Golf at St Andrews
Guaranteed Tee Times, Personalized Golf Trips
Discover Why Thousands of Golfers a Year Entrust Us With Their Scottish Golf Trips
Discover Why Thousands of Golfers a Year Entrust Us With Their Scottish Golf Trips
If you want to play golf in St Andrews, then Pioneer Golf can provide guaranteed Old Course tee times in our Scotland golf packages for 2025 and 2026. As an Authorized Provider, our times are sold on a first-come first-served basis and are limited in supply.
Demand to play the Old Course far exceeds the number of tee times available, so if you’re looking to play there and need a guarantee you should start planning early! Many of our clients book 18-30 months in advance in order to secure an Old Course time in their preferred month of travel.
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Complete the form to give our Golf Travel Advisors an idea of what you’re looking for. Choose from our popular courses or submit your own preferences, and we’ll guide you from there.
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Expect a short phone call to discuss specifics.
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Receive a free, customized golf travel itinerary and trip price with no obligation to use our services.
Don't Expect to be Bothered
We appreciate your trust and won’t bombard you with unwanted emails or calls. Your contact details remain confidential and never be sold to a third party.
Don’t Expect a Hard Sell
We appreciate your trust and won’t bombard you with unwanted emails or calls. Your contact details remain confidential and never be sold to a third party.
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There are two principal ways of obtaining a tee time:
Option 1: Guaranteed Tee Time
One way is by purchasing a guaranteed time. These times become available from select golf tour operators one-to-two years prior to play. Guaranteed tee times are generally more expensive than those obtained through the Application process described below, and through the Ballot or by Standing-By, also described below.
Another and less expensive approach is through an annual lottery in late-August of the year prior to play. The key is to start your planning early and to have your group names known by July / August. Results of the lottery are announced toward the end of October. This is a guaranteed tee time; however St Andrews receives many more applications than they have available tee times.
Option 2: The Daily Ballot
An alternative approach to a tee time is through what is known as the “ballot.” It is essentially a lottery that takes place daily for play two days ahead. While there is no guarantee of success, chances are quite reasonable, especially if you are to be in the St Andrews area for four or five days.
Pioneer Golf will enter your group into the ballot each day (the course is closed on Sundays), and do it in such a way as to avoid conflict with tee times on other courses.
UPDATED
Option 3: Singles Daily Draw (Formerly called the "Standby Line")
On March 7, 2024, St Andrews announced a significant change to how this process functions. Since the 1990’s golfers could line up in the early morning in hopes of getting a tee time for play that day. We called this process the Standby Line for the past 30 years. Many of our clients have secured tee times through this process as singles, twosomes, threesomes, and foursome over the past few decades. As of 2024, this process has been eliminated and replaced with a digital version called the “Singles Daily Draw”. The press release announcing this change can be found HERE. The new system functions to virtually eliminate the chance that a group can play together so expect to play as a single golfer if you are successful in this new lottery.
Description: Golfers can enter a lottery called the “Singles Daily Draw” as individuals by completing a form on tablets that are located inside at the Old Pavilion or Links Clubhouse. A golfer can enter this lottery as many days as they want while on their trip. Entry must be made in person the day before play between 9am and 5pm at the Old Pavilion or Links Clubhouse. Results are announced at 5:15pm. A golfer will either be successful, unsuccessful, or be put on a digital wait list. Details as provided directly by St Andrews along with an instructional video can be found HERE.
When: The day before play.
Price: Face value
Odds of Success: This is an entirely new process for the 2024 season so we have no data yet of the odds of success.
Note: Courses similar to St Andrews, any course on the Open Championship rotation (e.g., Turnberry, Royal Troon, Carnoustie, and Muirfield) should be booked long in advance, especially if hoping to dovetail with St Andrews in the same week. Tee times at Muirfield and Royal Troon are particularly scarce so you should start planning 14-30 months or more in advance. Pioneer Golf is now taking reservations for late 2025, and 2026.
The most sought-after courses and accommodations have limited availability and demand is high especially after COVID. Most of our clients are booking trips to Ireland, Northern Ireland, and Scotland 14-30 months in advance. Booking early also helps secure better tee times. The more popular courses often release visitor tee times on a specific day and sell out within hours!
