Alfred Dunhill Links Championship – Course Comparison

26 September 2024

With the DP World Tour’s Alfred Dunhill Links Championship taking place this October, our data team thought it would be interesting to dive into the stats surrounding the three venues.

Before we look at the stats, some of you may be wondering what is the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship? 

It has become one of the more unique events on the DP World Tour calendar with three courses being played, a Pro-Am aspect, and the significance of the final round being played on The Old Course. 

You can learn more about the format here, it is a truly unique style with both individual and team prizes up for grabs for both amateurs and professionals.

Now that we know how the format works, what can we expect from the courses? From the evergrowing Shot Scope database of on-course performance data, we can see how golfers fare at the three courses.

Based on scoring average, it would appear that Kingsbarns is the toughest of the three courses, with Carnoustie a close second, although all three are fairly close. 

St. Andrews having marginally better scoring opportunities if anything makes the final day an even greater spectacle, with the chance for players to make a charge at the game’s most iconic course.

Why might The Old Course be the easiest to score on? 

Players have the greatest chance of finding the fairway and the putting surface – although it is worthwhile remembering the course has two of the largest fairways in golf, the 1st and 18th, as well as some of the biggest greens.

With some of the dual greens being so large, it comes as no surprise that The Old Course sees players have the most putts of the three venues, you may have a putter in hand but still feel like you need a rangefinder!

The back nine at Kingsbarns appears to be the hardest stretch of holes from the data:

Shot Scope users typically play the back nine at Kingsbarns 1.05 strokes worse than the front, despite finding the fairway more often – hitting greens in regulation is key to scoring.

Despite being the ‘easiest’ course at the Dunhill Links Championship, players may falter down the stretch at St Andrews with the back nine playing 1.2 strokes harder than the front – add in pressure on Sunday and anything could happen.

Whilst players need to keep the ball in play off the tee, hitting the green in regulation prevents dropped strokes from failed up and downs. 

The 17th and 18th at Kingsbarns see players hit the GIR roughly every 1 in 3 attempts which makes them the 2nd and 3rd hardest greens to hit on the course! 

Finding the green is made easier with precise GPS distances! Shot Scope GPS watches give players dynamic distances to the front, middle, and back of every green allowing golfers to pick their club with confidence.

Although the scoring average for the back nine at Kingsbarns is the worst, we think the final stretch at Carnoustie may keep some competitors up at night.

Beware of the final four holes at Carnoustie – the hardest greens to hit at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship.

The 15th at Carnoustie plays the hardest on the course, seeing players typically play the hole 0.83 strokes over par. Tied with St. Andrews Road Hole (17th) as the hardest green to hit at the Championship, and with an up and down likelihood of 1 in 3, it comes as no surprise that players struggle here.

If the conditions are not kind, we could see these numbers even lower, The 152nd Open Championship and 2024 AIG Women’s Open testament to how challenging Scottish golf can be.

As the tournament ends at St. Andrews, it only seems right to finish this blog there too.

The Road Hole has set the stage for some incredible finishes over the years with the most recent being Lydia Ko’s wood into the green to go on to win her 3rd Major. 

Ko’s ball managed to navigate its way carefully around the Road Hole Bunker which could have completely changed the outcome of the tournament – from the Shot Scope database, players get up and down here every 1 in 10 attempts (Ko’s chances may have been better).

With the GIR likelihood so low and with an up and down from any lie type unlikely, 1 in 4 chance, it comes as no surprise that the hole typically plays 1.24 strokes over par!

The only consolation for a dropped shot at 17 is that the 18th is a definite chance, ranked 3rd easiest at The Old Course, although nothing is guaranteed down the stretch at St. Andrews.

If you want to see how your game would handle any of the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship courses, check out Shot Scope’s MyStrategy feature, the data-driven strategy builder.

Note: Average handicap index for the data used is 10.