Can You Play St Andrews on FSX Play? Here’s How

FSX Play has four St Andrews courses. That is more St Andrews than any other sim platform except Trackman.

The Old Course is the headline. The FSX Play version of the Old Course is an officially licensed LIDAR build with 4K textures and Foresight’s proprietary physics engine. The double greens are enormous and correctly mapped. The Road Hole bunker on 17 is positioned exactly where it ruins your round. The Valley of Sin on 18 is present and accounted for.

Why FSX Play’s St Andrews Stands Out

The visual quality is the obvious advantage. The Old Course on FSX Play looks like a television broadcast. The grass textures are sharp. The stone buildings in the background are recognizable. The Swilcan Bridge on 18 is rendered with enough detail that you can see the stonework.

The wind model is calibrated for links conditions. FSX Play’s weather engine treats wind as a three-dimensional force that changes with elevation and terrain. On the Old Course, the crosswind on the 17th tee pushes the ball toward the out-of-bounds on the right. The headwind on the 18th approach makes the carry over the Valley of Sin more difficult. The wind is not a uniform setting — it varies across the course the way real coastal wind varies.

The green physics handle the massive putting surfaces correctly. The Old Course has some of the biggest greens in golf. FSX Play’s LIDAR data captures the subtle breaks that make 60-foot putts so fascinating. A putt from the front of the 5th green to a back pin position tracks across three different slopes before it reaches the hole.

The Four Courses

Old Course — The Home of Golf. The double greens, the shared fairways, the Road Hole, the Valley of Sin. If you can only buy one St Andrews course, buy this one. It is the reason anyone cares about the other three.

New Course — Despite the name, it is 130 years old. It is a classic links layout that plays along the Eden estuary. Less famous than the Old Course, still excellent, and a nice change of pace when you want St Andrews without the crowds.

Jubilee Course — The longest of the four. Plays along the coastline and is considered by many the toughest test among the St Andrews public courses. The wind is a factor on every hole.

Castle Course — The newest. Cliff-top holes, dramatic views, and greens that are absurdly difficult. It is controversial among purists but undeniably spectacular. The Castle Course is the best-looking of the four on FSX Play because the cliff-top setting gives the visual engine something to work with.

How to Access It

Buy the course through the Foresight online store. Receive a license key. Activate it in FSX Play. Download and play.

If FSX Play offers a St Andrews bundle when you are reading this, buy the bundle. It is better value than buying individually.

Set firm conditions and tournament wind. St Andrews without wind is not St Andrews.

The Cost Question

The Old Course on FSX Play costs $50-80. That is roughly the same as playing the real Old Course once in the offseason. It is also more than a full year of GSPro.

The value proposition depends on how much you care about visual quality. FSX Play’s St Andrews looks better than GSPro’s community version. The resolution is higher. The textures are sharper. The physics are more integrated with the Foresight launch monitor ecosystem.

But GSPro’s version costs $250/year for the entire library, including St Andrews. FSX Play’s version costs $50-80 for one course. The math is simple for most budgets.

If you have the money and want the best-looking version of the Old Course on any platform, FSX Play delivers. If you are value-conscious, GSPro is the better choice.

For the full list of courses worth buying on FSX Play, read The Best Courses on FSX Play. Need the full software breakdown? Check the FSX Play Software Review.