Getting a St Andrews Old Course Tee Time (Part 2)

Welcome to Part 2 of my interview with Chris Toll, owner of St Andrews based travel company Ginger Beer Golf Travel. Since 2018. Chris has been intimately tracking the St Andrews Old Course ballot system and while he’s far too modest to say, nobody knows the St Andrews ballot better.

In Part 1 we learnt about the 4 different ways to secure a St Andrews Old Course tee time. One such way is via the “Daily Ballot”…

Manage expectations - what are our real chances of a St Andrews Old Course tee time?

By analysing the Old Course draw sheet, I have been recording and analysing daily ballot data since 2018. I am also indebted to St Andrews Links Trust for providing ballot information to me. 

Note of caution: Even though the daily ballot draw is publicly available, it must be stressed that my figures below are neither ‘official’ statistics nor approved by St Andrews Links Trust as the analysis is based purely on my own interpretation of the draw data.

In 2019, prior to Covid, the daily average visitor ballot success rate was around 20%.

This dropped significantly post-Covid to less than 11% for 2022.

2023 and 2024 show similar success rates around 12%.

Success rates are simply a function of demand and supply. The main driver of lower success rates has been the increase in demand by way of many more ballot applications (see below). 

Major tournaments notwithstanding, supply is relatively constant over the years. You could say 2022 was the perfect storm: visitors returning to St Andrews in their numbers to increase post-Covid demand, competing for fewer ballot times - Old Course was closed for approximately one month in preparation for and during the staging of The Open Championship.

Note: 2027 looks like it will be a particularly difficult year too, with the return of The Open Championship to the Old Course which is likely to have another negative impact on supply of tee times

Yikes! Now give us some hope…

Past ballot results can’t accurately be used to predict future events but ballot success rates tend to follow similar general patterns year by year. If you can plan your trip far enough in advance to have as wide a travel window as possible, then try to choose a month to visit St Andrews that typically has a higher success rate. This is usually at the start of the season with April historically the best month to score a ballot time. The main reason that your chances are so much better this month than others is because there is a lot less demand. Simply put, April can conjure up beautiful spring conditions, but it can just as easily throw up some wintery weather. You need to be prepared to alter your itinerary on the hoof if and when weather conditions dictate. But if you are a hardy golfer, used to golfing in less-than-perfect conditions, then April is a great time to visit in order to score that Old Course tee time.

More sensitive to the vagaries of Scottish weather, then May and June offer the optimum time to travel to St Andrews and score a ballot tee time. Optimum time because you are into the golfing high season months when you can expect longer days and settled weather, and your chances of success are better than the other most popular months of July, August and September.

Keep in mind that the ballot is free to enter and a relatively simple process to go through. For all golfers on the application, just enter your golfer name, home club and handicap. And whilst you must not make more than one application each day (multiple applications will result in ALL golfers getting disqualified) you can apply on as many days as you like. So I would advocate a multi-day application strategy. Simply put, the more times you apply the more chance you have of being successful on at least one occasion.

With an average daily ballot success rate of 12%, you would have a 53% chance of at least one success after 6 days of balloting. So, stay in St Andrews for a week, ballot every day apart from Sunday and probability-wise you are more likely to score at least one time than not.

Of course, you may be successful on your first attempt, or your last, or not at all or more than once. It is a lottery after all.

When planning a 2026 trip, how would you go about planning non-St Andrews portions of the trip without a guaranteed tee time?

If your time in St Andrews is limited to just a handful of days keep in mind that you might be able to move the needle in your favour when it comes to ballot success. Think about targeting your St Andrews days when the ballot tends to offer better success. Generally speaking this is towards the end of the week, especially Saturdays (and Thursdays to a lesser extent). 

Then try to plan the other non-St Andrews days around one or two stellar courses which allow advance booking. So for example, Troon & Turnberry for the West Coast, or Royal Dornoch and Castle Stuart for the Highlands.

Playing some of these other courses is a highlight in itself, rendering potential Old Course ballot success the icing on the cake, rather than the be-all-and-end-all of the trip. 

How have you seen the demand for Old Course tee times increase over the years?

Demand for Old Course tee times appears to continue apace. From my experience of sourcing guaranteed tee time packages for my clients, providers are charging even higher prices and are selling out of inventory even earlier than before.

But if we look at the daily ballot statistics we can better quantify that trend in demand. Demand is simply the total number of visitor ballot application cards submitted each day.

There has been a significant increase in demand for Old Course tee times as a result of Covid 19. On average, I calculated an estimated 57% more ballot applications daily in 2022 compared with 2019 (134.3 v 85.8).

The pent-up appetite for golf created by Covid appears not to have subsided either, with an estimated 7.5% rise in applications daily in 2023 compared with 2022 (144.4 v 134.3).

And looking at 2024 the average number of daily applications has risen again by 7.9% compared with 2023 (155.8 v 144.4).

At this rate of increase, we are likely to see on average twice as many ballot applications each day in 2025 as there were in 2019!

Non tee time...one thing golfers should do when in St Andrews?

Buy a pint in The Jigger Inn, take it outside and watch golfers hit their approach shots into the Road Hole green.

Otherwise a round at the St Andrews Ladies’ Putting Club, aka The Himalayas, is the best fun you can have on a golf course after the Old, and much cheaper too! Opens daily from April 1st.

Further assistance

I provide these services to help you fulfill your dream of playing on the Old Course:

• Assisting to source an Authorised Provider (APs) advance guaranteed tee time package for you. I contact the APs so you don’t need to. 

• A trip planning service to work with you to arrange your golf (with deeper insight into past ballot results for your specific preferred travel window to help improve your chances of success), accommodations and transportation. 

• ‘Ballot Buddy’ to give singles golfers the chance to find a playing partner and enter the daily visitor ballot.

• A Last-Minute Tee Time service to identify alternative play options in the St Andrews area in the event of ballot failure, and the ability to click through to make appropriate bookings.

Authorised Provider packages for 2025

• 2025 is pretty much sold out but guaranteed Old Course tee time packages for April, May, June, August are still available. 

• The same Authorised Providers offer golf packages including tickets for the 153rd Open Championship at Portrush in July 2025, and other Ireland/Northern Ireland packages in August and September. 

Thanks again to Chris Toll, owner of Ginger Beer Golf Travel who have a number of advance guaranteed Old Course St Andrews tee times available for 2025 and 2026.

See you on the links next week for more hints and tips for planning your 2026 Scottish golf trip.