A Journal for the Thrifty Gowfer
This championship has finished
The final round was 4 October 2026. The guide below stays up for reference — the venue, travel and ticketing patterns barely change year to year. The next edition is 30 September 2027 – 3 October 2027.
Fife & Angus, October 2026
Free to watch Thursday to Saturday. Three of Scotland's greatest courses in one week — and all three are courses you can play yourself, which is the part most spectator guides skip.
Thu–Sat
Free
all three courses
Sunday
£20
advance only, no gate sales
Venues
3 courses
all playable by visitors
Format
Pro-am
celebrity field
The Alfred Dunhill Links Championship is, structurally, a curiosity. No other professional golf tournament uses three separate courses in the same week. For the first three rounds the field is split across St Andrews, Kingsbarns and Carnoustie, all three in play at once, and every pairing plays each course once. The fourth and final round is always played on the Old Course. The professional stroke play competition and an amateur team event run simultaneously, with celebrity and business figures making up the amateur pairings.
The result is unlike any other week in the golf calendar. On a Thursday morning you can watch a PGA Tour player work through their Kingsbarns game plan while a famous actor plays alongside them, completely accessible at the ropes, for free. By Sunday afternoon the same players are on the 18th at St Andrews with a leaderboard that the town has stopped to watch.
The 2026 draw pairs 168 professionals with 168 amateur partners. The professionals play a standard 72-hole stroke play competition, and the team competition for each pro-am pair runs in parallel. After 54 holes there is a cut: the leading professionals and the top 20 teams go through to Sunday at St Andrews.
Every pairing plays each course once over the first three days, so a player who starts at Kingsbarns on Thursday might play Carnoustie on Friday and St Andrews on Saturday, before returning to the Old Course for the final round. The draw, published the Tuesday before, sets which course each pairing is on each day — and for a spectator it means there is golf at all three venues on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. The playing conditions vary dramatically between the three venues: Carnoustie plays longest and hardest; Kingsbarns rewards creativity off the tee; St Andrews rewards patience and positioning.
In October, Scottish weather is a genuine variable. Wind off the North Sea at Kingsbarns, the south-westerly that makes Carnoustie's finish brutal, the ground playing firm through the Old Course — the conditions on each day shape the leaderboard in ways that a single-venue event cannot replicate.
The Dunhill Links amateur field is not a charity scramble. These are people who can play golf — business figures, former professional athletes, and entertainers who treat the week as seriously as their schedule allows. Bill Murray has been the event's most famous perennial participant, and Michael Douglas and Hugh Grant have both played. For the 25th edition the championship has named Gareth Bale, actor Michael Peña on his first Dunhill, James Milner, Ruud Gullit, former All Blacks captain Sean Fitzpatrick, Tom Chaplin of Keane, Dave Farrell of Linkin Park, Ronan Keating, Huey Lewis, Kelly Slater, Kevin Pietersen, Sir AP McCoy and Sir Steve Redgrave, who has played in all 25. The professionals include Justin Rose, Brooks Koepka, Tommy Fleetwood, Bubba Watson and the 2025 champion, Robert MacIntyre.
On a practical spectator level: if you are at Kingsbarns on Thursday morning, you will be within a few yards of whoever the celebrity pairing is. The ropes are close, the galleries are not overwhelming, and the tone of the day — pro and amateur working through the same course together — is genuinely relaxed compared to a regular tour stop.
The three venues require different travel approaches. St Andrews: train to Leuchars (just under an hour from Edinburgh Waverley, about 12 minutes from Dundee), then a bus or taxi into town. Kingsbarns: taxi from St Andrews, 7 miles south-east along the coast — ask the taxi firm for the fare. There is no practical public transport to Kingsbarns; car or taxi is the only realistic option. Carnoustie: its station is on the Edinburgh–Aberdeen line, about 11 minutes from Dundee, and a short walk from the links.
If you are basing yourself in St Andrews for the week — which makes sense if the Old Course is your priority — Kingsbarns is a taxi ride and Carnoustie is a 45-minute drive or train journey via Dundee. Because all three courses are in play Thursday to Saturday, choose the venue first and the day second.
Three courses, one week
Here is the thing that makes the Dunhill different from every other tournament on the calendar: you can play all three of these. Not a members-only exhibition, not a course you watch from behind a rope and never touch — three public-access links that take visitor bookings. Each is closed to public play on its own championship day, so the round goes before or after the tournament, not during it.
Final round venue
St Andrews Old Course
The home of golf hosts the Sunday finale, where the professional and team competitions are decided. The 18th green and the Swilcan Bridge make the most recognisable closing hole in the game. Plan to be here on Sunday afternoon.
Green fee £180–£355 (ballot)
In play Thursday–Saturday
Kingsbarns Golf Links
Seven miles south of St Andrews on the Fife coast. Many players and commentators consider Kingsbarns the most beautiful course in Scotland — the North Sea is visible from almost every hole. The Dunhill brings it extraordinary production value.
Green fee £399–£486
In play Thursday–Saturday
Carnoustie Golf Links
The hardest links in Scotland. Carnoustie's brutal finish — the last four holes run directly into a south-westerly — produces the most unscripted scoring in professional golf. Watching the back nine on a windy October afternoon is a genuine education.
Green fee £249–£360
The bit most spectator guides skip
Watching is the cheap part. Playing is not: at their lowest published visitor rates, the three championship venues come to £828 for one round on each, and that is the floor — the off-season, book-early, everything-in-your-favour number. In championship season each one sits well above it. Nobody does this trip by accident.
The three do not behave the same way when you try to book them, and that is the practical thing to understand. Kingsbarns and Carnoustie take visitor tee times like any resort course: you book, you pay, you play. The Old Course does not. It runs a daily ballot, it is closed on Sundays, and it is the one of the three that can tell you no.
The Old Course — ballot, not booking
Green fee £180–£355. A share of tee times goes into a public ballot: it closes at 2pm two days before the day you want to play, needs at least two players, and you either come out of it or you do not. The alternatives are a Swilcan Package, applied for in the previous autumn and drawn by lottery, or the Singles Daily Draw the day before. There is no Friday ballot because the Old Course is closed on Sundays, and the ballot does not run during the championship either. If you want the Old Course on this trip, plan everything else around it — it is not a round you slot into a spare morning.
Kingsbarns — book direct, book early
Green fee £399–£486 — the most expensive round of the three by some distance, and the one that books out first for the weeks either side of the championship. It takes visitor tee times directly and plays year-round, though April to October is when it is at its best, so an early-October round lands right at the good end of the season. Book it before you book anything else.
Carnoustie — the most gettable of the three
Green fee £249–£360, from £249 at the quiet end of the year. Of the three it is the easiest to actually get on and the one where an off-peak date saves you the most. If your trip has one round in it rather than three, this is the one that combines a genuine championship links with a realistic tee time.
The three championship courses are out of bounds on their own tournament days, but St Andrews and Carnoustie both run several other courses that stay open — and they are a fraction of the price. The New and the Jubilee are proper links in their own right, not warm-up tracks; the Eden and Strathtyrum are where locals actually play; Carnoustie's Burnside sits on the same stretch of coast as the Championship course. This is the realistic answer to “I am here for the golf, what do I play on Friday?”
We have written the longer version of this argument elsewhere — the case for spending your money on the courses either side of the famous one is a strong argument even when there is no tournament on.
Where to stay
St Andrews — the natural base. You can walk to the Old Course on all four days, and it is the only venue on Sunday. For a day at Kingsbarns, a pre-booked taxi sorts the 7 miles. For Carnoustie, the journey via Dundee takes about 45 minutes by car. The Old Course Hotel (on the 17th fairway), Rusacks St Andrews (directly on the 18th), and Rufflets Country House are the main options. St Andrews fills well ahead of Dunhill week; if you are booking late, widen the search to Dundee, Cupar and Edinburgh, all of which have a train to Leuchars.
Kingsbarns / East Neuk — if you are prioritising Kingsbarns over St Andrews, a self-catering cottage in the East Neuk villages (Crail, Anstruther, Pittenweem) puts you seven to twelve miles from Kingsbarns with quieter evenings and direct access to the Fife coast. Good for groups. Less convenient if you are attending multiple venues.
Carnoustie / Dundee — if Carnoustie is the priority, Dundee is 10 miles and significantly better serviced for hotels. The Apex City Quay and Malmaison are solid options. Carnoustie itself has limited accommodation; the Carnoustie Golf Hotel (adjacent to the Links) books out fast for the week.
Edinburgh (50–60 miles) — the practical fallback for day trippers. Train to Leuchars for St Andrews, direct to Carnoustie station. Edinburgh accommodation will not be event-priced for the Dunhill Links in the way it would be for The Open.
The full base-by-base comparison — which town for which championship day, Dundee as the hinge between St Andrews and Carnoustie, the East Neuk for Kingsbarns, Edinburgh by train — is in where to stay for the Dunhill Links. The St Andrews neighbourhoods themselves are covered in depth in the Open 2027 guide. For the journey itself, getting to St Andrews by train and bus covers the Leuchars connection properly.
Stays Nearby
Hotels, B&Bs and self-catering within easy reach of the venue. Tap any property to check rates and availability.
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Common questions
Is the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship free to attend?
Partly. Thursday, Friday and Saturday are free at all three courses — St Andrews, Kingsbarns and Carnoustie — with no ticket needed. The Sunday final round at the Old Course is ticketed: £20 adult, £15 senior (over 65), with under-18s, students and military free with valid ID. Tickets must be bought in advance; there are no sales on the gate.
How does the format work?
Two competitions run at once: a 72-hole professional stroke play event and a team championship for each professional and their amateur partner. The 2026 draw pairs 168 professionals with 168 amateurs. For the first three rounds the field is split across all three courses, and every pairing plays each of St Andrews, Kingsbarns and Carnoustie once. After 54 holes there is a cut; the leading professionals and the top 20 teams play the final round on the Old Course on Sunday.
Which celebrities are playing in 2026?
The championship's own announcement for the 25th edition names Gareth Bale, actor Michael Peña (his first Dunhill), James Milner, Ruud Gullit, former All Blacks captain Sean Fitzpatrick, Keane's Tom Chaplin, Linkin Park's Dave Farrell, Ronan Keating, Huey Lewis, Kelly Slater, Kevin Pietersen, Sir AP McCoy and Sir Steve Redgrave, who has played in all 25. Among the professionals are Justin Rose, Brooks Koepka, Tommy Fleetwood, Bubba Watson and the 2025 champion, Robert MacIntyre.
Which is the best day to attend?
Sunday at the Old Course is the most dramatic — the professional and team leaderboards are both decided on the 18th — but it is the one day that is ticketed and must be booked ahead. On Thursday, Friday and Saturday all three courses are in play all day, so pick the venue rather than the day: the Old Course for the setting, Kingsbarns for the quietest galleries and the closest look at the celebrity pairings, Carnoustie for the hardest finish.
Can I play the Old Course during Dunhill week?
No — the Old Course is in use for the championship and the ballot does not run for those days. The other St Andrews Links courses — the New, Jubilee, Eden and Strathtyrum — stay open and can be booked in advance.
How do I get to the three courses?
St Andrews has no railway station: take the train from Edinburgh Waverley to Leuchars (just under an hour), then a bus or taxi into town. Kingsbarns is 7 miles south-east of St Andrews along the coast with no practical public transport, so it is a car or a taxi. Carnoustie has its own station on the Edinburgh–Aberdeen line, about 11 minutes from Dundee and a short walk from the links.
Also in Scotland
Building a trip around the Dunhill Links?
Three courses in one week — plan your rounds before and after the championship using our trip estimator and fee tracker.
Distilleries, train connections, and coastal walks for a Dunhill Links week based in St Andrews, Crail, or Carnoustie.
Three miles from the 7th tee at Kingsbarns Golf Links — a Georgian farmstead turned working distillery. The Dream to Dram tour is the natural afternoon after a round.
On TasteSCOT25 minutes west of St Andrews — built on the site of the 1494 Exchequer Roll entry, Scotland's oldest documented whisky. The tour includes the 12th-century abbey ruins.
On TasteSCOTA working Fife arable farm that makes whisky between harvests. Allocation-only releases, visitor access by appointment. Worth the detour for serious whisky collectors.
On TripSCOTThe St Andrews railhead on the Edinburgh–Dundee line — just under an hour from Edinburgh and about 12 minutes from Dundee, then a bus or taxi into town.
On TripSCOTOn the Edinburgh–Aberdeen ScotRail line, about 11 minutes from Dundee — and a short walk from the links on the day you pick Carnoustie.
On OutdoorSCOTThe Fife Coastal Path runs through Kingsbarns and Crail. An excellent rest-day option when the courses are closed to spectators.
Dates, the free Thursday-to-Saturday admission and the Sunday ticket prices were checked against the championship's own site on 30 September 2026, and the field and format against its 2026 draw and field announcement the same day.
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