The Annual Lottery is an online application to receive tee times for play on the Old Course for the upcoming travel season, in this case for play in 2024. An alternative name for the Annual Lottery is Private Advance Tee Times and it is commonly referred to as the annual tee time lottery for Old Course tee times.
In the five years leading up to the pandemic about 34% of our clients were successful. This process was cancelled for 2021 and 2022 tee times due to Covid. For play in 2023, 21.79% of our clients were successful. We attribute this drop to the increase in demand due to 2020 and 2021 groups having to reschedule to 2022 and 2023 and the spike in demand that always occurs the year after St Andrews hosts The Open. The hope is that odds jump back up to 1 in 3 in 2024 as demand normalizes.
Old Course tee times obtained through the Annual Lottery are always paired with a second St. Andrews course -- the New Course, the Castle Course, the Eden Course, the Strathtyrum or the Jubilee Course. You can select the second course you wish to play, however, depending on availability and course closures you are not always guaranteed to get the course you select. Luckily, all options make for a great day of golf!