Playing the Old Course at St Andrews is on the top of many golfer’s bucket-lists. To play the oldest golf course in the world is to take a step through history and walk the same grounds that so many of the game’s greats have walked before. But to play it backwards? An even rarer glimpse into the famed course’s over 600 year history.
If that sounds like the game of a lifetime, now might be your chance to snag one of the rarest tee times in golf. Ballots just opened for the 2026 Old Course Reversed event for only the third time ever.
What is the Old Course Reverse Routing?
The original 18 hole layout of the Old Course was established in 1764, and was played in a clockwise direction, reverse of what it is in the present day. In this original design, the Old Course had eight double greens, one more than there is today, with the first green and seventeenth green combined into one. Old Tom Morris, the pioneer of golf architecture responsible for shaping the Old Course into the iconic and modern layout, separated the first and eighteenth greens around 1870, which allowed for the Old Course to be played in the counter-clockwise direction as modern golfers currently do.
Play alternated weekly between both directions for many years until the counter-clockwise direction ultimately won favor and became viewed as the more desirable direction of play. The tradition of playing the Old Course’s original routing direction slowly tapered over time, with one month each year dedicated to playing the reverse routing in the 1970s, later reduced to just one day each year—an opportunity only local members were able to enjoy.
That all changed in 2024 during the 50th anniversary of the St Andrews Links Trust when an annual event was created to allow players from around the world to take part in playing the original direction of the Old Course at St Andrews.
How is the Old Course Reversed played?
To play the Old Course at St. Andrews in reverse from its modern day routing is to play in a clockwise winding instead of counter-clockwise. Players tee off from the first tee playing to the seventeenth green (located to the left of the first green) crossing Swilcan Bridge on the first hole instead of the eighteenth. From there, the tee boxes are used in reverse order, playing to the fairway from the hole prior to the green two holes prior. The eighteenth tee becomes the second hole, playing the seventeenth “Road Hole” backwards to the sixteenth green. The seventeenth tee becomes the third hole, played down the sixteenth fairway to the fifteenth green, and so on. The last hole of the reverse routing uses the second tee playing to the eighteenth green.
Dates and How to Apply
The Old Course will run in reverse for three days, April 19–21, 2026, with spots allocated primarily through an advance ballot.
Applications are open now and close December 10 at 10 a.m. GMT. Groups of two or four may apply; singles and threesomes are not eligible. Each player must hold a current handicap.
The cost is £800 per player, which includes:
- One round on the Old Course (standard routing)
- One round on the Old Course Reversed
- One round at the Castle Course
- £65 in food and beverage vouchers
- Complimentary range balls
Successful applicants will be notified beginning the week of December 15, with payment due only after confirmation.
