Guaranteed packages are sold by “Authorised Providers”. They are not sold by the St Andrews Links Trust (SALT). Instead the SALT passes so many tee-times (approx 250) into the hands of the Authorised Provider sector each season, and they convert these tee-times into levered ‘packages’ that they sell at commercial prices

An Authorised Provider is typically an approved Golf Tour Operator (GTO) or an approved St Andrews accommodation provider. Some other third parties might be able to qualify, but the GTO and Accommodation providers are the two main source

Authorised Providers can be identified by the logo below

The ‘Guarantee’ is the attractive bit, the price of these are very expensive however (typically about eight times the face retail value)

The key thing to understand here is that tee-times are never sold in isolation (they can’t be). Instead they’re always sold with at least one other course tagged onto them (if you’re lucky) and more often than not a portfolio of courses and accommodation with additional expenditure strings attached

What the Authorised Provider chooses to include in the package is up to them. At the absolute minimum though another round (usually played 24 hrs before the Old Course) on one of the other St Andrews Links Trust courses is mandatory. After that though, the sorts of things you’ll encounter usually include

• Minimum stay duration (usually 4 or 5 nights)
• Hotel will often be non-negotiable (you’ll possibly find the accommodation is the source of the tee-time, even if sold through a GTO)
• Minimum spend on food and beverage in that hotel (usually about £150 pp)
• Possible conditional room choice (some will lever a suite rather than the cheapest room they have)
• Any other rounds of golf that are part of the package (GTO’s tend to lever these more than hotels, and especially now that the Old Course Hotel has disposed of the Dukes Course)
• Occasionally mandatory transport provision (it’s quite rare to see this made conditional, but it can happen)
• Any other aspect that the seller might have a commercial interest in supporting (hotel services and facilities etc)

The simple answer is “it depends”, but to give you a deeper and more honest assessment, it would probably be helpful to go through the process in more detail.

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The St Andrews Links Trust (SALT) opens a window for two weeks every year at the end of August and start of September for Private Advanced Tee Times (PATT) on the Old Course. You’re usually allowed to nominate a maximum of three, two week playing windows, or specific dates if needing to work of shorter timeframe for midweek times only.

• You can cover a maximum of six weeks (30 days).
• You can apply as a two-ball up to a twelve
• Single players can apply for dates up until June 30th
• Anyone appearing in multiple entries will get every entry disqualified

The big drawback to the PATT system (and Faraway Fairways are growing increasingly reticent about using it) is that the results tend to come out mid/late October.

Our chances of winning it are low (about 1 in 20 peak season), but by mid October other courses we might be wanting to play will have sold-out such as Muirfield, Royal County Down, Royal Portrush, and we’ll scratching around at the likes of Royal Troon, Carnoustie and North Berwick. If we want to play these courses as well, then we can’t really afford to wait until October to ‘get them’. In other words, we need to book these courses first and then build a PATT attempt around them, rather than trying to do book post result (which we’ve likely lost anyway)

The exception to this, might be the traditional St Andrews golf week, or one which is based in Fife

This can be entered as a two-ball, three-ball or fourball. Single golfers can’t enter the ‘open’ ballot

The green fee paid is the advertised retail price, making it the least expensive option.

Probabilities of success vary by month of the year and day of the week.

If we’re shrewd about our targeting and prepared to put enough time aside to run the numbers game, we can usually make this work. Bear in mind that there are at least three courses in the St Andrews area we’d be happy to play whilst waiting for our name to come out the draw anyway (Carnoustie, Kingsbarns, & Dumbarnie). In addition to this, we can also contest ballots from an Edinburgh or Gleneagles base too without inconveniencing ourselves as well

It might be worth noting that there is also something that operates alongside the open ballot called the ‘Local ballot’. The ratios in the local ballot are more favourable than the open ballot, but to enter this you’ll need the support of a registered local player who’ll play alongside you. It’s much harder to ‘pull off’, but occasionally we encounter someone, who knows someone etc

For overseas visitors, the singles ballot seems to enjoy the best strike-rates. Again the green fee is the base retail price

The singles ballot differs from the open ballot however in so much as only the named individual can enter and play. The award of a tee-time is made in favour of the single player only, who will then join whichever group has the space in it to make up a fourball with them

The named individual also has to make their own applications to the St Andrews Links Trust (SALT) at the Old Pavilion between 09.00 and 17.00 for play the following day. Unlike the open ballot, third parties can’t process singles ballots applications on your behalf

Despite its slightly sinister sounding name, ‘Dark’ in this case refers to the last half-dozen tee-times of the day, and the deteriorating daylight they’re often play in.

A dark time can be claimed by annual ticket holders or affiliated club members (including for guests provided the claiming golfer is in the playing party) up until 09.30 on the morning of play. After this cut off though …. actually …. we don’t know what happens to them any longer!

Faraway Fairways have certainly had clients claiming to have played the Old Course through something they said was called the ‘dark time reserve list’ (even to the point that it was explained to them as being). When we’ve enquired we were told no such mechanism exists however. We did once protest that we were being given different answers to the same question, but were told that this “is because we keep changing our minds” LoL

There might have been a time where under-subscribed dark times, or no-shows, were offered to some sort of informal reserve list? We’re probably of the view that it no longer exists though. If nothing else, the introduction of the singles ballot (a rank ordered draw) is a de-facto reserve list already. If the Links Trust wanted to offer unfilled dark times to a reserve list, they have one in operation without needing to draw up shadowy alternative.

If you have a low number by the final hour of play though, there’s probably no harm in ‘hanging around’ the starters area and seeing what happens?

Not anymore. The old ‘walk up’ rule was abolished in 2024 due to overcrowding.

In truth, it was requiring ever more extreme siege tactics to make it work, with queues forming as early as 18.00 the day before, for play the next day. It was starting to resemble a rough sleepers camp, and since it clearly favoured people who could endure this kind of thing (young, able-bodied, males etc) the allocation of tee-times using this method would very likely have been found to be discriminatory had anyone ever sought to challenge.

The Links Trust got out ahead of this, abolished it, and introduced the ‘Singles Ballot’ to replace it

This is a strategy question, and it depends to no small extent on the time of year that you’re seeking to play, and your own level of ‘obsession’. There is a balance to be struck here though

Whereas Carnoustie, Kingsbarns, Dumbarnie and the St Andrews New Course can provide credible cover to an Old Course siege strategy, anything beyond this, that requires us to extend our stay in the area is likely coming at the cost of not playing elsewhere. Targets such as North Berwick and Muirfield, or Troon and Turnberry can start to be victims if we overstay St Andrews. There is no right or wrong answer however, it’s just a matter of personal preference

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