A St Andrews golf trip is on many people’s bucket list.
And a St Andrews Old Course tee time through the ballot is possibly the best ticket in golf.

In fact, my research of over 18,000 Old Course tee times over 2019 and 2018 shows that historically your chances are on average around 20% or one in five during the peak months of April through October. So if you’re interested to know how to plan your trip whilst maximising your chances of ballot success, then read on…..

Golf trip planning – an overview

If you want to plan a St Andrews golf trip, intent on getting an Old Course tee time in the ballot, then use my trip planner. It’s driven by real data for Old Course ballot results, and St Andrews weather stats showing you the steps to take to optimise your chances of success.

Assumptions for my analysis and recommendations

A note before you start

1. When is the best time to visit St Andrews?

Task: Decide when to travel – identify potential months

At its most simplistic, for me there are three main parameters in determining when to travel:

• Cost
• St Andrews weather
• Chance of ballot success

Weather related data

St Andrews weather data provided by WorldWeatherOnline.com 
Check online weather sites like this for historic average daytime temperatures and rainfall stats for St Andrews so you are familiar with climatic conditions before you arrive.

Side note: September and the absence of the start of October from the Venn diagram

September is a relatively favourable month for a St Andrews golf trip from a weather perspective, but it’s the month that has the most pre-arranged tournaments on the Old Course when the course is closed to visitors, resulting in the fewest days when the ballot is available. If you wish to travel in September be selective and make sure the ballot is available for your desired dates.

On the surface, the start of October is not a particularly great time for a St Andrews golf trip compared with other months by any parameter – historic ballot success, temperature or cost. The course may be closed for a tournament (typically Alfred Dunhill Links Championship takes place in the first week of October) and the diminishing number of daylight hours reduces the number of tee times available each day. Even so, if your travel dates are fixed and October is the only opportunity you have to travel then take heart, the success rate in October may be better than a peak Summer month like August purely because there are fewer visitors in town competing for a ballot tee time.

There is a key fact to appreciate: 
Ballot success is simply determined by the relationship between supply and demand on any given day. 
Furthermore, whereas supply is limited and quite predictable (so previous years’ stats may be a reliable guide), demand is far more volatile and therefore more difficult to predict. 
Simply put, on any given day, it’s easier to predict how many ballot tee times are going to be available than how many golfers are going to apply for one of those times.

2. What are the best weeks to make my St Andrews golf trip?

Task: Refine your preferred months into potential weeks

You now should have a rough idea of the likely month or months that you wish to visit St Andrews. Now you should start to refine your selection.

4. How do I schedule my tee times around Ballot entries?

Task: Make your other tee time reservations

So having now carried out your analysis on potential trip dates you should feel comfortable with the basis of your decision making and now move to the next phase of your planning. This would normally be to research and book the other courses you wish to play on your trip. But my advice would be to research your other courses by all means, but consider holding off from actually booking them.

It sounds counter-intuitive for a travel planner to suggest you don’t make other tee time reservations in advance, but I feel there is good sense behind it.

If your key focus and main priority is to give yourself the best opportunity of ballot success then I have shown that this requires you to ballot on as many days as you are able. If you are prepared to ballot every day you are in St Andrews to play the Old Course then I suggest you just leave all these days open.

Booking back-up courses in case of ballot failure gives you an organisational headache if your ballot application is successful as you need to try to move your substitute course tee time to another day. Courses understand that golfers book back-up courses in case of ballot failure and most of them are flexible in allowing you to move the tee time to another date. But in most cases they will not allow you simply to cancel for a refund.

Your potential organisational headache becomes greater if you are a group of more than four golfers and have submitted two independent ballot applications (max. four golfers per application).

If one group scores a time but not the other, then do you leave the group that failed on the back-up course? If the back-up course is a must-play, then when do you reschedule it for the group that scored a ballot time?

My sense is that it’s much simpler to leave your diary open and only start to fill in your golf after the ballot results come out each day. And not just golf; your diary is open too if you wish to arrange sight-seeing or shopping excursions, or you simply want a rest day to relax and rejuvenate.

The other reason for not advance booking alternative courses? My research shows there is typically good last-minute availability.

5. Arrange your accommodations and transportation

Task: Decide on the type of accommodation you want and what to do about your airport and golf transfers.

Now you can go ahead to book your accommodations and transportation. There is a plethora of resources available online offering you information and reviews for you to make your own plans.

But why not save time and send a blanket accommodation availability enquiry to all St Andrews Hotels and/or Guesthouses, by completing a simple form on the official site of the Hotel and Guesthouse Association of St Andrews .

6. How Ginger Beer Golf can help with your trip planning

Task: Identify ‘the gaps’ and contact Ginger Beer Golf Travel if you need help.

I hope you have found some value in this St Andrews golf trip planning resource as well as the hints and tips I’ve given you along the way.

Please feel free to contact me.

7. Get in touch and start planning your trip now