Auslan Cramb, Electronic Telegraph, 16 November 1995

Golfers in St Andrews were planning a vociferous protest last night over the acquisition by a corporate hospitality company of seven per cent of the starting times on the Old Course.

The controversial £5 million agreement was approved by the St Andrews Links Trust, which administers the five 18-hole and one nine-hole courses in the Fife town.

Under the arrangement, the London-based Keith Prowse agency was given the rights to 800 of the 14,000 annual tee-off times on the Old Course, and will make them available to high-spending foreign tourists from next April.

According to "ordinary" golfers, the move is the unacceptable face of commercialisation in the home of golf and restricts local access to the course.

In a strongly-worded letter to the local newspaper, the captains of the five main golf clubs have accused the trustees - including Menzies Campbell, the Liberal Democrat MP - of arrogance, and of ignoring the history of St Andrews golf.

Reduce the availability of times for those seeking advance reservations

The deal was discussed in public for the first time last night when the trust held its annual meeting in the St Andrews town hall. Dr David Malcolm, a master at the town's Madras College, said "everyman" should have access to the Old Course and the trust was eroding traditional rights, restricting access and raising the cost of golf in St Andrews.

According to Peter Mason, the external relations manager for the trust, the arrangement with the agency will bring in £5 million over 10 years for the improvement of the courses.

It would not reduce access to the Old Course for locals or other day visitors, but would reduce the availability of times for those seeking advance reservations.

The long-standing arrangement by which 50 per cent of the next day's starting times are handed out by ballot would continue, as would the "local" tee times offered between 8-9am and 5-6pm.

The price of a round on the Old Course is £60, but the agency's visitors will pay between £795 and £1,400 for a two-day package.

The trust had spent £7 million since taking over the running of the courses in 1974, when, according to Mr Mason, it inherited "virtually no assets, apart from some worn out greenkeeping equipment".