It’s hardly any great insight to suggest that the duration of a trip impacts the cost. We’re quite sure you know that!

The average price per day however tends to fall the longer that you’re here. That is perhaps more to do with value rather than cost however and possibly the result of one off standing fees being diluted over longer time frames. We perhaps see it most clearly in self-drive transport fees where tapered pricing applies

If we’re dancing to a budget though, then six nights arriving a Monday, and departing on a Sunday looks like a sound strategy

This is hardly an earth shattering disclosure, but seasonal pricing applies to accommodation, transport and green fees

As a general rule, we encounter shoulder season green fees in April (first two weeks for St Andrews) rest of month for Carnoustie and Kingsbarns, and a second shoulder season from mid October

If we’re making a budget conscious decision, then the April shoulder season has a lot more daylight than the equivalent in October. Extra daylight equals more Old Course ballot opportunities

April needn’t be the ‘secret month’ it used to be though, in terms of demand it now performs very similarly to May, but it’s still going to offer us enhanced prospects

We have static prices such as green fees, and dynamic prices such as transport or accommodation. The per person price adjusts based around the number of people who burden share the dynamic costs. This is most apparent in transport.

Odd numbered parties naturally cause a blip with regards to accommodation. The per person price tends to rise slightly as we end up having to share the cost of an extra room across the party. Obviously the more people in a party to absorb this, the less noticeable it is

We don’t usually get the discounts to scale that a large group perhaps think they’re entitled to. Golf clubs rarely discount because of group size. Indeed, a large group is actually a bit of risk to them. They’d rather have ten separate fourball bookings, than one booking for 40 golfers

Hotels will usually give us better ‘group’ terms, but we have to trade these discounted rates against a contract booking (similar risk of a bulk cancellation to that described above). They’ll usually allow us a 10% attrition rate, so a party of 40 would be 4 people cancelling before penalties kick in

If we’re responding to a budget pressure, then by default we will be contesting the open ballot in order to play

If we’re making the Old Course the focus of our ambition and building everything else around it with a view to minimising cost, then we need to be as confident as we can be that we’re going to ‘land it’, so this means contesting singles ballots too

We can take this in three directions by way of clusters, although we can also pick and choose from each cluster too by way of a menu

The World Ranked Courses in the area are the most expensive. In order of price these include Kingsbarns, Carnoustie, and Dumbarnie. These will provide the superior golf and help underwrite any sense of quality by way of a hedge against a failure with the Old Course

The cluster which is based in and around St Andrews town are managed by the St Andrews Links Trust (SALT). These tend to be at least half the price of the world ranked courses, so potential saving for us. In order of price they are

Castle Course, New Course, Jubilee Course, Craigtoun Course, Eden Course and Strathtyrum Course

Worth noting that the SALT will usually offer some multi-play discount tickets, and can also construct shoulder season offers for the Castle Course too

Finally we have the ancient old links on the Largo Coast (25 mins south of the St Andrews) which is where we’ll find some of the oldest golf courses in the world . They will be similar in price to the St Andrews cluster and include

Crail, Lundin, Elie and Leven (Dumbarnie is on the same coastline too)

The accommodation market in St Andrews is out of control!

As a general rule, the fewer nights we spend there, the less expensive a vacation becomes. The less time we spend in St Andrews however, the more we potentially reduce our chances of ballot success. There can also be little doubt that failing to spend time in St Andrews will also detract from the experience too. St Andrews has an overwhelming sense of ‘place’ about it, and we ought to aspire to at least 3 or 4 nights in the town

In recent years, St Andrews has overtaken Edinburgh as the most expensive destination in Scotland, and it shows little sign of slowing down. Indeed, it’s only getting worse.

The traditional B&B sector is in retreat. Proprietors are either selling up to property developers for luxury apartment conversions, or taking the opportunity to charge prices similar to those we’d associate with 4 star hotels. Indeed, a St Andrews B&B will typically cost more than the 4-star Carnoustie course hotel, to give you just one example.

The 3-star hotel sector is also in retreat. They’re being converted into boutique 5-star accommodations, or higher end 4-stars

It seems entirely plausible that St Andrews will become something of an exclusive 5-star resort within a decade

There is always something of balancing act between cost and value. Somewhere like the 5-star Fairmont Hotel needn’t be cheap, but would represent value

If we’re being driven by cost however, then we perhaps need to consider B&B’s for a small group. These tend to be of quite a high-standard, but needn’t always achieve the savings that they might do elsewhere in Scotland.

The 3-star Premier Inn is another budget possibility, about a mile from the Old Course down the Largo Road, which does dislocate us a little bit from the town centre (not ideal). We get a particularly comfortable bed, and the prices are such that we could seriously consider using a double room under single occupancy for more space and privacy without incurring too big a hit. Their twin rooms feature a double and single bed however, the single is notably inferior to the double

We risk quality if we go too cheap though, so there is a judgement needed about how much we look to ‘chop off’ before we start doing more damage than the upside gain in price justifies.

We shouldn’t rule out self-catering Airbnb properties either, although they’ve begun to lose some of their price edge now as ‘hosts’ realise that they can charge a lot more than they originally did do, and they’re starting to fall into line with the 4-star hotel sector now

Transport decisions usually come down to an appraisal of self-drive, versus, hired driver

Which one we choose could be framed by which golf courses we’re seeking to add. If we play the links on the Largo Coast, then we’re probably best advised to use a self-drive solution. If we’re playing the courses in and around St Andrews town, then we could get away with using a hired driver. With three possible courses on our doorstep (walk out to play), plus another two ‘up the road’, the mileage is really loaded to the airport transfers

As a general rule, self-drive is less expensive and more flexible. We note this because flexibility is a consideration when we’re contesting Old Course ballots, as we get the result 48 hrs before play. It’s basically a lot easier to adjust ourselves, than it is a booked third party who might not be able to support us at short notice if they have conflicting requests

This was more of a trick pre-covid but more recently airlines seem to have spotted customers doing it and responded by adjusting their prices accordingly. It’s still worth checking before you commit though to see if we can make it work

There was a time a few years ago where it was cheaper to fly to Dublin, stay and play a night at Portmarnock, and then transfer on a hopper flight to Scotland, than it was to fly direct to Edinburgh. We saw people doing this and actually coming out with a profit on the transaction!

From about 2023 however, we’ve started seeing it much less, but there is never any harm in conducting a quick check