How Does the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship Work?
The Alfred Dunhill Links Championship is one of the most unusual tournaments on the DP World Tour.
Instead of a standard professional tournament played on one golf course, the Dunhill Links combines three famous Scottish links courses, 168 professionals, 168 amateurs and two separate competitions happening at the same time.
The professionals are trying to win the individual DP World Tour title. At the same time, every professional is paired with an amateur and also competes in a separate team competition.
To make it even more unusual, the first three rounds are spread across the Old Course at St Andrews, Carnoustie and Kingsbarns.
The simple version: every professional plays with an amateur, they play all three courses over the first three days, and the players who make the cut return to the Old Course at St Andrews for the final round.
When Is the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship 2026?
The 2026 Alfred Dunhill Links Championship takes place from Thursday 1 October to Sunday 4 October.
The first three rounds are played across:
- The Old Course at St Andrews
- Carnoustie Championship Course
- Kingsbarns Golf Links
The final round on Sunday is played entirely on the Old Course at St Andrews.
That means every professional who starts the tournament gets to play all three courses before the cut is made.
Why Is the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship Different?
Most professional golf tournaments are relatively straightforward.
There is one field, one golf course and one leaderboard.
The Alfred Dunhill Links Championship has two leaderboards running simultaneously.
There is:
- An individual professional championship
- A professional-amateur team championship
A professional therefore has two jobs throughout the first three rounds.
They are trying to shoot the lowest possible gross score for their own tournament while also helping their amateur partner produce a competitive team score.
The two competitions are separate, so a professional can be doing brilliantly in one and poorly in the other.
How Does the Professional Competition Work?
For the professionals, the individual tournament works much like a normal DP World Tour stroke-play event.
Every professional records their own gross score on every hole.
Their scores are added together across the tournament, and the professional with the lowest 72-hole total wins the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship.
The amateur's score has absolutely no effect on the professional's individual leaderboard.
For example, if a professional shoots:
- Round one: 68
- Round two: 70
- Round three: 67
- Round four: 69
Their tournament total would be 274.
It does not matter what their amateur partner scores when calculating the professional championship.
How Does the Team Competition Work?
This is where the tournament becomes more unusual.
Each professional is paired with one amateur for the tournament.
The amateur receives handicap strokes and the pair use the better net score on each hole as their team score.
The professional effectively plays from scratch, while the amateur's handicap strokes are applied to their score.
Whichever player produces the lower net score on the hole provides the team score.
Example of the Dunhill Links Team Scoring
Imagine the pair are playing a par 4.
The professional makes a gross 4.
The amateur makes a gross 5 but receives one handicap stroke on the hole, giving them a net 4.
Both have effectively made a 4, so the team records 4.
Now imagine the amateur makes a gross 4 while receiving a shot.
Their net score becomes 3.
The professional still makes a 4.
The amateur's net 3 is lower, so the team's score for that hole is 3.
This continues across all 18 holes.
Is the Team Competition Stableford?
No.
This is an easy point to confuse because handicaps are being used.
The Alfred Dunhill Links team competition is based on the lowest net score on each hole. It is not standard Stableford scoring where players collect 0, 1, 2, 3 or 4 points.
The team's hole scores are added together to create its overall score relative to par.
How Much Handicap Does the Amateur Get?
Amateurs do not simply receive their full normal handicap.
Under the championship format, amateurs receive a stroke allowance equal to two thirds of their official handicap.
The maximum allowance is:
- 18 strokes for men
- 24 strokes for women
Those strokes are then applied to the appropriate holes using the course's stroke index.
This prevents high-handicap amateurs from receiving their entire handicap while still allowing amateurs of different abilities to contribute meaningfully to the team competition.
Who Are the Amateurs?
The amateur side of the tournament is one of the reasons the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship attracts so much attention.
The field regularly includes people from:
- Football
- Cricket
- Rugby
- Tennis
- Film and television
- Music
- Business
- Other professional sports
Previous amateur competitors have included names such as Bill Murray, Hugh Grant, Michael Douglas, Justin Timberlake, Andy Murray, Michael Phelps and Sir Ian Botham.
That creates a very different atmosphere from a normal professional tournament.
You can have a Major champion competing for important DP World Tour points while their playing partner is a footballer, actor or businessman trying to help them win the team championship.
Do the Professionals Choose Their Amateur Partner?
Some pairings have strong existing connections, while others are arranged as part of the tournament.
Certain partnerships return regularly and have become part of the event's identity.
Once the competition begins, however, the professional and amateur remain a team throughout the tournament unless circumstances force a change.
Why Are Three Golf Courses Used?
The Alfred Dunhill Links Championship is designed as a celebration of Scottish links golf.
Using three different courses allows the tournament to showcase three different versions of links golf within the same event.
Those courses are:
The Old Course at St Andrews
The Old Course is the Home of Golf and provides the centrepiece of the tournament.
It is full of features recognised around the world, including the Swilcan Bridge, Hell Bunker, the Road Hole and the Valley of Sin.
The Old Course can look relatively straightforward when conditions are calm, but wind can completely change how it plays.
Carnoustie Championship Course
Carnoustie is generally regarded as the most demanding of the three.
It has hosted The Open on several occasions and has a reputation for punishing poor driving and poor course management.
The finishing stretch is particularly difficult, with the Barry Burn capable of turning a good round into a bad one very quickly.
Kingsbarns Golf Links
Kingsbarns is the youngest of the three courses but has developed a strong reputation since opening in its modern form.
It sits along the Fife coastline and produces some spectacular views across the North Sea.
Kingsbarns can also produce low scoring when conditions allow, making it an important course for professionals trying to position themselves before the cut.
How Does the Course Rotation Work?
Every professional-amateur pairing plays each of the three courses once during the first three days.
For example, one group might play:
- Thursday: Carnoustie
- Friday: Kingsbarns
- Saturday: St Andrews
Another group might play:
- Thursday: St Andrews
- Friday: Carnoustie
- Saturday: Kingsbarns
The rotation helps spread the enormous field across three golf courses.
It also means leaderboard comparisons during the opening rounds need some context.
A golfer sitting three shots behind after playing Carnoustie in difficult weather might actually be in a stronger position than someone who has already played the easier scoring conditions at another course.
When Is the Cut Made?
Unlike a normal DP World Tour event, the cut does not take place after Friday.
Because everybody needs to play all three courses, the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship cut is made after 54 holes on Saturday.
After three rounds:
- The leading 60 professionals and ties qualify for the final round
- The leading 20 professional-amateur teams qualify for the final round
Everyone who makes it through then heads to the Old Course at St Andrews on Sunday.
Can an Amateur Make Sunday Even If Their Professional Misses the Individual Cut?
Yes.
The professional and team competitions have separate cuts.
A professional could miss the top 60 in the individual tournament but still have one of the top 20 team scores with their amateur partner.
In that situation, the pair can continue in the team competition on Sunday.
Likewise, a professional could comfortably make the individual cut while their team fails to reach the top 20.
The professional would continue playing on Sunday, but their amateur partner would no longer be competing in the team championship.
That separation between the two competitions is one of the most important things to understand about the event.
What Happens on Sunday?
Sunday is much closer to what you would recognise from a normal professional golf tournament.
Everyone who survives the cut moves to the Old Course at St Andrews.
The professionals are playing for the individual Alfred Dunhill Links Championship while the remaining 20 teams are simultaneously trying to win the team title.
That means two trophies can effectively be decided on the same course at the same time.
The individual professional with the lowest 72-hole gross total wins the main championship.
The professional-amateur pairing with the lowest team total wins the Team Championship.
Can the Same Professional Win Both Competitions?
Yes.
A professional can win the individual title and also be part of the winning team.
It has happened before.
Pádraig Harrington famously won both the professional and team competitions in 2002 and again in 2006, partnering JP McManus in the team event.
But the two trophies do not have to go to the same player.
Most years, the individual champion and team champions are different.
Does the Amateur Receive Prize Money?
No.
The amateur retains amateur status and does not collect professional prize money.
The event has a total prize fund of $5 million.
According to the championship's published format, $4.8 million is allocated to the individual professional competition and $200,000 to the Team Championship, with team prize money paid to the professionals.
Does It Count Towards the Race to Dubai?
Yes.
The professional tournament is an official DP World Tour event.
The 2026 Alfred Dunhill Links Championship forms part of the DP World Tour's Back 9 and carries 5,000 Race to Dubai points.
That means the unusual Pro-Am format should not disguise how important the tournament is for the professionals.
They are still competing for prize money, Race to Dubai position and valuable opportunities late in the DP World Tour season.
Who Won the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship Last Year?
Robert MacIntyre won the 2025 Alfred Dunhill Links Championship.
The Scottish golfer therefore returns in 2026 as defending champion, trying to win again on home soil.
The team championship in 2025 was won by Harrison Crowe and Cian Foley.
Why Does the Tournament Take So Long to Complete Each Day?
The Dunhill Links can feel slower than a conventional professional event because the field is enormous.
There are 168 professionals and 168 amateurs at the start of the championship.
That is 336 players spread across three golf courses.
The amateur element can also naturally slow play compared with a field consisting entirely of touring professionals.
Using three courses is therefore not just part of the tournament's identity. It is necessary to make the format practical.
Why Is the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship Popular?
There is nothing else quite like it on the DP World Tour.
You get serious professional golf at three of Scotland's best-known links courses, but the atmosphere is noticeably different from a Major or standard tour event.
The amateur pairings make the opening rounds more relaxed.
At the same time, the professionals are still trying to win an important DP World Tour title.
Then everything converges on St Andrews for Sunday.
That combination gives the tournament its identity.
Is the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship a Major?
No.
The Alfred Dunhill Links Championship is an official DP World Tour event, but it is not one of the four men's Majors.
The four men's Majors are:
- The Masters
- PGA Championship
- U.S. Open
- The Open
St Andrews is obviously closely associated with The Open, but the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship is a completely separate tournament.
In fact, the Dunhill Links is the only major professional championship played annually on the Old Course.
Alfred Dunhill Links Championship Format Explained Simply
If all of that sounds complicated, this is the easiest way to understand it.
Thursday to Saturday
- 168 professionals start
- 168 amateurs start
- Each professional is paired with one amateur
- There is an individual professional competition
- There is a separate professional-amateur team competition
- Each pair plays St Andrews, Carnoustie and Kingsbarns once
- The professional records their normal gross score
- The team uses the lower net score from the professional or amateur on each hole
After Saturday
- Top 60 professionals and ties make the individual cut
- Top 20 teams make the team cut
Sunday
- Everyone remaining plays the Old Course at St Andrews
- Lowest professional 72-hole score wins the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship
- Lowest team total wins the Team Championship
What Should You Watch For?
The unusual format means there are a few things worth paying attention to during the week.
The Course Rotation
Do not look at the leaderboard without checking which courses players have already completed.
Weather can be completely different between St Andrews, Carnoustie and Kingsbarns, even though the courses are relatively close together.
Carnoustie Scores
Players who survive Carnoustie with a strong score can put themselves in an excellent position for the rest of the tournament.
The Amateur Contribution
A strong amateur can make an enormous difference in the team competition.
If the amateur regularly contributes nett birdies while the professional keeps producing pars and birdies, the pair can quickly move up the team leaderboard.
Saturday's Double Cut
Keep an eye on both leaderboards.
A professional might have little chance of winning the individual competition but still be fighting hard to get their team into the top 20.
Sunday at St Andrews
This is when the event becomes much easier to follow.
Everyone is on one course, the field is smaller and both titles are decided at the Home of Golf.
FAQ: Alfred Dunhill Links Championship
How many courses are used in the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship?
Three courses are used: the Old Course at St Andrews, Carnoustie Championship Course and Kingsbarns Golf Links.
How many professionals play?
The tournament starts with 168 professionals.
How many amateurs play?
There are also 168 amateurs, with one amateur paired alongside each professional.
When is the cut?
The cut is made after three rounds on Saturday rather than after Friday.
How many professionals make the final round?
The leading 60 professionals and ties qualify for Sunday.
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