St. Andrews’ Old Course readies for changes: Here’s what’s coming

There are three certainties in life: death, taxes and championship golf courses getting longer. Yes, that’s even true for the Old Course in St. Andrews — especially ahead of the 2027 Open Championship. 

The most revered links in the world is set to undergo numerous changes that will lengthen it by 132 yards before the best golfers in the world compete there in 20 months. It will be the most significant lengthening of the championship tees since the early 2000s. Here’s everything you should know about the changes.  

Four new tee boxes

The 5th, 6th, 7th and 10th holes will have new teeing grounds for the 2027 Open. That’s a par-5 and three par-4s that all run in the mostly the same northerly direction on the eastern end of Fife. 

The par-5 5th will see the biggest increase, adding 35 yards, which at least makes some sense for championship purposes. The 5th played to an average of 4.598 during the 2022 Open, the third-easiest hole, according to par. 

The 6th and 7th will grow by 17 and 22 yards, respectively, but neither was an easy birdie hole at the 150th Open. The 7th, however — at 371 yards — was subject to players launching tee balls high in the air downwind, carrying over the massive, Shell bunker (324-yard cover) and finding a putt for eagle. 

“It was very firm and very fast  [in 2022] and that created a challenge,” said R&A Chief Governance Officer Grant Moir, ”but certainly there had been an increase in the number of par-4s that were reachable and both par-5s were reachable (in two) most days.”

With 29 yards added to the 10th and 21 to the 11th, the total yardage for the par-72 setup will now stretch to 7,445, extending an obvious trend you can see in the chart below. 

Where will the tee boxes go? 

Great question! It’s unclear. The design firm in charge of the adjustments is Mackenzie and Ebert, which has been helping the R&A make Open Championship adjustments for years, inclusive of adding new holes to ancient properties. Recall their renovation to the finishing stretch at Royal Liverpool for the 2023 Open, creating a new, bite-size par-3 17th that had everyone talking that week. (And not necessarily glowingly.) Or look ahead to next year’s site, Royal Birkdale, which will employ a new par-3 15th. 

As for St. Andrews, there is still room to contort land behind where current tee boxes are located, but not much! The renovations will no doubt require removal of various gorse bushes and will creep beyond various walking paths that snake through the property. But given the out-and-back nature of the course, every step backward from the tee starts to encroach upon either the previous hole or a hole on the New Course next door. Check out the photo below to understand what currently sits beyond the 6th and 7th tee boxes.

Bunker movement 

Two of the lengthened holes — 6 and 10 — will also find new bunkers added nearer the green, or, rather, closer to “elite level drive length,” as the R&A put it. Now, the bunkers up the right side of the 6th are a measly 260-yard cover. Of course, the alleyway to the green narrows some, but bunkers nearer the green will do more damage to a player’s scorecard than playing from any length of rough. With 17 extra yards from the new tee, players will be tempted to hit driver, but very worried if it starts moving offline. 

The bunker addition that has the R&A particularly jazzed is along the left side of 16, where in previous years the rough was cut close to the famous Principal’s Nose bunkers. In 2027, players will find two additional bunkers up the left side, with some of the rough cut down to fairway level to allow aggressive plays to either skirt the sand or fall victim to it.

“We felt that in recent times players have targeted hitting the ball into the rough there, to avoid the strategic challenge that the hole traditionally provided,” Moir said. “So it might sound counterintuitive to some, but widening the fairway with the placement of two new bunkers in there actually enhances the strategic challenge and the challenge across the board on that hole.”

There’s truth in there. During a practice round of the 2022 Open, I watched Scottie Scheffler drop balls in the rough left of the 16th fairway and play his way onto the green with a wedge. It felt funny to see a player hit multiple shots from various spots in the rough on purpose, especially when one of his drives finished in the fairway. Scheffler told me he was purposefully aiming in the left rough, fully content to play from there, too, if his drive didn’t cut back to the short grass. Below is a screenshot from the final round of the 2022 Open, showing just how often players attacked the left flank of the hole, and were still often rewarded for doing so.

Pace of play; bits and bobs

A major reason for all this? Pace of play during the Championship. During the 2022 Open, which saw record crowds and incredible weather, opening rounds extended beyond six hours. Without much for wind, it became apparent that players were reaching a numerous par-4s in one, and both par-5s in two. Normally, if there’s wind, only one of the par-5s is reachable in two, which helps pros play their second shots without waiting for the green to clear ahead of them.

Below are a few other adjustments on the docket.

What does it all mean?

The Old Course will never be the same. In much the way it has never been the same. It is a living, breathing organism that adapts over time. Gorse grows in well some years and not so well in others. Bunkers were added to the course ahead of the 2022 Open, but no one really seemed to notice. There wasn’t much for weather during that dry summer, but there was so much wind and rain in 2015 that basically the entire Saturday of golf was canceled. 

It does mean that the Old Course continues to be pushed and manipulated for championship purposes, the likes of which will mostly matter during Championship week alone, or during major comps like the Dunhill Links or high-level amateur comps. The Old Course that you play will mostly be unchanged, with the Black tees stretching to 6,721 yards. The people in charge at the Links Trust are not making these changes without years of discussions.

“We are being very sensitive to the history of the course with these changes,” Moir said, “but we do feel that it’s appropriate to make these changes at this time to adapt to the way the modern game is played.”