The opportunity to guarantee a round on the Old Course in reverse on Monday 1 April is being made available to local golfers through a special early ballot.
Names for the ballot have to be submitted to the Links Trust on or after Monday 18 February and the draw will take place after 2pm on Monday 25 February. The results will be posted on the website and at local golf clubs that afternoon.
Nine of the local tee times will be available for the early ballot. Local golfers and local golf clubs have been notified of the details. At their January meeting the Links Management Committee (LMC) decided to hold the early ballot and to extend the number of times preferentially allocated to local golfers.
"Playing the Old Course in reverse is a rare opportunity and as we expect there to be a lot of interest among local golfers, the LMC has made more local ballot times available. Some may wish to make arrangements in advance, so we are holding a ballot for some of the times five weeks prior to the event," said Peter Mason, external relations manager. "The remaining local preferential times will be balloted at the normal time."
Playing the Old Course backwards brings into play hazards which were designed for the clockwise route - rather than anti-clockwise which is the accepted route today. The change of direction came about when Old Tom Morris created a new first green, opening up the possibility of an anti-clockwise circuit. For many years the course was played over both circuits on alternate weeks, and as recently as the 1970s, it was still played in a clockwise direction for one month every winter.