The Alfred Dunhill Links Championship runs from Thursday 1 to Sunday 4 October 2026, across the Old Course at St Andrews, Carnoustie, and Kingsbarns. It is the tournament’s 25th anniversary edition, and it remains the most unusual week on the DP World Tour calendar for reasons that have nothing to do with the golf being played.
Two things make it worth a golf traveller’s attention specifically. The format, and the price of admission.
The format
The championship is played across all three courses over the first three days, with each professional playing one round at each venue. The field is then cut and the final round on Sunday is played solely on the Old Course at St Andrews.
Alongside the professional tournament runs a concurrent team competition, in which each professional is paired with an amateur partner for the first three rounds. The amateur field is drawn heavily from business, sport, and entertainment, which gives the week a pro-am character that the tour’s other events do not have. Purists occasionally grumble about the pace of play this produces. For a spectator it means you will see a considerably wider range of people hitting golf shots than at any other tour event.
The part nobody quite believes
Entry is free on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, at all three venues.
That is not a promotional rate or a limited allocation. General spectator access across the first three championship days costs nothing. Tickets are required only for the final round on Sunday at the Old Course, and those are purchased in advance.
For anyone assembling a Scottish golf trip in early October, this is the single best value proposition in tournament golf. You can walk the Old Course, Carnoustie, and Kingsbarns during a professional championship, inside the ropes of the spectator areas, for the cost of getting yourself there.
The three courses
The Old Course, St Andrews. The most familiar golf course in the world, and the one where the week resolves. Watching a tournament here has a particular quality because the town and the course interpenetrate — the 1st and 18th run alongside the town itself, and the Road Hole and the Swilcan Bridge are within easy walking distance of anywhere in central St Andrews.
Carnoustie. The hardest of the three and, by general agreement, the sternest championship links in Britain when the wind is up. It sits about 45 minutes north of St Andrews across the Tay. The closing stretch — the Barry Burn holes — has decided Opens and will decide rounds here.
Kingsbarns. The modern one, opened in 2000, about ten minutes down the coast from St Andrews. Kyle Phillips built it on a stretch of coastline that had held golf in the 18th century, and it delivers sea views from nearly every hole. It is the most visually spectacular of the three and the most immediately likeable.
The geography is convenient: St Andrews and Kingsbarns are minutes apart, and Carnoustie is the only one requiring a real drive. A spectator based in St Andrews can reach all three across the week without difficulty.
Playing the same three courses
This is the natural follow-on, and it is entirely achievable — with quite different mechanics at each.
The Old Course is public. It is owned by the St Andrews Links Trust and access runs through the Links Trust by advance ballot, by the daily ballot entered two days ahead, or through a booked package. The single-round advance ballot opens the preceding year and is heavily oversubscribed. The daily ballot is the realistic route for most visitors and requires flexibility and a willingness to be disappointed. No play on Sundays, when the Old Course is closed and open to walkers.
Carnoustie takes visitor bookings on the Championship course directly, with a fairly straightforward booking process and green fees below the Old Course. It is the most reliably bookable of the three.
Kingsbarns takes visitor bookings directly and sits at the top of the Scottish green-fee market alongside the Old Course. Book well ahead for the shoulder season.
The timing point that matters: do not try to play these courses during championship week. All three are given over to the tournament. The productive plan is to attend the championship, then play the same links either side of it. Late September or mid-October gives you tournament-adjacent conditioning, autumn light that is the best of the Scottish year for photographs, and rates below the July and August peak.
Practical planning
Base in St Andrews. Two of the three courses are within ten minutes, the town is walkable, and the accommodation stock is the deepest in the region. Book early — championship week plus the general autumn golf traffic makes early October a busy period. Dundee and Leuchars offer overflow options with easy road access.
Getting there. Edinburgh Airport is about 90 minutes by road. Leuchars is the nearest rail station, roughly ten minutes from St Andrews by bus or taxi, on the Edinburgh–Aberdeen line. A car makes the Carnoustie leg substantially easier.
October weather in Fife. Cool, frequently wet, and windy, with the possibility of genuinely benign days. Full waterproofs and warm layers. The light is superb and the crowds are far smaller than a summer Open, which is a fair trade for the temperature.
Walking. Following the tournament across three links courses over three days is a lot of ground on uneven terrain. Proper footwear, and a plan for which venue you want on which day rather than an attempt to see everything.
Why the 25th matters
Twenty-five years is long enough for the Dunhill Links to have stopped being a novelty and become a fixture in the Scottish golf calendar — the event that closes the links season before the weather ends it. The anniversary edition will carry more attention than usual, and Alfred Dunhill has extended its commitment to the championship beyond it.
For a trip built around European golf, this is the strongest single week available in October: three of the best links in the world, a professional championship, and three days of it for free.