Golfer Waiting Overnight for Morning Tee Time at St. Andrews

[phan52]

A friend just got back from St. Andrews last week and had to use one of these on the fairways. November through February. He didn't complain, said he should have known. 

 

[FLOG4]

The Old is the home of golf. I have been fortunate to play it 6 times. Only once with an advance teetime. The process to play there has changed over the past few years. If you travel at off season you could walk on no problem. As I travel with buds who wouldn't entertain that we are there in prime time....Around Labor Day you put in an advance app for the following summer play. Obviously the broader your options are the higher your chance to play. By mid October they will advise your outcome.....The problem is the other must play options while you are there are filling up simultaneously. You can bypass all of this by booking thru an agent who has times or at a hotel that does....But they utilize Old times as their primary income producer....So you will pay multiples of what the proper rate is. Meantime if advance app doesn't work and you don't wish to pay the exorbitant prices of agents/hotels there is the ballot. You input for ballot two days in advance. They post results afternoon of entry. You review that and you can see if successful but also how many openings there are for walk on. On average in the summer about 20. Every group going off will be a 4some. Unless there was no one there to fill it up. When I was there this August with 9 of us. We hit the ballot once for 4. On walk up on a day predicted to be rainy all day....3 of our guys went at 4:30am to find themselves to be 15/16/17 in line for only 22 openings that day. They were advised to be at pavillion at 11am. They came back, we went to breakfast. We had rented an apartment for all of us about a par 4 from Old. Upon finish they went back to apt and I went to starter. When I got there no one was hanging around. I asked about signing up and the guy said where are your clubs...I said 400 yards from here. He said it is 7:55 can you be on the tee at 8:20.......No way that was happening as I would have to bump 3 buds who have never played it. I said I have 3 buds on the list. He said get em here asap. I called and the 3 ran. One teed off at the 8:20 and very fortunately a father/son teed off at 9:00 as an R&A guy's two sons decided to sleep in on this rainy day. The skies cleared and as I came back with clubs, all of a sudden the place was mobbed. All those on the list before were hanging around. 4 of us decided to run over to Fairmont and play Kittocks.....   

[Pardner]

Just out of curiosity, what might one expect to pay for a round of golf here?

[DaveP043]

  On 12/15/2017 at 7:45 PM, Pardner said:

Just out of curiosity, what might one expect to pay for a round of golf here?

Expand  

From their website, 180 pounds on the Old Course, in peak season.  80 pounds on the New and Jubilee, which are both excellent.  Its really a good deal, considering the price to play courses of similar esteem in the US.  

[Pardner]

  On 12/15/2017 at 7:54 PM, DaveP043 said:

From their website, 180 pounds on the Old Course, in peak season.  80 pounds on the New and Jubilee, which are both excellent.  Its really a good deal, considering the price to play courses of similar esteem in the US.  

Expand  

Yeah, was just looking at that, so if you win the "walk up lotto" or something in that vain, then it sounds like a really good deal.  I'm guessing compared to "courses of similar esteem in the US" doing the "stay at our hotel to play" is pretty reasonable too?

Wow ... three rounds of golf for L130 ($177) . https://www.standrews.com/play/courses/old-course/booking-the-old-course/winter-package-2018.  Am I reading this right.

Edited December 15, 2017 by Pardner

[The Hook Meister]

Now that's dedication for you. Me I would go to a hotel get a good nights sleep[ and get up very early and wait. Cudos to this person for waiting all night.

[DaveP043]

  On 12/15/2017 at 8:00 PM, Pardner said:

Yeah, was just looking at that, so if you win the "walk up lotto" or something in that vain, then it sounds like a really good deal.  I'm guessing compared to "courses of similar esteem in the US" doing the "stay at our hotel to play" is pretty reasonable too?

Expand  

I'm not really sure.  Most highly regarded resort courses in the US are under the same ownership as their associated hotels, so stay and play packages are common, and in many cases are the only way you can pre-book a round on the course.  At St Andrews, the golf is owned by a non-profit Trust, and the hotels are completely separate entities.  A few hotels have a small number of reserved times on the Old Course, and they package them, but those packages are really expensive, from everything I've heard.  

https://www.theexperiencestandrews.com/us/view-our-experiences/old-course-experience.aspx