Does Golf Have 18 Holes Because of a Bottle of Whisky?
On 4 October 1764, the golfers at St Andrews agreed to turn four holes into two. Their recorded aim was “the improvement of the Links”. The change reduced a round from 22 holes to 18: the minute records course improvement, not whisky. The bottle story is a legend whose printed version sets the supposed decision in 1858, 94 years too late.[1][8]
In short
- The first Open Championship was played over Prestwick's 12 hole course in 1860.[6]
- A St Andrews code defined a match as 18 holes in 1842.[4]
- Eighteen holes became increasingly regarded as the ideal during the 1880s, according to the R&A's description of Peter N. Lewis's study.[5]
Why does golf have 18 holes?
The answer begins with a practical alteration to St Andrews. On 4 October 1764, following the Challenge for the Silver Club, the Society of St Andrews Golfers decided to combine some of the existing holes.[1]
The minute, quoted by St Andrews Links in a release reported by Golf Business News, reads:
“The Captain and Gentlemen Golfers present are of the opinion that it would be for the improvement of the Links that the four first holes should be converted into two”[1]
Here is the decision in the golfers' own words: four holes would become two, an alteration they expected to improve the Links. The wording gives both the action and its intended purpose.[1]
The arithmetic makes sense once the route is clear. Golfers played holes going out and coming back, so combining the first four into two removed four holes from the complete round, rather than just two. St Andrews Links describes the new arrangement as 10 holes, eight of them played twice: 10 plus eight made an 18 hole round.[1]
An 18 hole round, then, did not require 18 separate holes on the ground. The total came from the layout and the way golfers travelled around it. That distinction is the key to understanding how the decision changed the round.
Where the whisky bottle story appears
The legend supplies a more colourful scene. In a version printed in the April 1996 issue of On Course, an elder rises at a board meeting in 1858 and explains that he takes a bottle of Scotch around the course. His glass, he says, can be filled exactly 18 times from that bottle, so he plays 18 holes.[8]
John N. MacLeod wrote the piece, which was credited “Courtesy of the Milwaukee and Illinois St. Andrews Society”. It establishes that the story was in print in 1996. April 1996 is the earliest printing identified in the sources checked here; neither the supposed 1858 meeting nor the tale's date of invention is established.[8]
A related version was reported in the Society of Golf Historians' January 2024 newsletter. It said that players at the Old Course often hear a caddie's explanation that golf has 18 holes because a whiskey bottle contains 18 shots. The newsletter calls it a myth.[9]
The serving calculation belongs to the tale and has not been verified. The decisive problem, however, is the calendar. Even if the bottle supplied precisely the claimed number of glasses, a meeting in 1858 could not explain a course alteration made in 1764. The story arrives 94 years after the event.[1][8]
Legend verdict
Claim: Golf's 18 hole round was chosen because a bottle of whisky supplied 18 measures.
Verdict: Legend
What the record shows: St Andrews changed from 22 holes to 18 in 1764 for the stated purpose of improving the Links.[1]
Evidence against or gap: The supplied record establishes no primary support for the bottle explanation. The printed tale's 1858 setting comes after the documented change.[1][8]
Earliest known source: The earliest established printing in this research is John N. MacLeod's Why 18 Holes?, April 1996, page 28. An earlier origin is not established.[8]
Sources: 1764 decision and quoted minute; April 1996 printing.
Last checked: November 2026.
How a course change became a wider standard
St Andrews changed its own course long before 18 holes became the accepted format elsewhere. St Andrews Links says the arrangement had become “the blueprint for golf” by the mid 19th century. A blueprint, though, was not an instruction that every other course immediately followed.[1]
Early courses took their shape from the land. The R&A's description of Peter N. Lewis's historical study, Why Are There Eighteen Holes?, explains that their hole counts varied with their turf, putting greens and hazards. During the 1880s, as golf grew more popular, 18 was increasingly regarded as the ideal number.[5]
Written rules developed alongside that practice. According to the R&A's history of revisions, a St Andrews code of 1842 defined a match as consisting of 18 holes. That came 78 years after the course alteration: the local change and the written match definition were distinct steps, not a single universal decree.[1][4]
Yet when the first Open Championship was held at Prestwick on 17 October 1860, it used a 12 hole course. The championship comprised three rounds of Prestwick's original layout. Willie Park's winning total covered 36 holes, played as three rounds of 12 rather than two rounds of 18.[6]
That is the revealing counterpoint to St Andrews: almost a century after its alteration, a championship could still be contested on a course with a different number of holes. Prestwick introduced a new 18 hole layout in 1882, another step in the format's gradual acceptance.[1][6]
| Date | Documented development | What it shows |
|---|---|---|
| 1744 | The Gentlemen Golfers of Leith drafted the earliest known written rules, the “13 Articles”.[4] | Written rules preceded the St Andrews change. |
| 1764 | St Andrews reduced its round from 22 holes to 18.[1] | A change to one course. |
| 1842 | A St Andrews code defined a match as 18 holes.[4] | A later written match definition. |
| 1860 | The first Open used Prestwick's 12 hole course.[6] | Courses still varied. |
| 1882 | Prestwick introduced an 18 hole layout.[6] | Later adoption elsewhere. |
| 1880s | Eighteen was increasingly seen as the ideal, according to the R&A's description of Lewis's study.[5] | Gradual acceptance, not one founding decree. |
Who made the St Andrews decision?
The Society of St Andrews Golfers made the 1764 decision. The R&A's rules history identifies it as the organisation later known as The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews. The earlier name keeps the decision attached to the golfers and institution of its own period.[1][4]
The Club's history dates its founding to 14 May 1754, with the first Challenge for the Silver Club. The founding and the course alteration were separate events, a decade apart. They should not be collapsed into a single story about an organisation established to decree an 18 hole round.[1][2]
Its wider governing authority developed later too. The R&A says the Club increasingly came to be regarded as a governing authority in the UK and abroad from the late 19th century. Its rules history records that the September 1891 code was soon widely followed, giving a clearer sense of that growing influence.[2][4]
Story box: A course improvement with lasting consequences
Turning point: On 4 October 1764, the Society of St Andrews Golfers agreed to combine the first four holes into two. With holes played out and back, the round fell from 22 holes to 18.[1]
Documented record: The quoted minute gives the purpose as “the improvement of the Links”. St Andrews Links marked the change's 250th anniversary on 4 October 2014.[1]
Claim and source mapping: The date, decision, explanation of the reduction and anniversary are supported by the St Andrews Links release reported by Golf Business News.
Last checked: November 2026.
What the legend gets wrong
The bottle story folds three different histories into one conversation: St Andrews altering its course, a match coming to mean 18 holes, and other courses adopting that total. Those developments unfolded across more than a century. Treating them as a single decision loses the most interesting part of the story: how a local alteration became a wider convention.[1][4][5][6]
It also makes 18 holes sound like St Andrews' starting point. The earlier 22 hole round matters because the golfers were rearranging an existing course, not choosing a number from scratch. The layout and the way it was played explain the reduction.[1]
Nor does the minute establish an intention to set a worldwide standard. In 2014, St Andrews Links chief executive Euan Loudon said the records showed that the golfers acted to improve the Links. He suggested they “may not have appreciated the ramifications”. Their decision's lasting influence need not have been their original ambition.[1]
For readers exploring whisky myths, this is a useful distinction: a story's appearance in print establishes that it circulated, not that its central event happened. The 1996 printing preserves the bottle tale; the quoted 1764 minute records the course decision itself.[1][8]
Where to go next
- Whisky Myths Debunked: a broader starting point for checking familiar whisky claims.
- Ireland or Scotland: Where Was Whisky First Recorded?: another question where the surviving record matters.
- Did Congress Declare Bourbon America's Native Spirit? The 1964 Resolution Explained: a closer look at wording behind a frequently repeated claim.
Sources
[1] Golf Business News, reporting a St Andrews Links release. St Andrews Links celebrates 250th anniversary of 18 holes at the Old Course, 7 October 2014.
https://golfbusinessnews.com/news/management-topics/st-andrews-links-celebrates-250th-anniversary-of-18-holes-at-the-old-course/
[2] The R&A. The Royal and Ancient Golf Club, undated web history.
https://www.randa.org/en/about-us/the-royal-and-ancient-golf-club
[4] The R&A. A Brief History of Revisions to the Rules of Golf: 1744 to 2016, historical overview covering 1744 to 2016.
https://assets.randa.org/c42c7bf4-dca7-00ea-4f2e-373223f80f76/e9ac12cc-5263-40c6-a47a-f4f0850b7cd6/A%20History%20of%20the%20Rules%20of%20Golf%201744%20-%202016.pdf
[5] R&A Publications. Why Are There Eighteen Holes? by Peter N. Lewis, undated publisher's book description.
https://publications.randa.org/why-are-there-18-holes-by-peter-lewis
[6] Prestwick Golf Club. The Open Championship, undated club history.
https://www.prestwickgc.co.uk/history/the-open-championship/
[8] John N. MacLeod. Why 18 Holes?, On Course, April 1996, page 28, credited “Courtesy of the Milwaukee and Illinois St. Andrews Society”. Archived by the Michigan State University Turfgrass Information Center.
https://archive.lib.msu.edu/tic/bulls/article/1996apr28.pdf
[9] Connor Lewis, Society of Golf Historians. The Myth: 18 Holes and a Bottle of Whiskey, newsletter, 9 January 2024.
https://thesocietyofgolfhistorians.beehiiv.com/p/society-newsletter-2
This desk research article uses the site's verified fact sheet, distinguishing the quoted historical minute, institutional histories and documented printings of the legend.
Last checked: November 2026