The 155th Open at St Andrews: tickets, packages & travel

Plan The Open 2027 with your eyes open.

The 155th Open is played on the Old Course from 11 to 18 July 2027, with practice days from Sunday to Wednesday and the four championship rounds from Thursday 15 July. The R&A’s ticket ballot closed on 24 July 2026, so the question for most travellers is no longer whether to enter, but what to do with the tickets they have, or how to get in without them. This page covers both: the official routes still open, how the week works in a small town of narrow streets, and which courses nearby keep their tee sheets open to visitors while the championship is on.

How tickets work now.

General admission went through the R&A’s Ticket Ballot, which ran from 6 July and closed at 3pm on Friday 24 July 2026. To enter you had to join One Club, the R&A’s free digital membership. Adult prices started at £40 on practice days and £150 on championship days, and under-16s go free with an adult under the Kids Go Free scheme, though they still had to be included in the ballot. With the ballot closed, the R&A lists three official routes that remain: Ticket Plus, which bundles admission with extras; hospitality, which includes guaranteed admission; and ticket-inclusive accommodation packages. All three were marked as selling fast when we checked in November 2026. Buy through TheOpen.com rather than resale sites.

Package or do it yourself?

There are two kinds of package, and the difference matters. Golfbreaks sells Open week travel for people who already hold tickets: accommodation in and around St Andrews and rounds on the Fife courses before or after, with tickets explicitly not included. That suits ballot winners, who now face the harder problem of a bed in July. If you do not have tickets, the R&A’s own ticket-inclusive accommodation packages and hospitality are the routes that guarantee admission. Either way, decide the golf first. Open week is the one week when Kingsbarns charges its highest published rate, and the Old Course itself is unavailable.

Where to stay.

St Andrews is small and fills first. The Old Course Hotel overlooks the 17th, the Road Hole, and Rusacks faces the 18th; both are priced for the occasion. Fairmont St Andrews, on the cliffs south of town, sits between the championship and Kingsbarns. Most visitors look further out: Crail and Anstruther in the East Neuk are 15 to 20 minutes south, Dundee is across the Tay with a wide choice of hotels, and Carnoustie’s golf hotel stands behind its own 18th green. Leuchars station, about five miles from town on the Edinburgh–Aberdeen line, makes Edinburgh workable as a base for spectators who do not want to drive.

Getting there.

Edinburgh Airport is about 50 miles from St Andrews, roughly an hour and a quarter by car in normal traffic, which you should not expect during Open week. Trains run from Edinburgh to Leuchars, around five miles from town, with buses and taxis to finish the trip. The R&A publishes park-and-ride and public transport plans closer to the championship; plan to leave the car at your base if you can.

Play while you are there.

The Old Course is closed to visitors for the championship and the build around it, so plan rounds elsewhere. Kingsbarns, 15 minutes along the A917, takes visitors in Open week but publishes its top rate for 12–20 July 2027: £590, against £524 in the rest of the summer. Advance times for 2027 opened on 1 June 2026 by phone and email, so check availability now. Carnoustie, about 40 minutes north, books online with a handicap limit of 28 for men and 36 for women on the Championship Course; high-season visitor rates were £360 in 2026. Gleneagles, an hour west, charges £500 a round in July 2027 and takes visitors on all three courses. If you want the Old Course, come back another week: high-season visitor fees rise to £380 in 2027, and the daily ballot gives you a chance at a time.

Bringing your clubs.

If you are flying from North America to play around the championship, consider shipping your clubs. Open week puts airport baggage halls and Fife roads under strain, and a golf bag is one more thing to carry onto a crowded train to Leuchars. Luggage Forward collects from home and delivers to your hotel or the course, handles the customs paperwork for the UK, and prices golf bags from $129 (small) and $149 (large) before international surcharges.

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