Lost a golf club in St Andrews?

For most golfers a round here is a once-in-a-lifetime trip, booked months ahead and followed by a flight home. There's no popping back tomorrow. But the specific reason clubs go missing here is a rule most visitors don't know until they arrive: on the Old Course, trolleys are banned before noon through the summer months and all day in winter. That means carrying, or taking a caddie — and either way your clubs spend the round in someone's hands rather than sitting in a bag beside you. The habit that normally keeps a set together is simply absent. Add gorse and heavy rough on either side of the fairways, and every wayward drive becomes a search on foot.

Where clubs go missing here

In the handover between caddie and player, particularly around the greens, where a putter and a wedge change hands within seconds. In the gorse and whins while hunting for a ball. And at the turn, where carried bags get set down and picked up again in a crowd.

I flew home days ago and only noticed when I unpacked.
That's the standard case here rather than an unusual one. The date and the course are enough to file it — you don't need to remember the hole.

Does it matter that I was a visitor rather than a member?
Not at all. There's no membership requirement, no account and no password.