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 there is a (slightly) easier approach in.
