Project under way to protect golf courses

The Courier, 29 December 2000

The first phase of a £200,000 project aimed at protecting the St Andrews golf courses from the ravages of the sea is now well advanced.

The installation of permanent defences along the Eden Estuary has made good progress since planning permission was granted by Fife Council a few months ago and sloping gabions are now in place along most of the unprotected stretch of coastline bordering the championship Jubilee Course.

The emergency programme was started by St Andrews Links Trust within days of the go-ahead being given by the local authority, amid increasing fears for the future of the links at Europe’s largest golfing complex.

Of the six courses at the Home of Golf, the Jubilee Course is the most vulnerable and the situation had reached a critical stage. The course, which has been the venue for several major tournaments, has taken a pounding over the past year and several metres of land along the estuary bordering it have vanished into the sea.

Previous plans announced in 1999 by the trust to carry out major coastal improvement works alongside the links had to be put on hold after Fife Council refused to issue a Coastal Defence Licence until a full feasibility study was conducted.

In the interim, strong westerly winds had a dramatic impact on the dunes which border the links. Part of the coastal footpath was washed away by the tides leaving the 8th fairway of the 103-year-old Jubilee more exposed than ever before.

Until the start of the latest programme, both the Special Site of Scientific Interest and the links were only yards away from the tidal edges of the dunes and fears heightened that part of the links could be lost forever.

Alan McGregor, general manager of the trust which administers the courses, said yesterday that the body had “worked long and hard” in order to reach a long-term and effective solution which was satisfactory to all parties concerned.

He added, “It was a great relief when planning permission was granted allowing us to instal essential defences.”

Mr McGregor explained that the defences are a combination of “hard” and “soft” options. The former refers to the stone-filled wire structures or gabions - they are successfully used in Holland - which have been installed along the 100-metre stretch of unprotected dunes. They are sloping rather than the vertical type already in place further along the estuary.

The “soft measures involve replenishing the dunes with 12,000 cubic metres of sand. However, as the estuary is home to seals, this work has been deferred until the summer and the end of the creatures’ breeding season.

Mr McGregor said that the dunes between the estuary and the golf courses are environmentally sensitive and are designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest.

Consultations were held with Scottish Natural Heritage, the Fife Council Ranger Service and the local authority’s roads’ department, the RSPB, the Sea Mammal Research Unit at St Andrews University, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency and expert engineers, H.R. Walllngford, to come up with a defence plan which would be effective in the long term in protecting both the dunes and the links.

St Andrews University also conducted a research initiative which resulted in an environmental statement endorsing the protection scheme.

Last year the trust spent around £100,000 on the maintenance of existing gabions.

Mr McGregor said, “St Andrews links is a unique site of historical and cultural significance as well as one of the top sporting venues in Britain.

“The trust’s prime responsibility is to protect them and putting effective defences in place is a matter of urgency.”

While the current problems are focused on the land bordering the Jubilee Course, there are fears erosion could eventually affect the other courses at St Andrews.

Work has previously been carried out at the New, Eden and Jubilee courses with the introduction of gabions to form defensive barriers.

On the Eden Course, the sea is only a matter of feet away from the fourth tee and fairway, while the 9th fairway and green on the New Course is also located alongside the beach.

Marine experts, who believe that global warming could threaten the our principal I8-hole courses at St Andrews, have estimated that the cost of a range of new defences in the areas most under threat could cost well over £1 million.