The Old Course originally consisted of twenty-two holes, eleven out and eleven back. On completing a hole, the player teed up his ball within two club lengths of the previous hole, using a handful of sand scooped out from the hole to form a tee.

In 1764, the Society of St Andrews Golfers, which later became the Royal and Ancient Golf Club, decided that some holes were too short and combined them. This reduced the course to eighteen holes and created what became the standard round of golf throughout the world.

The track through the whin bushes on which the Old Course evolved was so narrow that golfers played to the same holes going out and coming in.

Handicap Limit

Men - 24

Ladies - 36