It may be known around the world for the Old Course, but St Andrews Links has grown into something much bigger: eight golf courses, a world-class academy, restaurants, retail, visitor experiences and a remarkable organisation charged with looking after the Home of Golf for generations to come.
Say the words St Andrews Links and one image tends to appear.
The Old Course.
The Swilcan Bridge. The Royal and Ancient clubhouse. The 18th fairway disappearing into the heart of St Andrews.
It's one of the most recognisable scenes in sport.
But spend a little time with St Andrews Links and you begin to realise that the world's most famous golf course is only part of the story.
Today, St Andrews Links is the organisation behind an extraordinary collection of experiences at the Home of Golf. It manages eight courses, welcomes golfers from around the world, operates a Golf Academy and driving range, provides one of golf's most celebrated caddie services, runs restaurants and clubhouses, creates golf and corporate packages, operates official stores and gives visitors who have never swung a club the opportunity to experience the Old Course.
And behind all of that sits a rather unusual responsibility.
St Andrews Links isn't simply selling the Home of Golf. It's looking after it.
Custodians of Something Irreplaceable
There are plenty of golf businesses built around famous courses.
St Andrews Links is different.
The St Andrews Links Trust was established by an Act of Parliament in 1974 and is responsible for the management and maintenance of the historic Links, including the Old Course. Revenue generated through its activities helps support the preservation and future of the Home of Golf.
That's worth understanding because it changes how you look at the organisation.
A round of golf, lunch in a clubhouse, a lesson at the Academy or something bought from an official St Andrews Links store isn't taking place around an historic monument that has been frozen in time.
It's part of a living operation.
And it's a sizeable one.
Eight Courses — Not One
Golf naturally remains at its heart.
St Andrews Links now encompasses eight courses, following the addition of Craigtoun in 2026. The collection stretches from the Old Course — where golf has been played for centuries — to the New, Jubilee, Eden, Strathtyrum, Balgove and Castle courses, and now Craigtoun.
That breadth matters.
You can come to St Andrews chasing the round of a lifetime on the Old Course. You can spend several days discovering the other historic links. You can bring a group. You can play something more accessible. Or you can build an entire St Andrews golf trip around courses operated by the same organisation.
St Andrews Links also offers golf and group packages, giving visitors ways of experiencing more of the Links rather than treating the Old Course as a single four-hour pilgrimage.
The Old Course is the icon. The wider Links is the destination.
Learn Golf at the Home of Golf
There's something wonderfully appealing about taking a golf lesson in the place where the game began.
The St Andrews Links Golf Academy is the modern coaching side of an organisation more readily associated with centuries of history.
It offers golf lessons, a driving range, custom fitting, junior golf and Academy packages, with its own coaching team and facilities overlooking the Links.
For the serious golfer, that might mean working on a specific part of the game or arranging a custom fitting.
For someone travelling with a golfer but curious about trying the game themselves, it provides a rather memorable place to start.
And for younger golfers, the junior programme connects the next generation with a place that has been central to golf's past.
That's a recurring theme here.
History is everywhere, but St Andrews Links isn't behaving like a museum.
The Caddies
Then there are the people who arguably know the Links better than anyone.
Caddies have been part of golf in St Andrews for generations, and St Andrews Links continues to operate a dedicated caddie service for visiting golfers.
On the Old Course in particular, taking a caddie can transform the experience.
There is the obvious practical knowledge — where to hit, where not to hit and what that apparently innocent patch of linksland is about to do to your golf ball.
But there's another layer.
Stories.
Characters.
Championships.
Weather.
The peculiarities of playing golf in St Andrews.
For someone making a once-in-a-lifetime journey, the person carrying your bag can become one of the people you remember most clearly from the entire trip.
Stay for Lunch
St Andrews Links has also quietly become a significant food and drink operator.
There are currently dining options across several of its locations, including the Tom Morris Bar & Grill in the Links Clubhouse, the Castle Clubhouse, Eden Clubhouse and Craigtoun Clubhouse.
The Tom Morris Bar & Grill is perhaps the obvious starting point for a visitor.
You don't need to have played particularly well — or indeed played at all — to appreciate sitting close to the Links with something to eat and watching another day's golf unfold outside.
That's one of the advantages St Andrews Links has that very few hospitality businesses could recreate.
The view isn't golf-themed.
It's golf.
You Don't Need to Play Golf
This may be one of the most interesting parts of the organisation for Visit St Andrews.
St Andrews Links isn't only for golfers.
Visitors can book guided walks of the Old Course, discovering the history and landmarks of the course without needing a tee time. There's also an interactive 360-degree Old Course experience.
That makes St Andrews Links relevant to families, partners travelling with golfers and visitors who simply want to understand why this patch of ground means so much to the town.
The organisation is increasingly bringing that story beyond the golf courses too.
The Home of Golf Comes to Market Street
In July 2026, St Andrews Links opened the Home of Golf Hub on Market Street.
Its purpose is telling.
The space brings together heritage, community and contemporary golf experiences beneath one roof, right in the centre of town.
It represents something bigger that's happening within St Andrews Links.
The organisation isn't relying solely on the enormous reputation of the Old Course.
It's developing what the Home of Golf can mean as a visitor experience and as a global brand.
That extends into retail too.
Taking the Home of Golf Home
Official St Andrews Links merchandise has become a considerable part of the experience.
Its stores and online operation carry collections spanning the Old Course, St Andrews Links and individual courses, alongside international golf and lifestyle brands. Recent additions include the official Home of Golf Tartan, while collaborations include a St Andrews Links collection with TravisMathew.
And there's an important distinction between buying official merchandise and simply buying something in St Andrews with a golf motif on it.
St Andrews Links says profits from its official retail operation contribute towards the ongoing preservation and maintenance of the historic Links.
Even its gift cards illustrate how broad the organisation has become: they can be used for golf, Golf Academy lessons, meals in its clubhouses and purchases from its official stores.
A Global Name With a Local Responsibility
Perhaps the most impressive part of the organisation is the balancing act.
St Andrews Links operates one of the most recognisable names in global sport.
Yet it also has a responsibility to St Andrews and to Scottish golf.
Its The Drive initiative is designed to make the Home of Golf more accessible to Scottish residents across different ages and abilities. In its first year, St Andrews Links says 716 golfers accessed tee times across the Old, Castle, Jubilee and Eden courses at an 87.5% reduction on regular high-season green fees.
In September 2026, it is also staging its first LinksFest, a free community day open to everyone.
Alongside that sit its work around local communities and sustainability — both significant enough to form dedicated parts of the organisation's public-facing work.
That's important.
The Home of Golf attracts people from all over the world.
But it still has to mean something to the people who live here.
An Organisation Built Around an Idea
Once you look beyond the Old Course, St Andrews Links becomes considerably more interesting.
Golf.
Coaching.
Caddies.
Hospitality.
Retail.
Events.
Visitor experiences.
Community programmes.
Heritage.
And preservation.
They may look like separate parts of a large organisation, but they're all connected by the same asset — one that can't simply be recreated somewhere else.
The Home of Golf.
And that's perhaps what St Andrews Links does best.
It hasn't tried to turn six centuries of history into a conventional golf resort.
Instead, it has built an entire organisation around allowing people to experience that history in different ways — whether that's walking down the 18th fairway of the Old Course, taking your first lesson, having lunch overlooking the Links, buying an official piece of the Home of Golf or simply hearing its stories on a guided walk.
The Visit St Andrews View
St Andrews Links is one of the organisations that defines St Andrews.
The Old Course may be its most famous responsibility, but judging St Andrews Links purely by those 18 holes misses what the organisation has become.
It is simultaneously custodian, golf operator, academy, retailer, restaurateur, experience provider and ambassador for the Home of Golf.
And somehow, while welcoming golfers and visitors from every corner of the world, it remains unmistakably part of the town whose name it carries.
For visitors, our advice is simple:
Don't just come to see the Old Course. Explore St Andrews Links.
You may arrive for the golf.
You'll leave understanding why the Home of Golf means considerably more than a golf course.
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The Experience Golf: The St Andrews Trip Every Golfer Dreams About