The Advanced Reservations process for play on the Old Course and The Castle Course opened at 10am BST on 2 Sestember and within 15 minutes more than 800 email applications had been received by St Andrews Links Trust.
Due to the continued level of demand, the Links Trust, which manages and maintains the seven public golf courses at the Home of Golf, invite applications for tee times a year ahead and at a specific time to try to ensure that everyone has an equal chance to secure a much sought after tee time on the hallowed Links.
Despite the difficult economic situation, applications flooded in from around the world to the Trust’s Reservations Department. It will spend the next few weeks processing the forms which golfers downloaded from the www.standrews.org.uk website.
Alan McGregor, chief executive of the Links Trust, said, “It has been a challenging year for the Scottish golf tourism market so it is particularly pleasing to see that the level of interest in playing at St Andrews Links remains very high.
“We are fortunate that so many golfers aspire to play our courses and experience all of the history and tradition at first hand. We work hard to maintain its profile and to communicate to golfers round the world how they can come here to play. The support of our global partner, Allianz, has been extremely beneficial in that regard.
“Next year will see the Open Championship return to the Old Course for the 28th time and the spotlight of world golf will once again fall on the Links. We hope this will encourage even more golfers to come to St Andrews to play golf.”
Tee times can also be booked for The Castle Course from April to November 2010. The Castle Course will remain open for play during the week of the Open Championship from July 12-18, the first time the Links Trust has been able to offer golf to the public throughout the championship period.
Four of the St Andrews Links courses, the Old, New, Castle and Jubilee, were included in the most recent Golf Digest Top 100 rankings.
For more information about booking any of the seven St Andrews Links courses please contact the Reservations Department at reservations@standrews.org.uk or on 0044 1334 466666.
St Andrews Links Trust www.standrews.org.uk