Why can't the Scots play golf?

Extract, John Hopkins, The Spike Bar, The Times, 2 October 2008

Why do golf and money feature so prominently in conversation in Scotland? Golf I can understand because the country is said to be where the game began and as you travel from place to place within it you are never far from a golf course. But money?

This was brought home to me again this week. Here we are in St Andrews, the most wonderful golfing place in the world, for the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship. Never mind the jibes about B-list celebrities and six-hour rounds. It is of much more concern that the wonderful second-hand book shop in Golf Place has closed. Doesn't anybody read about golf any more?

Can the Scots read? I think I know the answer to that. If I wanted to be really mischievous - and I do actually - I might ask why the Scots can't play golf. Alastair Forsyth, at 93rd, and Colin Montgomerie, who is currently clinging desperately to 100th place, are the sole representatives of the country where the game began in the top 100 in the world. What has happened to this once proud golfing nation? But there again, I think I know the answer to that, too.

At times like now it is a privilege to be in this part of the world. The brisk weather is invigorating. The old town is bathed in a translucent light of the sort painters would die for, and television is transmitting gorgeous pictures of dunes, marrom grass, the Eden estuary and golfers wearing sun glasses to shield their eyes from the watery sunshine.

Yet there are two topics of conversation and both are to do with money.

Prices of local hotels: one, described as extremely modest in the town itself, charged guests £85 per night for bed and breakfast on Monday night. On Tuesday the rate had risen to £250 per night. And the Scots accuse other countries of gouging.

Condition of Hamilton Hall: the iconic building behind the 18th green that was used as an hotel in the opening scene of Chariots of Fire.

In 2006 Hamilton Hall was sold by St Andrews University for an alleged £20m to Wasserman Real Estate Capital LLC, a Rhode Island preperty development firm. Wasserman's plans were to transform the hall into 23 luxury residences known as St Andrews Grand that would be open in time for the 2010 Open to be held here. Phil Mickelson is alleged to have paid a seven figure sum for a share in the project.

From that day to this, little appears to have happened and locals are concerned that the St Andrews landmark is showing its age.

In its ambition there is an echo of another huge project in Scotland, Donald Trump's $2bn resort on the north-east coast of Scotland. This resort, which has attracted support and criticism in equal measure, is said by Trump to benefit the locals when to these eyes it seems no one will benefit so much as Mr Trump himself. My feelings about this project remain the same in October as they were in July when I wrote: "Go home Mr Trump, go home." Currently the project is mired in red tape as planning permission is sought.

Hamilton Hall has not got that far. It has become a white elephant. "We had demand but not necessarily enough demand to carry the whole project through," David Wasserman, the firm's principal, said. "We learned the market is not deep enough for fractional residences at this point."

You can say that again. .....