By Dave, The Carnoustie Caddie. On the bag since 1998. Updated 10 September 2026.
Yes. St Andrews is wide and forgives a wild drive. Carnoustie doesn’t. Every hole here has a bunker sitting on the line a good player wants to take, the greens run faster than the Old Course, and the finish over 16, 17 and 18 is the hardest three closing holes in golf. St Andrews is the home of golf. Carnoustie is the exam.
How much harder? Here is the number
I get a lot of players who have done the Old Course first. They arrive with a smile on them and a score to tell me about. I shot 75 at St Andrews.
Here is the way to think about it. If you break 80 at St Andrews, the goal at Carnoustie is to break 90.
That is the reality of the difference, and it catches people out every week of the season.
It is not that they play badly. It is a first look at a course where the bunker you can see often has another one hidden behind it, in weather they are not used to, playing a style of golf they have never had to play. Americans in particular are used to dropping the ball on top of the flag. Here you land it short and let the ground take it.
Why is Carnoustie harder off the tee?
Because the Old Course gives you the width of a farm and Carnoustie gives you a corridor.
At St Andrews you can miss left on most holes and find fairway, or the next fairway, and play on. At Carnoustie the bunkers sit exactly where a good drive wants to go. James Braid was brought in to upgrade the course in 1926, and his centreline bunkering was built to catch good players, not bad ones. Miss the line by ten yards and you’re playing out sideways.
One thing worth knowing: the closing three holes weren’t Braid’s. 16, 17 and 18 were laid out by James Wright, the club’s greens convener, in 1931, the year Carnoustie first hosted the Open. That’s the stretch everybody talks about, and it was designed on purpose to finish a man off.
Are Carnoustie’s greens faster than St Andrews?
Yes, and it comes down to the grass.
Carnoustie greens are predominantly fescue, with a small amount of poa annua and bent grass. Fescue has a thinner, finer leaf than bent grass. Less leaf surface means less friction on the ball. Less friction means more speed and more true roll.
St Andrews greens are predominantly bent grass. Broader leaf, more friction, slightly slower. That is not a criticism, it is grass science. And it is why the same stroke that works at St Andrews will leave you six feet past the hole at Carnoustie.
The 17th green has the highest percentage of fescue of any green in Scotland. It is the best green on the course. Fast, true, and with subtle breaks that will punish anything other than a perfectly judged putt.
Visitors arrive braced for slow links greens and leave three-putting from twenty feet.
Which has the harder finish?
There’s no contest.
St Andrews finishes with the 18th, a drive over Granny Clark’s Wynd and a wedge to a green the size of a field. A birdie hole. Carnoustie finishes with the 16th, a par 3 of 245 yards off the back tee, the 17th, where the Barry Burn cuts across the fairway and runs all the way up the left, and the 18th, with the burn short of the green and out of bounds up the left.
Jean van de Velde needed a six on the last to win the Open in 1999 and made seven. Nobody has ever done that on the Old Course.
So which should I play?
Both. Play St Andrews for the history and the feeling. Play Carnoustie to find out what you’ve got.
They’re about 25 miles apart, 40 to 45 minutes in the car over the Tay Road Bridge at Dundee. Same trip, and most American visitors do exactly that.
Booking and prices
The Championship Course is £360 per round in 2026 high season, 1 May to 31 October, which is around $485 at current rates. April is £249, around $335. Green fees and tee times are on the Links’ own green fees page, and the card is on their Championship Course page.
Dollar figures are rounded at about $1.35 to the pound and move with the rate.
Every hole of her, and how she actually plays: The Carnoustie Caddie: How the Course Really Plays.
Quick answers
Is Carnoustie harder than the Old Course at St Andrews? Yes. Carnoustie is narrower off the tee, its greens run faster, and its final three holes are far harder than the finish at St Andrews.
How much harder is Carnoustie than St Andrews? If you break 80 at St Andrews, the goal at Carnoustie is to break 90.
Why are Carnoustie’s greens faster than St Andrews? The grass. Carnoustie greens are predominantly fescue, which has a finer leaf, less friction and more speed. St Andrews greens are predominantly bent grass, which is broader leaved and slightly slower. The 17th at Carnoustie has the highest percentage of fescue of any green in Scotland.
How far is Carnoustie from St Andrews? About 25 miles, 40 to 45 minutes by car over the Tay Road Bridge at Dundee.
Should you play both Carnoustie and St Andrews? Yes, if you can. They’re 40 minutes apart and they test completely different things. St Andrews for the history, Carnoustie for the golf.
Who designed Carnoustie’s closing holes? James Braid upgraded the Championship Course in 1926, but the closing three, 16, 17 and 18, were laid out by James Wright in 1931, the year Carnoustie first hosted the Open.
How much does it cost to play Carnoustie in 2026? £360 per round on the Championship Course in high season, 1 May to 31 October, around $485, and £249 in April, around $335.
Before you play Carnoustie
The Carnoustie Caddie: How the Course Really Plays is all 18 holes the way I would give them to you on the bag. The wind, the bunkers that actually cost you shots, where the burns sit, and the club to hit standing on the tee.
Signed copies, posted from Carnoustie, inscribed to whoever you want. Or get it on Amazon.
Back to Carnoustie, Answered · The hardest hole at Carnoustie
I am an independent caddie and this site is not affiliated with Carnoustie Golf Links.