[PHOTO: David Cannon]

Golf is an economy of scarcity. Masters tickets and Bandon Dunes tee-times are available only by lottery. Pebble Beach and TPC Sawgrass, despite technically being public courses, keep overwhelming demand at bay with exorbitant greens fees. The Old Course at St Andrews is slightly more accessible, but if you want to experience the Home of Golf as the sport’s founding fathers once did – backwards – you’ll have to luck on your side once again.

As part of a now-annual tradition, the Old Course is once again giving golf history nuts a chance to turn back the clock with the Old Course Reversed. For three days in April (the 6th to 8th), St Andrews Links will open play on the Old Course with both the routing and holes played in reverse, and applications for golf’s most sacred pilgrimage are now open.

The 48 hour ballot for Old Course Reversed is now open ⏳

It’s time for you and your group to apply for this unique
chance at playing the historic Old Course in both
directions.

The ballot closes at 9:00 a.m. GMT, December 11.https://t.co/HnPV7tZ90j pic.twitter.com/pMjNzK98xv

— St Andrews Links (@TheHomeofGolf) December 9, 2024

The package includes three rounds of golf – one on the Old Course as currently routed, one on the Old Course Reversed and one on the Castle Course – as well as a £60 food and drink credit, two 60-ball range buckets per round and an official Old Course Reversed gift. The package costs £750 per person, which comes out just shy of $A1,500. That’s a pretty good deal if you ask us, but there are two major caveats:

1. Applications to play the Old Course Reversed are only open for 48 hours, closing at 9am GMT this Wednesday.

2. These are applications, which as anyone who has ever hunted for a job will tell you, guarantee you exactly nothing.

If you’re feeling lucky, get on the horn with your friends, family, co-workers – literally anyone will do. Packages are only available for groups of two to four and applications are due in less than 48 hours. You probably won’t get selected, let’s be honest, but you miss 100 percent of the greens you don’t go for.