Can You Play St Andrews Old Course on Trackman? Here’s How

St Andrews is the hardest famous course to get right in sim golf. The double greens are enormous. The shared fairways do not project well onto a rectangular screen. The wind is the whole defense of the course, and most sim platforms treat wind as an afterthought.

Trackman solves all three problems better than any competitor.

The Old Course on Trackman is an officially licensed LIDAR build. The double greens — some of them covering 50,000 square feet — are mapped with elevation data that captures every subtle break. The Road Hole (17) is the standout: the out-of-bounds on the right, the Road Hole bunker in the middle of the green, the false front that rejects anything short. On Trackman, it plays exactly like you hope it plays.

Why Trackman’s St Andrews Is Different

Trackman has a dedicated relationship with the R&A. That is not a small detail. Trackman is an official partner of the R&A, which means their course data for St Andrews comes directly from the organization that runs the Old Course. The LIDAR scan is not a third-party approximation. It is the same data the R&A uses for its own purposes.

The wind model is the other factor. St Andrews without wind plays like a different course. Trackman’s weather engine generates coastal wind patterns that match the real conditions on the East Neuk of Fife. The wind affects ball flight, roll-out, and club selection in ways that cheaper sim platforms simplify or ignore.

The double greens require a specific skill on Trackman that most sims miss: putting from 80 feet. On the Old Course, you regularly face putts of 60 to 100 feet across massive greens. Trackman’s green physics handle the long putt correctly — the ball tracks the break, loses speed at the right rate, and ends up where it should. On most sims, long putts either stop too fast or ignore subtle breaks. Trackman gets it right.

How to Access It

Open Trackman Virtual Golf. Navigate to the course library. Search “St Andrews” or “Old Course.” All four courses appear: Old Course, New Course, Jubilee Course, and Castle Course.

The Old Course is the one you want. Load it. Play it in the wind.

The Holes That Define the Round

The Road Hole (17): The most famous par 4 in golf. 495 yards from the tournament tees. The tee shot is blind over the Old Course Hotel. On Trackman, the perspective from the tee is accurate — you see the hotel, you aim over it, and you hope the ball finds the fairway. The approach is to a green that is 20 yards deep with the Road Hole bunker protecting the front-right pin position and out-of-bounds long. Trackman’s LIDAR data makes the green slope correctly. You cannot just throw the ball anywhere on the green and expect a two-putt.

The 1st Hole: The opening tee shot is one of the most iconic in golf. The fairway is 100 yards wide. On Trackman, the width is accurate — you feel like you cannot miss it, and then you hit a bad drive and find one of the hidden bunkers. The green is shared with the 18th and plays differently depending on the pin position.

The 18th Hole: The Valley of Sin is the famous feature — a dip in the front of the green that swallows approach shots and makes the final putt harder than it looks. On Trackman, the Valley of Sin affects ball roll correctly. A shot that lands short of the green rolls back to your feet. A putt from the front of the green has to carry the ridge. It is the most famous finish in golf and Trackman does not simplify it.

What Trackman Does Better Than GSPro or E6

Trackman’s version of St Andrews is professionally licensed. GSPro’s version is community-built — good, but not licensed. If you care about playing the exact course with the exact data, Trackman is the better version.

Trackman’s wind model is more realistic. The Old Course is a links. Links courses need wind. GSPro and E6 have wind settings, but Trackman’s wind affects ball flight with more granularity — crosswinds push the ball differently than tailwinds, gusts matter, and the effect on roll-out is calculated in real time.

Trackman’s green physics are better for the massive Old Course greens. Long putts on GSPro can feel unpredictable because the green resolution is lower. Trackman’s LIDAR data captures the tiny breaks that make 60-foot putts on the Old Course so fascinating.

The Catch

Trackman costs $29,490. The course is free once you own the hardware. If you have access to a Trackman at a local facility, play the Old Course immediately. If you are building a home sim, GSPro’s version at $250/year is the practical choice for 99 percent of home users.

But if you have played both versions, you know Trackman’s St Andrews is the real one. The data comes from the R&A. The physics come from the best radar system in golf. The wind feels like Scotland. It is the closest thing to playing the Old Course without a plane ticket.

For the full list of courses worth playing on Trackman, read The Best Courses on Trackman Performance. Need the full software breakdown? Check our Best Courses on Trackman Performance guide for the complete breakdown.