|
Old Course Ballot
Old Course Ballot - How it works and what are your
chances of success
As you may already be aware, Drumgolf can offer a number of guaranteed
Old Course tee time packages. However, if we do not have a package available
to coincide with your preferred travel dates there is still the option
of the Old Course Ballot.
Every year, we are inundated with questions from clients wanting to know
their best chances of accessing the Old Course via the Ballot. As the
name ‘ballot’ suggests, this really is a lottery and there is
no way of defining one’s chance of success, as this will vary from
day to day.
However, there are some ways of maximising your chances in the Ballot.
We hope that the information below will help you make the most of your
opportunity:
- Certain days of the week provide greater chances of being successful
than others, namely Thursdays and Saturdays. This is because there are
no advanced tee times in the afternoon on Thursdays and throughout the
whole day on Saturdays, leaving more space for Ballot entries.
- If you are spending several days in St Andrews, there may be scope
to enter the Ballot on more than one occasion, thus maximising your
chances of success. In this instance it would be wise to book your other
rounds of golf on courses which are flexible should you be successful
and have to change your plans at short notice. Some courses allowing
such flexibility are Kingsbarns, the Dukes, Crail, and the Devlin.
- Entering the Ballot must be done by 2pm on the day prior to play (except
for rounds on Mondays when the Ballot is entered on Saturdays). With
regards to your entry, it is best to be as flexible as possible as to
when you can play eg A ballot application stands a higher chance of
success if you stipulate that you are available to tee off at any time
rather than during a specified period of the day.
- Please note that there are certain weeks of the year when the Ballot
is not operational: 5th May – 10th May is the R&A 08 Spring
Meeting and 8th Sept – 19th Sept is the R&A 08 Autumn Meeting
so the Ballot will not be operational during these periods. Additionally,
the Curtis Cup will be held in St Andrews at the end of May 08 and so
the 25th May – 1st June will not be an easy time to access the
Old Course. Likewise, the Old Course will be closed for the Dunhill
Links from 29th Sept – 6th Oct 08.
- Our final piece of advice is to avoid travelling in the months of
August and September. Demand heavily outweighs supply in these months
and your chances of success are between 1 in 5 & 1 in 6. In comparison,
it is surprising how fortunate many of our clients are with their first
attempt when travelling in the earlier part of the summer.
More fingers are consistently crossed at 4pm in St Andrews than at any
other time of day as that is when the Ballot results are announced. Best
of luck!
|
