Golf is unlike any other sport. I play cricket, but I cannot play at Lords. Twickenham, Wembley and Wimbledon equally remain out of reach for all except for professionals and top amateurs. It is, however, possible to follow in the footsteps of the professionals and to play competition and major golf courses. In particular, the 14 courses which have hosted The Open are all openly accessible.

When I say, openly accessible, most of them will ask you to produce a handicap certificate (or at least they say that they will) and they seek a fairly high green fee. It is, of course, easier (and cheaper) to access them if you know a member, but this is not a prerequisite. That distinguishes these courses from their counter-parts in the US. With the exception of a few public courses that are on the roster for the US Open or PGA Championship, the private country clubs remain the preserve of those lucky enough to know a member.

All of the courses currently on the rota are in the World Top 100. Deal and Princes feature in the England Top 100. So far, I have played 7 of the 14 courses. This will be increased to 9, with trips to Troon and Prestwick arranged for later this summer. My rounds have been a mix of paying green fees, invitations from members and trips with a society.

Pricing

Anyway, it is Open week. The competition has returned to Royal St. George’s and everyone is coming up with a new angle for discussion. One of the articles I read set out how much it would cost to play all 14 courses. It acknowledges, but does not investigate, how to play them other than by paying the highest rates. I thought it might be more interesting to look at some alternative ways and times to get a better deal.

I didn’t quite agree with all of the prices in the article. They have gone with £2,962. My calculation has full price for all of the courses at £3,037. Their pricing for Prestwick is based on a round at £145. As noted below, this is a one-off price for UK residents this year offered as a result of COVID-19.

Total potential saving

By organising your games outside the high season, you can save £888. Competitions offer another way to get cheaper access. The best savings get you a reduction of £293. There are added benefits to competitions, with anything from a bacon roll to a 3-course meal included in the price. For more details, read on!

Current Courses – England

There are four courses in England that are on the current rota: Royal St. Georges, Royal Lytham & St. Anne’s, Royal Liverpool and Royal Birkdale. They are popular destinations and command a high price in the summer. Rack rate green fees are £250, £230, £220 and £250 respectively. So, how do we mitigate this? Here are a few thoughts:

Royal Liverpool (Hoylake)

There is a “shoulder” rate if you play in October, which reduces the green fee from £220 to £185. Obviously, you may prefer to pay the extra £35 to play in the summer, but there is no guarantee of good weather in the north west at any time! Perhaps a better way to get access would be to sign up for one of the Hoylake Celebratory Opens. There are three this year (July, August and September) and you pay £151 per person to enter. At a £69 discount and the chance to play in an organised competition, this will be very attractive to many people.

Royal Lytham & St. Anne’s

There is a tremendous Dormy House on site at Lytham which offers both fantastic accommodation, but also access to the clubhouse for dinner and breakfast as part of your package. If you stay in the Dormy House, you also unlock a special rate of £175 for a round. This also allows access to tee times at the weekend which, as you will appreciate, are normally pretty hard to come by.

There’s also a winter rate, that’s available from October to March and gives a £70 saving, at £160 per round. The obvious bonus with links courses is that they play well in pretty much all conditions and don’t turn into a soggy mess like many parkland courses over the winter.

Finally, Lytham regularly hosts amateur competitions such as the NCG Top 100 and the Mizuno Pairs. These competitions are extremely well organised and as they take over the course for the day effectively give you the feeling of becoming a member for the day.

Royal Birkdale

It’s more difficult to get a decent reduction at Birkdale. The club is generally a bit more private than its two neighbours on England’s “Golf Coast”. This is not to say that you won’t get a friendly reception if you do get a tee time. So, if you don’t want to pay full price here, the only real option is to come during the low-season. A round between October and March will set you back £185, representing a £65 reduction on the high season prices.

Royal Birkdale does also appear on the roster of courses that you can play through the NCG Top 100 series. So, if you want someone else to take the pressure of organising the round for you, this is definitely worth a look. At £245, it doesn’t represent much of a saving, but you do get a well-organised qualifying competition, breakfast and lunch.

Royal St. George’s

Another difficult venue at which to secure a reduction, Royal St. George’s also has a shorter low season on account of its location in the south of England. I suspect that the return of The Open this year will result in a bump in green fees for next year as well. Let’s see.

Anyway, if you can wait until November, then you can secure a £90 reduction on the normal price – down to £160pp. RSG also appears regularly on the Mizuno Pairs schedule. This year, the event was in April and cost £224 per person. Having investigated this further, however, I think that may have been lower to take account of the fact that play was off mats in the run-up to the main event.

I have played here with a society, where we played our own ball in the morning and then foursomes in the afternoon. I love playing 36 holes in a day and this mix of formats is certainly my favourite. With someone else doing the organisation, food included and a cost of just over £100, there is a lot to like about this option.

Current Courses – Scotland

Although there are five courses on the current rota in Scotland, only three of those are in consideration at the moment. St. Andrew’s and Royal Troon will host the competition in 2022 and 2024 respectively, and it is likely that Carnoustie will follow two years later. Muirfield last hosted in 2013, but was removed from the roster in 2016 following its failure to change its rules to allow women to be members. That vote was overturned in 2017 and Muirfield was reinstated as an Open course. It will be vying for the rights in 2026, as will Turnberry (which hasn’t played host since 2009). At this stage, it seems unlikely that we will see the Ailsa course again until the venue ceases to be associated with Mr Trump.

St. Andrew’s (Old Course)

It’s difficult enough to get a tee time on the Old Course, so surely there isn’t a way to do so without paying full price? This is a reasonable point, but it is actually the cheapest of the current Open courses to play if you can get a tee time. As many will know, there are only two ways to guarantee a tee time on the Old Course – book one of the advance tee times that are available through a yearly ballot (to be distinguished from the daily version) or book as part of a package with a tour operator. I have gone into the ballot three times (looking for a tee time in April, which is part of the shoulder season) and have not yet been successful. A package with a tour operator will set you back thousands.

A more successful way to get access is either the daily ballot, which is a possibility if you are in the area for more than just a few days. Anyone can enter, with a minimum group size of 2 and the draw happens two days ahead of play. Alternatively, you can turn up at the starters hut in the early hours of the morning and join the singles queue. If you are lucky, there will be 2 or 3 balls (or cancellations) the following day and you will be offered the chance to join them.

Anyway, that is how to secure your round at the “standard” rate (rather than paying the premium through a tour operator). This is £195 during the summer and £137 during April and October. Play is also possible from November to March, but you will need to take a mat to play from the fairway to protect the turf.

Muirfield

The Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers have become gradually more welcoming of visitors over the past 20 years. When John Sabino was undertaking his epic adventure to conquer the Top 100 Courses in the World, he notes that the club offered just three visitor slots on Tuesday and Thursday. There are now up to 20 tee times available, but the visitor days remain restricted as before. If you want the full experience, then you will play 18 holes with your own ball in the morning and then alternate shot (foursomes) in the afternoon. There are fewer slots on offer for those just wanting to play 18 holes.

Full price for the 18 hole option is £285, with a further £135 payable if you want to play in the afternoon as well. This is due to increase in 2022 to £310 and £140 respectively.

The winter rate of £110 may look attractive, but it is only available during the cold winter months of November and December.

From my trip there earlier in the year, it was clear that the club was suffering from the lack of visitors from the US. Americans usually make up about 80% of the paying guests, which again reflects the difference in approach to costs in golf between the UK and the US. Consequently, this summer, the HCEG offered a reduction on green fees which has since been extended until the end of August. This sees the costs reduced to £195 for one round or £285 for two. Still not cheap, but a £90 reduction is better than nothing!

Royal Troon

Troon is the only venue which remains rigid with its rules. If you want to play, it will cost you £260. No reductions for the time of day or time of the year. There are no open competitions and it rarely features in society or charity days. If you want a reduction, my only advice is to find a member!

Turnberry (Ailsa)

The pricing at all of Trump venues tends to be at the high end and this is no exception. At £325 for the full rate, Turnberry’s Ailsa course is the most expensive on the list. There are a few ways to get a reduction on this price and it is certainly easy to get access to the course.

If you are happy to take a risk on the weather and to travel in April, May or October, the rate reduces substantially down to £200. Alternatively, you could join up with the NCG Top 100 tour in September at £265 per person. Finally, there is the possibility to play “Ailsa from the Tips” which is an annual open competition for which you will pay £199 per person. Whilst that offers a £126 reduction on the full rate, as it is in October you are actually only saving £1 on the shoulder rate!

You can also get a better rate to play the course if you stay in the hotel, but that is an expensive option in itself and I’m not sure I want to be giving any more money to Mr Trump than I absolutely have to …

Carnoustie

The most northerly course on the rota at Carnoustie will set you back £270 for 18 holes in the high season. That reduces to £192 in March and October. There is not much else on offer here in terms of further reductions, however. The best way that I have found of getting a good deal is to stay at the hotel and play both courses. At £285 for the two rounds and an overnight stay, that definitely represents good value, but the “reduction” is not available on its own.

Northern Ireland

Royal Portrush (Dunluce)

The return of the Open to Royal Portrush in 2019 shone the spotlight on one of the finest links courses in the British Isles. It was a travesty that it had had to wait nearly 70 years since the first competition in 1951.

Full price in the height of summer is £240 and this reduces to £160 in April and October. There are usually open competitions which offer a chance to play in an organised competition and at a lower price. COVID-19 has disrupted these for the moment, and so it is difficult to get accurate pricing, but you can usually expect to save £70-80 on the headline rates.

Again, if you are looking to play other courses in the area, there are opportunities to access bundles which are less than the aggregate of the full price green fees. You could also consider becoming a member of one of the clubs in the North & West Coast Links. For example, international membership at Carne costs €485 which gives you full access to one of the finest links in the country but also a 50% reduction at other members. This includes Connemara, Enniscrone, Donegal, Rosapenna, Ballyliffin, Castlerock, Portstewart and Royal Portrush.

Former Open Courses

The final four courses, two in Scotland and two in England, hosted The Open in the past, but are no longer on the rota. They are, however, all still very much worth a visit and can be combined with one or more of the courses noted above. I cannot think of many better trips than one to Royal St. George’s, Royal Cinque Ports and Princes.

Royal Cinque Ports

Deal, as it is known locally, hosted the Open in 1907 and 1920 having been added to the rota in 1906 along with Royal North Devon (Westward Ho!). It was due to host again in 1915, 1938 and 1949, but sadly due to the First World War (1915) and unusually high tides (1938 & 1949) these competitions were cancelled. It remains an open qualifying venue, but has not been considered for the main tournament ever since.

My main tip with Deal is to take advantage of the twilight rate. By waiting until 4pm, you get a £65 reduction on the full price (£175) and pay £110. If you have been watching over the past few days, you will have seen that there is nothing quite like playing a links course late in the day with the sun setting and the shadows rippling across the dunes. A round in March will also see you benefit from a £35 reduction.

Finally, it is host to a number of different competitions. There are better-ball competitions organised by the club throughout the year which offer you the change to play at £70 per person. Alternatively, the Mizuno Pairs make a regular stop at Deal. For £149.99 per person you get a round, food and various Mizuno goodies.

Princes

The host course for the 1932 Open, won by Gene Sarazen, Princes has gone through a number of changed over the years. There are now 27 quality links holes on the property and now that the Himalaya 9 has been refurbished by Ebert & McKenzie, there are no weak spots.

The full summer rate is £100 and again there is a twilight reduction that is normally available. I suspect that the proximity to RSG has meant that they did not feel the need to offer the standard reductions this summer. The shoulder rate during March and April sees a reduction to £75.

It is a regular host to both club and commercial competitions, with prices ranging from £55pp for an open competition to £99.99 for the Mizuno Pairs. The NCG Top 100 tour also makes a stop here and is right in the middle at £75pp.

Prestwick

As noted above, the original open championship course at Prestwick currently offers a reduction for UK residents. If you want to play this summer, it will cost £145. This represents a reduction of £75 on the regular summer rates. This is available until the end of October, after which it reduces further to £105.

Next year sees the rates return to normal, with summer rates at £220. There is then a shoulder rate of £180 available in April and October.

If you have an Ayrshire postcode, you can access a £80 afternoon rate but you will need proof of address. Finally, there is normally a bundle available which includes Turnberry and Troon. This offers a good value way to play all three of the Open Links of Ayrshire. Again, due to the current restrictions is not available this year.

Musselburgh (Old)

This six time open venue is definitely worth a visit whilst you are in East Lothian. It is also the oldest golf course on which the game is still played.

It is a classic 9 hole layout that is now enclosed within the horse racing track. You will not get the most out of the experience unless you hire a set of hickory clubs. I can’t beat the £17 green fee for visitors. I wondered why it was so reasonable, but then I saw that the clubhire price for the hickories is £42.