British Open 2027 at St Andrews: A Golfer's Guide

This guide is for the trip captain who wants the British Open 2027 in the group's trip, or needs to keep the trip clear of it. It covers the week's schedule and ticket prices, what's still on sale, which St Andrews courses close and when, where to play and stay that fortnight, and how to choose between going for the championship and avoiding it.

British Open 2027 dates and schedule

The R&A calls it The Open. Most American coverage calls it the British Open, and some US outlets list only 15–18 July, which are the four championship rounds. The full week runs from Sunday 11 July, and the practice days are far cheaper to attend.

Prices are The R&A's face value (theopen.com, checked 25 Oct 2026), converted at the ECB rate of 23 Oct 2026. Youth tickets, for ages 16–24, are half the adult price. Under-16s go free, up to three per accompanying adult aged 18 or over, with ages counted on 10 July 2027.

It's the 31st Open on the Old Course, more than any other venue, and it falls 100 years after Bobby Jones won there in 1927. The course you'll watch is longer than in 2022: the championship card grows 132 yards to 7,445, with six holes lengthened and the Road Hole Bunker restored. Cameron Smith won the last Open here, the 150th in 2022, on 268.

The Open 2027 tickets: what's left to buy

General admission went through a public ballot, open 6–24 July 2026. Entry needed a free One Club membership from The R&A, and each applicant could ask for up to four tickets a day. The ballot closed at 3pm UK time on 24 July 2026, and The R&A said every applicant would have a result by the end of September.

If your group missed it, these are the official routes still open, as of 25 Oct 2026:

• Ticket Plus, an official ticket with access to a private area where food and drink are sold. The R&A said on 22 Oct 2026 that championship days had sold out, with a waiting list, and that the practice days were still on sale.
• Hospitality, by the day. Several packages are already sold out for the championship days, and prices change quickly, so check the official St Andrews 2027 tickets and hospitality page ↗ on the day you decide.
• Official ticket-and-accommodation packages, and a ticket with a pitch in The Open Camping Village, a short walk from the course. Neither shows a price until you start a booking.
• Resale, only through The Open's own resale platform. The R&A's terms say tickets resold any other way can be voided. It hasn't said when the 2027 platform opens.

Tickets are digital, held in The Open app, and are non-refundable 24 hours after purchase.

The Old Course closes 19 June to 19 July 2027

St Andrews Links' closure notice for The Open lists the Old Course as closed for those 31 days. That covers every route onto the course: the daily ballot, the Links' own packages, and the guaranteed times sold through Authorised Providers. The Old Course page has the visitor rules for the rest of the year.

The course is closed every Sunday, and 19 July 2027 is a Monday, so the earliest it can reopen is Tuesday 20 July. The Links hasn't said whether the ballot runs in the first days after The Open, and its calendar shows no ballot on Saturday 24 July, for a club meeting. I wouldn't build a trip around a round that week until the Links confirms it.

The build-up reaches into spring as well. The Links' calendar shows no ballot on 3–6 May, 5 June and 12 June 2027, when club competitions move off the course, and there's no ballot from 27 September to 4 October for the Alfred Dunhill Links. From 1 April 2027 the Links will mark protected areas of the course with paint and place mats in them, and it warns of extra noise and diversions while the grandstands go up.

Other St Andrews Links courses during The Open

The Links Trust runs eight courses, and five of them close for part of July. All dates are inclusive, from the Trust's closure notice, which you can download from its 155th Open page ↗.

So in Open week itself, the Castle and Craigtoun are the only Links courses taking golfers. The Fife golf guide covers the rest of the county's links.

Where to play golf near St Andrews in Open week

The courses within an hour of the Old Course stay open, and two of them publish rules for the week. Drive times below are from the Old Course on empty roads. Expect them to be longer in Open week, when St Andrews runs Park & Ride and pedestrian-only zones.

• 

  Kingsbarns

  25 min

  Open daily in season. Its 2027 rate rises to its highest of the year from 12 to 20 July, with no replay rate that week. The rate sheet doesn't name The Open or add any other restriction.

  View Kingsbarns →
• 

  Crail Balcomie

  30 min

  Crail Golfing Society has its own terms for 12–19 July 2027: Balcomie runs visitor times from 06:30 to 18:30, and bookings are paid in full and non-refundable once confirmed.

  View Crail Balcomie →
• 

  Dumbarnie

  25 min

  Takes visitor reservations in Open week. Its published 2027 fees list no separate Open-week price.

  View Dumbarnie →
• 

  Carnoustie

  50 min

  Its 2027 rates have no Open-week premium or restriction. The Championship Course is one price from May to October.

  View Carnoustie →

For a quieter week away from the crowds, East Lothian's links are about two hours south: Muirfield is 1 h 50 min from the Old Course and North Berwick 1 h 55 min. Every course above has a page on golftripbuilder.com with its visitor days and handicap rules.

Where to stay for The Open 2027, and when to book

Fife Council's visitor site says accommodation for The Open "will book up very early" and advises booking 12–18 months ahead, which for July 2027 means now. St Andrews goes first. The council points visitors to Dundee, Perth, Angus, Dunfermline, Kirkcaldy, Leven and the East Neuk for a wider choice.

• Marine & Lawn Rusacks

  St Andrews · the 1887 golf hotel beside the Old Course's 18th green

  View hotel →

• Hotel du Vin St Andrews

  St Andrews · on The Scores, two minutes on foot from the R&A clubhouse; 42 rooms

  View hotel →

• Rufflets St Andrews

  Edge of St Andrews · family-owned, with 10 acres of gardens; five minutes into town

  View hotel →

• Fairmont St Andrews

  Two miles out of town · a clifftop resort with two courses of its own

  View hotel →

• Carnoustie Golf Hotel & Spa

  Carnoustie · beside the Championship Course, 50 min from the Old Course

  View hotel →

None of these hotels publishes an Open-week rate. The R&A's official ticket-and-accommodation packages are one way to fix tickets and a bed together. If you rent a house, ask the owner for its short-term let licence: every let in Scotland needs one, and Fife Council issued temporary exemptions for The Open, so a legitimate host can show you either.

Getting in is the other part of the plan. The R&A says there's no public parking at the Old Course or nearby. Cars go to Park & Ride sites, at £20 a day on 11–12 July and £25 on 13–18 July, with free buses to the course. By rail, a dedicated shuttle runs from Leuchars station up to every five minutes at peak times. Edinburgh Airport is 1 h 20 min from St Andrews by road, and Stagecoach's Jet 787 bus runs from the airport every two hours.

Go for The Open, or avoid it?

Settle this before booking anything, because the dates, the courses and the rooms all depend on it.

Going for The Open works best as a spectator trip with golf around it. Pick the days you'll watch first, since practice days are cheaper and easier to get, then fit Kingsbarns, Crail and Carnoustie around them. Don't plan on the Old Course at all that fortnight.

Avoiding the window keeps the Old Course in play. The ballot runs as normal outside the closure, drawn two days ahead, and every player needs a handicap of 36 or less. The Links' own guaranteed route, the Swilcan Package, has closed its 2027 window, which leaves the Authorised Provider packages.

Our travel partner is one of the tour operators St Andrews Links appoints as an Authorised Provider, so it can sell packages that include a guaranteed Old Course tee time from April to October. Those times are limited and sell early, and most of its 2027 allocation has already gone. If none is left for your dates, it will enter your group in the daily ballot and plan your stay around it. None of its times fall between 19 June and 19 July 2027, when the course is closed. You can ask for a trip quote with an Old Course time and say which dates you're considering.

The Open in 2028

If July 2027 doesn't work, the 156th Open is at Royal Lytham & St Annes in Lancashire, England, from 30 July to 6 August 2028. That's later than usual: The R&A moved it back for 2028 only, to avoid the golf at the Los Angeles Olympics, and says The Open returns to mid-July in 2029. The Royal Lytham & St Annes course page has its visitor details. For a Scottish Open venue you can play in 2027, the complete guide to Royal Troon covers the 2024 host, and the 2025 host in Northern Ireland has its own Royal Portrush trip guide.