St Andrews Links Trust is nearly trebling the number of heavily discounted tee times available to Scottish golfers this year, with an entire day’s play on the Old Course in July set aside for its affordable golf initiative. The Drive, launched last year, offers an 88 per cent discount on regular green fees, bringing the cost of a round on the Old Course down from £355 to £45.
A total of 496 tee times are available this year, up from 179 in 2025, for a total of 1,984 rounds of golf. Fifty-six of those tee times, equivalent to 224 players, will be available on Friday July 3 alone. Last year, more than 22,000 applications were received across two phases, so the odds of getting on remain slim, but they are considerably better than before.
Sam Bunce of Glasgow was among those who played the Old Course through The Drive last year. “I’ve been playing golf for over 40 years, but the Old Course is so iconic,” he said. “I couldn’t believe my luck when I saw the email telling me I had been selected. I had to phone them to check it was real. Standing at every single tee was a pleasure, knowing that all the greatest players like Tiger Woods and Jack Nicklaus had been there too.”
Applicants must be resident in Scotland but cannot hold a current St Andrews Links yearly ticket. All tee times come from existing visitor or commercial allocations, so they do not affect priority times for Links ticketholders.
Neil Coulson, the trust’s outgoing chief executive, said the initiative was expanding to include the new Craigtoun heathland course alongside the existing portfolio. A round on the Strathtyrum links is available for as little as £7.50. For a game that has spent decades pricing out ordinary people, The Drive is a welcome corrective. The demand figures tell you everything about how many Scottish golfers would love to play these courses if only they could afford to.