# Why do full-length golf courses have 18 holes? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 27, 2004, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-full-length-golf-courses-have-18-holes/271434 "2004-10-27T13:07:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![madscot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/bc79bd/32.png) [@madscot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madscot)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2004, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-full-length-golf-courses-have-18-holes/271434/1 "2004-10-27T13:07:16Z")
Why do full-length golf courses have 18 holes, and not 20, or 10 or an even dozen? Someone gave me this explanation, sounds good but does anyone know if it is true or what the real answer is ? During a discussion among the club’s membership board at St. Andrews in 1858, one of the members pointed out that it takes exactly 18 shots to polish off a fifth of Scotch. By limiting himself to only one shot of Scotch per hole,the Scot figured a round of golf was finished when the Scotch ran out. ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2004, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-full-length-golf-courses-have-18-holes/271434/2 "2004-10-27T13:13:40Z")
Very basically, St Andrews evolved into its present 18-hole form, and everybody else followed. Mid-19th century, the R&A of St Andrews set up the 18-hole round as Rule no. 1. ---
**Author:** ![Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e36b37/32.png) [@Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airman_Doors_USAF)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2004, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-full-length-golf-courses-have-18-holes/271434/3 "2004-10-27T15:49:10Z")
Naturally it’s because they couldn’t call the clubhouse the 19th hole otherwise. If there were 20 holes it would be the 21st hole, and that doesn’t have the same ring to it. ---
**Author:** ![Futile\_Gesture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f05b48/32.png) [@Futile\_Gesture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Futile_Gesture)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2004, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-full-length-golf-courses-have-18-holes/271434/4 "2004-10-27T16:45:45Z")
> [@madscot](#): > > During a discussion among the club’s membership board at St. Andrews in 1858, one of the members pointed out that it takes exactly 18 shots to polish off a fifth of Scotch. Utter nonsense. Golf fairytale. It’s 18 holes simply because that’s how many holes St Andrews had when they wrote the rules. Prior to that you had any number of holes in a course. It’s as simple as that. ---
**Author:** ![JeffB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jeffb/32/188_2.png) [@JeffB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JeffB)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2004, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-full-length-golf-courses-have-18-holes/271434/5 "2004-10-27T17:23:34Z")
Per the [St. Andrew’s website:](http://www.standrews.org.uk/history/history2.htm) > [@](#): > > In 1764 the Old Course consisted of 22 holes, 11 out and 11 back, with golfers playing to the same hole going out and in, except for the 11th and 22nd holes. The golfers decided that the first four holes, and therefore also the last four holes, were too short and that they should be made into two holes instead of four. This reduced the number of holes in the round from 22 to 18, and that is how today’s standard round of golf was created. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2004, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-full-length-golf-courses-have-18-holes/271434/6 "2004-10-27T17:25:33Z")
Well, 10 or 20 holes would be _way_ to similar to the metric system and us U.S.ers would just be far to confused but such a nice round number.