My trusty new yardage book for TOC, tells me from the old medal tee, it is a 217 yard carry at the most sensible point over the OB, and 251 at the farthest right side. Adding another 40 yards to the hole (given my study of the angles, it is probably a couple shorter than this, but 40 is close enough for analysis), that would mean 257 and 291. What this tells me is: 1) yes, forget the sheds, people are going to just going to attempt to fly the entire hotel in an attempt to split the 257/291 carry area, and 2) given the angle the OB is now more a significant carry hazard vs. a right side hazard as with the 455 tee, so I would not be surprised to see some over-sliced drives (especially into a prevailing wind) winding up OB right. Forgive my historical ignorance on this item, but how common of an occurrence has it been in the past for golfers to go OB right off the tee... 2%? 5%? 10%? No specific instances come to my mind where key players in contention have done this when it mattered.
I'm going to attempt to insert a few images from my recent trip to St Andrews. These were all taken on June 26th and 27th.
Just left of the new 495 tee box, similar angle to the old 455 tee box. The 16th green is on the left side of the image.
View of the new tee box and grandstand, taken from the road. This highlights the change in angle in place in addition to the added 40 yards.
2nd shot approach from just over the road. While narrow, it's not as extreme as I think it has been in the past. The left side rough was thick, but not to an extreme level IMO.
I have a good video clip of the new tee box, but can't seem to get it to embed in a message. (If anyone has a good tip for this, let me know)