The Old Course at St. Andrews Singles Queue

While The Old Course Singles Queue was one of the great traditions in golf, we are excited for the opportunity the new Daily Draw provides H&B travelers. Those who might strike out with the Ballot can now make a last ditch effort to play The Old Course without sleeping on the putting green.

It also means that the story of my night in line is an even greater badge of honor.

In August of 2018, I was deployed by Major Haversham to Scotland and Ireland for two months. Although this was first and foremost a work trip, the golf clubs still came along with me. And for the first of two weeks in St. Andrews, so did my brother.

Our primary objective, as you might suspect, was playing The Old Course at St. Andrews. But if you’re thinking that a position with a leading golf travel company would hold some sway in landing an Old Course tee time, think again.

When it comes to Old Course at St. Andrews tee times, the process is a fairly democratic one. There are multiple ways for anyone to find a spot on the tee sheet. Pulling strings with the staff generally isn’t one of them.

After rounds at Carnoustie and Crail, my brother and I set aside the final three days of his visit for The Old Course ballot. If we were unsuccessful in securing that golden ticket, our plan was to join the stand-by line in the small hours of the morning each day.

In case you haven’t read our complete guide to Old Course tee times (link above), allow me to pause for a brief explainer…

The Old Course ballot is drawn 48-hours in advance of the date of play. You enter on Monday for tee times on Wednesday, Tuesday for Thursday, and so on. If you haven’t booked a guaranteed tee time through an authorized provider like Haversham & Baker, or if you fail to hit The Old Course ballot, all is not lost…

The Old Course assigns any remaining slots on the day’s tee sheet on a first-come, first-served basis. This can be an effective way to play The Old Course at St. Andrews without a tee time. The Old Pavilion opens at 6am each day, but the “first-come” part of the equation starts to line up outside long before that in hopes of walking on at The Old Course.

Before making our first ballot entry, we left a pair of ProVs at the graves of Old and Young Tom Morris to try and steer a little St. Andrews divine intervention to our side.

When the ballot results were released that afternoon, our first attempt was not to be.

The following morning, I walked up to The Old Pavilion around 5:30am to gauge how many people were in line and what time we may need to arrive the next day.

As it turned out, it was more like the same day.

There were nearly 60 people in line. I learned from chatting with a few hopefuls that the first had arrived around 10pm the night before.

You read that right.

The first golfers hoping for success in the Old Course singles queue didn’t wake up at an ungodly hour to get in line. They’d never gone to bed at all. In all likelihood, they’d strolled over from The Dunvegan and sat down by the front door.

It’s worth noting here that this was early August. When it comes to St. Andrews golf trips, we couldn't have picked a busier time. In our experience, a fraction of this number are queued up each day in April, May, or October.

Still, it was clear that our original plan of arriving around 4am was wildly misguided.

We knew from reviewing the tee sheet on the St. Andrews Links mobile app that roughly 20 slots were available for the next day, plus any no-shows. With three times that number in line the day before, we set a new and somewhat unimaginable arrival time…

Midnight.

After a few relatively worthless hours of sleep, my brother and I set off at 11:55pm with our golf clubs and a random collection of snacks. The stroll between the R&A clubhouse and the 18th green at that hour was a surreal one. The lights of the ancient town were mostly dim, a few seagulls cackled in the distance, and the only movement came from several silhouettes who had beaten us to the punch.

As we approached the Old Pavilion, a 20-something gent on the putting green called out to us…

“Hey guys, you’re number 13 and 14.”

Two things were apparent from this statement...

First, and to my astonishment, a dozen golfers had committed to this endeavor before midnight.

But perhaps more telling was that The Old Course standby line wasn’t really a line at all. It was more like a small democracy had developed. One or two of the early arrivals seemed to be the designated “line czars” and kept the group apprised of what number we were presently “on.” As bewildered golfers would arrive, the first of us to make contact would break the news…

“Hey buddy, you’re number 27.”

At one point, number 15 realized that he’d left his wallet back in his hotel room. He pleaded his case and the group reached a verdict: His place in line was secure, but he had one-hour to get back.

He made it.

As the number of golfers “in line” grew longer, the magnetic draw of St. Andrews became ever more apparent. The hopefuls hailed from Norway, Singapore, New Zealand, Germany, and multiple U.S. states. The earliest arrivals were part of a golf team from a small college in Nebraska. If you ever needed evidence that St. Andrews is the rightful “Home of Golf,” this line was definitely it.

Everyone in this motley crew became fast friends. A willingness to linger around the first tee of The Old Course at St. Andrews in the dead of night certainly gave us all something in common. For the first couple of hours, the conversation was lively and predictable…

“Where are you guys from?”

“Where else have you played?”

“Have you played The Old Course before?”

“Do you think we’ll get on?”

But as the clock on the R&A clubhouse reached the 3am hour, the group - which by that time numbered around 35 - became mostly quiet. The temperature was dropping and fatigue was setting in.

The college team slept soundly on the ground in front of the Old Pavilion door, aided by the bottle they’d passed around earlier in the evening and the bedding they’d inexplicably brought from their hotel rooms. One gent laid down in the bed of a maintenance cart nearby. I rolled out a towel on the putting green and used the pants from my rainsuit pants as a pillow. My brother scored a bench under one of the thoughtfully provided space heaters.

The struggle was real. All of us just wanted to make it to 6am.

Soon there were signs of life. I was dislodged from my temporary bed by a greenskeeper who needed to give the putting green its morning cut. The first wisps of daylight soon followed and the anxiousness within the group started to build.

Roughly 10 minutes before 6am, a gentleman approached the front door and roused the college team from their slumber.

“If all of you will form a line, we’ll let you in shortly.”

With that announcement, each of us scurried into our assigned position. But it was all very orderly. No one attempted to cut in line or falsely claim a higher place. By this time, all of us knew everyone’s “number.” Such shenanigans stood no chance in this hastily formed democracy.

Soon the gentleman returned, took down each of our names in order, and invited us inside.

As the roughly 60 of us filed in behind him, the tension - and excitement - was palpable.

Not long after, the first names were called. High fives all around for our new friends from Nebraska.

They were followed by another foursome who, rather than split up and guarantee themselves the chance to play, made the baffling decision to wait to see if an entire four-ball would become available. This strategy is ill advised…

A crucial requirement for The Old Course stand-by line is a willingness of you and your partners to play in separate groups. Although it’s possible you’ll play together, it’s also not very likely. In fact, the line is often called the Singles Queue for this very reason. But no matter how puzzling, this group’s decision brought my brother and I four steps closer to our goal.

At roughly 7:45am, the call came out…

“Ross Jones.”

My brother approached the desk and heard the news he’d waited all night, plus a few decades, to hear…

“We have one slot open at 8am.”

Tears were shed. Hugs were given. The green fee was paid. He sprinted to the tee.

I waited.

Another hour and half passed before I, too, heard those sweet words…

“Daniel Jones.”

“We have an R&A member with an open slot at 11:30, but we won’t know if that will pan out until about that time. Or we can put you down at 5pm.”

I debated the options for about half a second and took the guaranteed slot at 5pm.

Back to bed I went.

Twelve hours later, and over 21 hours after we got in line, I tapped in for par and capped the best day the game of golf had ever given me. Little did I know that just two days later it would be eclipsed, thanks to the news my brother delivered on the 18th tee...

“We hit the ballot for Friday.”

That night near the 1st tee of The Old Course will forever remain one of the best of my life. The fact that I got to experience it with my brother made it all the more special. And our good fortune with the ballot reinforced my long held belief that things just have a funny way of happening in St. Andrews.

Did Old Tom intervene on our behalf? Who knows. But if he did, I’m glad that he waited until our third and final ballot entry to do so. Any earlier, and our unforgettable night in The Old Course stand-by line never would have happened.