Fore star hotel: the Open’s Road Hole keeps players and guests on their toes | Michael Butler

The 17th hole at St Andrews offers a fearsome test, with the adjacent Old Course Hotel garden closed due to flying golf balls

Guests at the Old Course Hotel, overlooking the tee and the fairway of the 17th hole at St Andrews, better known as the Road Hole, pay thousands of pounds a night to wake up for a view of the Old Course in Open week, but are advised to use the balconies at their own risk. The sound of balls fizzing past the roof is a constant from around 10.30am each day, and such is the danger of being hit by one of them that the hotel has now closed its lawned garden that lies just a stone wall away from the action.

The boundary of the hotel stands in direct line of the tee shot, with a replica railway shed on the corner acting as both an obstacle and a guide: players use an OLD COURSE HOTEL sign mounted on the shed wall as a target, with most aiming for COURSE and braver souls taking a draw, which starts right of HOTEL. The key thing here is to find the right side of the fairway, from which you have a (slightly) easier approach in.