Visiting Old Course, St Andrews on a weekday
 

We are travelling from India to the UK and will be in Scotland next week. I am spending a night in a B&B Farmhouse in Fife (20 min from the Old Course). I plan to visit the Old Course after breakfast, stop for lunch and tee off at the Aberdour Golf Club (booked already) at 14:00 hours. It is a Wednesday.

Any ideas on how best I can visit the Old Course and spend, say around a couple of hours at most, without booking any tour (not available on weekdays anyway) or buying any tickets etc?

Just go and walk around, making sure not to interfere with play. You are evidently a golfer, so you know how to do that. (Act like you're a spectator at a tournament that's underway.) Scotland allows people to roam freely.

The Old Course is fully booked with foursomes every day except Sunday. So you can't 'visit' the course as such. But you can walk around where it is safe as on any club back home. You can sit on the wall next to the Road Hole, you can drive all he way out West Sands Road to the turn, you can play the Himalayas, walk along the West Sands beach, etc etc.

Thank you so much!
Is there a sort of entrance to the course? Where do we start our walk?

I'd suggest seeking out Rusacks Hotel, which is pretty much right across the road from the 18th hole. You can observe play on that hole from the roadway. You'll see the famous Swilcan Bridge there; refrain from posing for pictures there unless there's a substantial gap in play, although many people ignore this rule to the great annoyance of those playing the hole. (I speak from experience, having had my round delayed by such buffoons.)

Another great place from which to observe play on the course is at the Jigger Inn, more especially from their patio. Very entertaining spot. You can see the Road Hole played from there.

There's really no impediment to walking the peripheries of the course, making sure as always to not impede play. But the interior of the course has relatively few easily perceived barriers between one hole and the next, so really it should be avoided. But if you absolutely insist upon walking the interior, no one can stop you. It's all public land.

There is no 'entrance' -- it is in middle of the town . . . well on the edge of the 'downtown'. There are no gates or fences. It sounds like you think you can walk down the fairways . . . you cannot. You wouldn't on any active course at home, would you? It is an active (very) golf course -- there are walkways/tracks crossing in places but you are on your own watching for play.

Is there a way you can rearrange your itinerary so you are in St Andrews on a Sunday instead?? There is no play on Sundays and the course becomes a huge park and you can walk anywhere/everywhere

I was posting the same time as jeff . . . I was responding to:

"Thank you so much! Is there a sort of entrance to the course? Where do we start our walk?"

No, I don't think like I can walk down the fairways!! I'm a serious golfer, although not a great one!

And no I can't change my itinerary. I'll make do with what we can on a weekday.

Thank you.

This is very helpful. I'm sure I'll find a way to get some glimpses of this place of pilgrimage, without hindering anyone playing on the course.

See my post above. Since you are a golfer I'm sure you do know how to visit a course -- which is why I'm sort of confused by your OP. But the main point is the Old Course is just . . . there. There is no wall, no entrance gate. Just go there and be safe.

ps: If the Old Course was a must and playing it was not . . . then I would have arranged things in the first place so I was in Fife on a Sunday. It is difficult when people ask us how to fit in xyz AFTER its already too late to fix things . . .

I apologise to you for having caused you much mental trauma. Please forgive me. janisj