what the Old costs in July.
The honest position is that a first trip to St Andrews should include the Old Course if the ballot goes your way, because the history is the point and no amount of golfing merit substitutes for standing on the first tee. If it does not, the New is not a consolation — a lot of members and caddies rate it the better golf course, and you can book it.
Pick this one if…
St Andrews Old Course
It is a pilgrimage, the ballot came in, and you want the round you have thought about since you started playing.
Pick this one if…
St Andrews New Course
You want to play good links golf in St Andrews this week, at a price that leaves room for a second round, without gambling on a ballot.
Green fees are the clubs' published 2026 visitor rates, shown as a range from the cheapest to the dearest tee time. They change; always confirm on the course profile before you book. We don't take a cut of your green fee — the verdict above is ours, not the pro shop's.
More: which should you play?