Every autumn, the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship does something no other tournament does. It drops amateurs, film stars, business people, a parent, straight into a professional event, playing the same three courses as the pros: the Old Course at St Andrews, Carnoustie, and Kingsbarns. And every year, watching it, the same question turns up: how would I get on out there?
We analysed Shot Scope data from thousands of amateur rounds at all three courses to answer this question. The short version: far better than you’d fear.
Not out there alone
First, the format. Every amateur in the field is paired with a tour professional, and the two play as a team: the amateur plays their own ball off two-thirds of their handicap, and the better score on each hole counts for the pair.
The amateurs aren’t there as the pro’s pupils, they’re partners. On the right hole, with their shots, an amateur’s net score can beat a tour player’s and win the hole for the team.
So the first-tee nerves come with a safety net.
And the Old Course first tee is one of the most daunting in golf, even with one of the widest fairways in the world in front of it. To further settle any nerves, over 95% of Shot Scope users have hit this fairway with their tee shot. The amateurs aren’t out there to survive. They’re out there to contribute.
So how would you actually get on?
Add up an average golfer’s expected score across all three courses, and you get +49 over through 54 holes. On its own, that sounds brutal. It isn’t.
In reality, a 15-handicap, the typical golfer, averages +16.5 in a normal round. Three of those is +49.5. So across three of the most feared links courses in Britain, an average golfer plays to within half a shot of their ordinary weekend golf. If anything, a fraction better.
And the course by course data reveals even more:
| Course | 15-Handicap Plays | vs the average round of +16.5 |
| St Andrews Old Course | +15 | 1.5 shots easier |
| Kingsbarns | +15.3 | 1.2 shots easier |
| Carnousite | +18.8 | 2.3 shots harder |
Two of the three play easier than the course you tee it up on every weekend. The most famous, most feared golf course on earth turns out to be the one where you’d score your best. Only Carnoustie (Car-nasty) makes you pay.
Three Courses, Three Characters
St Andrews Old Course – The famous one is the kind one
The Old Course is the easiest of the three, +10.7 to par overall, and an average golfer’s best round of the week.
Seven of its greens are shared by two holes at once, huge double greens with a hidden order to them, every pair adding up to 18. Miss your line, and you might still be putting, just from 40 yards away.
The short 9th, 310 yards, is the easiest hole on the course, playing barely over par. Then there’s the 17th: The Road Hole
It’s the single hardest hole across all three courses. 445 yards, a near-blind drive over the corner of the Old Course Hotel (pick an O and commit to your line!) and a green squeezed between the road at the back and the deep Road Hole Bunker. An average golfer makes double bogey or worse here more than one time in three, and pars it just one time in five. Even hitting the green is no let off: it typically takes 2.3 putts to get down.
One hole does most of the damage. Survive it, and the Home of Golf is kinder than your average weekend.
Kingsbarns – The Bucket-List Round
Kingsbarns is the youngest of the three, and the one most golfers play once and never again, the data shows barely more than a single round per golfer, the mark of a bucket-list course rather than a home track.
It sits in the middle for difficulty, +12.7 overall, and still plays easier than an average golfer’s normal round. A modern clifftop links laid along the sea, it gives plenty back: the short 6th, 291 yards, is the easiest hole on the course.
Its signature is the 12th, a 528-yard par 5 that sweeps along the bay. It’s the hole everyone photographs, and the one that tempts you into trouble: a real chance to score if you’re bold, yet nearly one in five amateurs walk off with a double bogey or worse when the coast collects a ball. Beautiful, but tricky.
Carnoustie – Car-nasty earns the name
Carnoustie is the hardest of the three by a clear margin, +14.2 overall, and the only course that plays harder than an average golfer’s normal round. It’s also the longest at 6,673 yards, and it punishes mid to high handicappers the most: the gap between a low player and the average golfer is wider here than at either of the others.
The reputation is real, and it peaks at the last.
The 18th, guarded by the winding Barry Burn, is Carnoustie’s hardest hole, where amateurs make double bogey or worse almost one time in three. It’s where the tournament is so often won and lost, and it’s no gentler on the rest of us.
Conclusion
The question was whether these three courses, the ones that look treacherous on television, are as fearsome as they seem. Shot Scope data says no.
An average golfer plays all three to within half a shot of their ordinary weekend, the most famous of them, the Old Course, playing even slightly under, with only Carnoustie asking the hard questions. And unlike the tournament, you don’t need an invitation.
All three are open to the public, anyone can book a tee time. The courses are for everyone, and the numbers say you’d cope just fine.
