The Old Course Ballot: What are you chances of success?

Since the word "ballot" implies that this is essentially a lottery, it is impossible to predict a player's chances of winning because they change every day.

Nonetheless, there are a few strategies to increase your chances of winning the ballot. We trust the following details will enable you to take full use of this opportunity:

1. There are some days of the week when success is more likely than others—Thursdays and Saturdays, for example. This is due to the fact there are no advanced tee times on Thursday afternoons or Saturdays throughout the entire day meaning more room for ballot entries.

2. If you are staying in St Andrews for a few days, you can enter the ballot every day increasing your chances of winning. With this in mind, it might be prudent to reserve your remaining rounds of golf on flexible courses in case you are successful and need to make last-minute changes to your schedule. Courses like Kingsbarns, the Dukes, Crail, and Dumbarnie are a few that permit this kind of flexibility.

3. You must enter the ballot before 2:00 PM 48 hours before the day of intended play. When it comes to your entry it's best to be as flexible as possible, for example you are more likely to be accepted if you indicate that you are willing to participate at any time of day as opposed to only during a designated window.

4. We recommend you make your St Andrews golf trip in May or June as these months typically offer the optimal combination of long days, better weather and better than average historic ballot success rates. If however, ballot success is the single most important variable, then April has had consistently the best ballot success rate compared with other months.

5. The Old course is closed to visitors on Sundays. If you plan to play other premium courses such as Carnoustie, Muirfield, Gleneagles etc., this would be the day to book as these courses are not as flexible when it comes to rescheduling tee times.