The Old Course at St Andrews, known as “Home of Golf,” will undergo one of the most substantial changes in decades. For The Open Championship 2027, the R&A and St Andrews Links Trust will lengthen six holes and reconfigure bunkers and tees to provide a more robust test for the world’s best golfers.

The R&A will lengthen the 5th (35 yards), 6th (17 yards), 7th (18 yards), 10th (29 yards), 11th (21 yards), and 16th (10 yards); modernize teeing areas; and reshape bunkers to match today’s longer ball flights while still protecting the identity of Links golf. The overall length of the course will be increased by 132 yards to 7,445 yards.

Among the six holes set to increase in length, four of them, 5th, 6th, 7th, and 10th, will have new tee boxes altogether. The changes are part of R&A’s plan to restore some of the edge lost to titanium clubheads and growing focus on length off the tee.

But not just tee boxes, the Home of Golf will also undergo bunker repositioning. On the par-4 2nd, two bunkers will be moved further down the fairway and onto the left, so that there are more chances of the sand traps coming into play at the 2027 Open. Similarly, two bunkers will be added on the par-4 16th. The famous Road Hole bunker on the par-4 17th will also be restored. The overhaul is slated to start next week.

The changes coming at St Andrews make it all the more significant. The last major overhaul came in 2005. After that, the Home of Golf underwent only minor changes before the 2015 and 2022 iterations of the Open Championship. The upcoming renovation aims to restore strategic nuance lost to modern distance and add length where players once overpowered classic designs.

The changes will also put the onus on golfers to alter their strategies. There are simply too many memories. Seve Ballesteros’s 1984 Open, in which he won his second title with a last-hole birdie as Tom Watson collapsed. Like Tiger Woods’s 15-shot annihilation in 2000 expanded both his and St. Andrews’ legacy.

In fact, the Road Hole, the 17th, is still one of golf’s ultimate tests. Pros have a blind tee shot over the hotel to a green well protected by a punishing bunker. Nor should we forget what occurred here in 1978. Tommy Nakajima succumbed to it and took nine shots and squandered his chances. Then comes the Eden, the 11th hole, which looks straightforward but protects itself with deep bunkers and has a treacherous stream at its back. Bobby Jones famously walked off in 1921 after disputes with its sand, cementing his legend.

Course renovations are not new at certain courses, with them hosting majors in the near future.

Oakmont Country Club’s 2025 U.S. Open Prep Mirrors St Andrews Golf Course’s 2027 Makeover

At Oakmont Country Club, golf architect Gil Hanse performed a complete restoration in 2022-23 for the 2025 U.S. Open.

The project featured rebuilt bunkers and expanded greens and added length, all to tackle today’s golfers’ driving prowess. Likewise, the impending layout changes at St Andrews are a continuation of that trend—venerable venues reacting to driving distance.

For Oakmont, the researchers analyzed more than 40 years of design evolution and picked the best hole versions to bring back. At St Andrews, meanwhile, the alterations stretch across six holes, adding some 132 yards and presenting new bunker strategies to reduce the potential for attacking drivers.

Classic courses are no longer frozen in time. Oakmont brought back the “tabletop”-style greens and raised bunker lips, while St. Andrews will reclaim the fairway at its 16th and tweak tees on the 11th to restore strategic tension.