Why Is Golf 18 Holes? The Answer Is Way More Random Than You Think

The short answer: For the history buffs in a hurry

Golf is 18 holes because that is how many holes fit on the Old Course at St Andrews in Scotland when they standardized the layout in 1764. Before that, courses had anywhere from 5 to 25 holes. St Andrews became the standard everyone else copied.

The Deets:

The real answer: Buckle up, this story involves whisky

If you have ever wondered why a round of golf is specifically 18 holes and not, say, 20 or 15 or literally any other number, the answer is going to disappoint you. There is no grand design. No mathematical perfection. No deep philosophical reason.

It is 18 holes because St Andrews said so, and everyone else just went along with it.

The early days (when golf was absolute chaos):

Golf courses in the 1700s and early 1800s did not have a standard number of holes. Some courses had 5 holes. Some had 7. Some had 12. Leith Links in Edinburgh, one of the oldest documented golf courses, had just 5 holes. Players would go around multiple times to complete a full round.

Montrose had 25 holes at one point. Prestwick Golf Club, where the first Open Championship was held in 1860, had 12 holes. Basically, course designers just built however many holes fit on the land they had available, and nobody seemed bothered by the inconsistency.

Golf was still a regional Scottish game at this point, so standardization was not exactly a priority. People were just happy to be hitting balls around with sticks.

Enter St Andrews (the moment everything changed):

The Old Course at St Andrews originally had 22 holes when it was first laid out. Players would go out to the far end of the course, then turn around and play back, using the same holes in reverse. That meant 11 holes out, 11 holes back, for a total of 22.

But here is the thing: some of those holes were really short. Like, absurdly short. In 1764, the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews (which did not become the R&A until later, but let us not get bogged down in organizational history) decided that the first four holes were too short and combined them into two longer holes.

Boom. The course went from 22 holes to 18 holes. And because St Andrews was basically the Harvard of golf courses (prestigious, influential, and everyone wanted to be like them), other clubs started copying the format.

Why did everyone follow St Andrews?

Great question. St Andrews was not the oldest golf course, nor was it necessarily the best. But it was the most influential. The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews became one of the governing bodies of golf, which gave them serious clout. When they standardized their course at 18 holes, other clubs looked at that and thought, "Well, if it is good enough for St Andrews, it is good enough for us."

By the mid-1800s, 18 holes had become the accepted standard across Scotland, and eventually the rest of the world followed suit.

The whisky theory (aka the fun but probably false explanation):

There is a popular story that claims golf is 18 holes because a bottle of whisky has enough for 18 shots, and golfers would take one shot per hole. By the time they finished the bottle, the round was over.

This is a fantastic story. It is charming. It involves alcohol and golf, two things that have gone hand-in-hand for centuries. But it is almost certainly not true.

There is no historical evidence to support this theory, and honestly, if golfers were taking a shot of whisky at every hole, the back nine would be an absolute disaster. (Though to be fair, that does explain some scorecards.)

The real reason is much more boring: St Andrews had 18 holes, so everyone else decided 18 holes was the right number.

What about courses with more or fewer holes?

Some courses still have 9 holes, especially smaller or municipal courses. A standard 9-hole course is basically half a regulation round, and plenty of golfers play 9 holes when they do not have time for a full 18.

Executive courses and par-3 courses sometimes have 12, 15, or even 18 holes but with shorter distances and lower par. These are designed for quicker rounds and are often used for practice or casual play.

And some private clubs have 27 or 36 holes, allowing for different course rotations and more variety. But even on those courses, you typically play in 18-hole increments.

The standard, however, remains 18 holes for a regulation round. That is what tournaments use. That is what most courses are designed around. That is what your handicap is based on.

Could it have been a different number?

Absolutely. If St Andrews had standardized at 20 holes, or if another influential course had set a different precedent, we might all be playing a completely different number of holes today.

But history went the way it went, and here we are. Golf is 18 holes because St Andrews said so in 1764, and the rest of the golf world just kind of shrugged and agreed.

Does 18 holes even make sense?

Depends on who you ask. From a practical standpoint, 18 holes gives you enough variety and challenge for a full round without being so long that it becomes exhausting (though, let us be real, 18 holes in August heat is still exhausting).

From a design perspective, 18 holes allows architects to create varied layouts with different shot requirements, risk-reward opportunities, and strategic decisions. You get par 3s, par 4s, and par 5s in a balanced mix.

From a time perspective, 18 holes takes about 4 to 5 hours to play, which is long enough to feel like a complete experience but not so long that it eats your entire day (unless you are stuck behind a slow group, in which case, may the golf gods have mercy on your soul).

The bottom line:

Golf is 18 holes because of a decision made at St Andrews in 1764 to combine some short holes and standardize their course layout. Other clubs copied them because St Andrews was influential, and the format stuck.

There is no mystical reason. No perfect mathematical ratio. No ancient Scottish prophecy. Just a practical decision made nearly 300 years ago that became the global standard because everyone else was too lazy to come up with something different.

And honestly? That is kind of perfect for golf. A game steeped in tradition, where we do things a certain way because that is how they have always been done, even if the original reason makes no sense anymore.

Welcome to golf. The rules are made up, but we follow them anyway.

Did you know this origin story, or were you team whisky theory? What other random golf facts do you want us to investigate? Hit reply and tell us.