Work set to start on multi-million club

Gordon Berry, The Courier, 16 July 1999

The developers behind the multi-million St Andrews International Club, being built at the “gateway” to the town, have announced work on the main structure is to begin within the next few weeks.

Yesterday one of the driving forces behind the scheme, business man Jeremy Grieve, released graphic images which show how the building will look when it is complete.

As work proceeds on the foundations for the club St Andrews International has also begun the search for a chief executive who will run the project in “a five-star way.”

Advertisements have just appeared in the national Press, offering a £100,000 salary, along with performance bonus and equity, for the right person.

Mr Grieve said yesterday that golf was an £80 billion world market which attracted over 50 million players, particularly in the US and Japan.

He said that the new club would be a “stunning world class facility” with views over the Road Hole and towards the R and A.

It would provide, he said, a members-only day club, conference and banqueting facilities and a visitor centre where members of the public would be able to view some of the priceless artefacts owned by the St Andrews University and not previously accessible to the public.

These will include, among others exhibits, wonderful examples of Jacobean silver, Scottish paintings, early photographs, and scientific apparatus dating back to medieval times.

They will demonstrate the university’s preeminence as an academic centre of excellence.

Revenue based on worldwide corporate and individual subscription memberships and the other services on offer, which include an exhibition centre, bars, restaurants, health facilities, business communications provision, locker rooms and a secretariat which will arrange accommodation, transport and golf tee times.

Mr Grieve said yesterday that the project was on schedule and that a sales office was being placed on site to help the many people already seeking information.

The steel structure of the building will be put up in August then work will begin on stonework, landscaping and internal detail.

It is anticipated that the club will be opened for business in May, well before the Open, which is being played over the Old Course.