Our fourth round of this Scotland golf trip was at St. Andrews New Course. While it is not nearly as famous as its older sister course, it is very much fun, challenging and worthy of sharing the same land as the Old Course. Here is our overview and thoughts on playing the second oldest course in the town of St. Andrews.
About St. Andrews New Course
Per St. Andrews website, “The oldest ‘new’ course in the world, the second course at the Home of Golf was built by the Keeper of the Green, Tom Morris, in 1895 and it was imaginatively named to differentiate from its famous neighbour. Boasting undulating fairways and challenging greens, the New Course is a classic test of links golf.”
The Course
The New Course plays tighter than the Old mainly because of the amount of gorse bushes and how close they get to the greens and fairways. There are a pair of par 3’s that play across the course but the other 16 holes play out and back, similar direction to the Old Course.
Depending on the tees, the New Course plays 5,991 yards from the front to just over 6,500 yards from the tips. We played the blue tees, which came in at 6,255 yards. For some reason, the course seemed to play longer than that yardage.
Par 5 12th Hole on the New Course.
Driving Range
The driving range for all of the St. Andrew courses in town is located alongside the 16th hole of the Old Course. We didn’t use it before our round at the Old Course but we did hit some balls before our round at the New Course. About half the hitting bays are covered, heated, and include a Trackman system. We walked over that morning and were able to find an open bay pretty easily. They appear to have a world class teaching facility as well.
Behind the practice range tees is an amazing short game area with a few large putting greens and three short game greens including a handful of bunkers.
Quick note on the range and getting across the course, there are a few places people can cross the Old Course. We just had to be careful about not interrupting play. There is the street that crosses the 1st and 18th holes, a path that crosses in front of the 2nd tee and 17th green, and another path in front of the 3rd tee and 16th green. If you follow the paved road between the Old and New Courses, there are additional crossing paths but these are the three we used throughout the week.
Driving range at St. Andrews.
Clubhouse
What’s considered the main St. Andrew’s Clubhouse is located next to the first tees of the New and Jubilee Courses. This building has large locker room facilities, a small pro shop, the Tom Morris Bar & Grill, rental club pick up, and the starter hut for both courses. There are also stairs that lead to the roof of the building which provides amazing views of the entire St. Andrew’s property.
View from the top of the Clubhouse looking back towards town.
Pro Shop
There are multiple locations where visitors can purchase St. Andrews Old Course gear. There is a pro shop in the main Clubhouse next to the New and Jubilee courses. However, the best selections are actually at two other locations. One is located on the first floor of the Old Course Hotel with the entrance right behind the Jigger Inn near the 17th Green. The second and even larger store is located on The Links Road along the 18th hole. However, when it comes to getting New Course specific gear, the options were just about non-existent. Andrew got a yardage book, coin, and polo from each course he played. Unfortunately, he was only able to get a yardage book for the New Course as the polos or coins were for the Old Course only.
Restaurant
Located within the heart of the Links Clubhouse celebrating the life and influence of the Grand Old Man of golf overlooking the courses he helped to shape, The Tom Morris Bar & Grill is a Scottish produce driven casual dining restaurant with a real sense of history and authenticity. We ate here for dinner one night and it was very good and the view of the Old, New, and Jubilee courses is amazing.
The other place to get a bite to eat on the New Course is the halfway house for both the Old and New Courses. While it falls between 9 & 10 on the Old Course, golfers on the New Course hit their second shots into 7 and then head over to the building before completing the hole.
Steak dinner at the Old Tom Morris Bar & Grill.
Blind tee shot on the par 4 10th.
Pricing
Our entire golf trip was one package so we couldn’t tell you exactly what it cost us to play the Old Course. However, they do have their green fees listed on their website. For the 2024 summer months (April - October), it was around £145, and it appears to be £150 for 2025. The fee is cheaper if golfers play outside of the summer prime season and can get as low as £75. However, playing during the low season of December through March requires golfers to use fairway mats.
Regarding getting a tee time, our travel agent booked the tee time as part of the package. Our initial trip confirmation about 15 months before we travelled included our actual tee time. If you are not playing as part of a package, you can reserve a tee time here. All tee times prior to 9:36 AM are for St. Andrews Links Ticket holders only.
18th Hole of the New Course.
Caddies
We will say this for every course we played in Scotland and that is caddies are worth every penny. Since we booked a golf package, our agent reserved all of the caddies for us. If you book your tee time directly with the course, caddie bookings should be made directly through the New Course website.
The cost for a caddie at the New Course at the time of our round was £65 plus gratuities, with that amount at the player’s discretion based on the level of service provided. After speaking to a few locals and doing a little research before our first Scotland trip, it seemed most golfers give more than the recommended 10% so we each gave our caddies £100 after the round.
For every round we have played in Scotland, we have always gotten caddies. We believe they are worth every penny with stories and history about the course alone, not to mention their ability to guide you around the course.
Par 3 17th hole.
Our Experience
Similar to the other courses we played in Scotland, the Starter handed us a pouch with a scorecard, pencil, tees, and yardage book. The New Course played sneaky hard in certain ways. A few of the fairways had a touch of a crown to them, there were a few blind tee shots, including the partially blind par 3 ninth hole, and as mentioned above, some of the holes were very tight. Another big difference between the Old and New Course are the greens. There is only one double green on the New so they are much smaller and they don’t have as much slope as some of the greens on the Old Course.
New Course 18th Green with the Clubhouse in the background.
18th Green of the New Course from the roof of the Clubhouse.
Final Thoughts
As with every round we played in Scotland, we were busy just taking it all in and soaking up the scenery and experience. The course was in great shape, the caddies were great, the staff were very friendly, and we had an amazing time. The New Course is a great deal compared to surrounding courses and for the price, might have been the best deal of all nine courses we played over our two Scotland trips. If we were lucky enough to return to St. Andrews, clearly the Old Course would be on the list but we would be perfectly happy staying in town and playing all of the courses including the New Course and the Jubilee.