Locals' access to golf at St Andrews

Colin McAllister, Letter to Editor, Scotland on Sunday, 28 September 2003

As one of the irate St Andrews golfers Gerard de Groot refers to in his article of September 21, I am amazed that the professor of modem history at my alma mater should take so little trouble to check his facts.

•The Links are not "owned by no one, though they belong to the town". Until the 1974 re-organisation of local government they did indeed belong to the town, but on the abolition of St Andrews Town Council ownership passed to the NE Fife District Council until its own abolition some years later, when ownership passed to Fife Council.

•The Old Course is not closed on a Sunday because of the locals’ right to hang out their washing there. Closure on a Sunday is a last remnant of Sabbatarianism. Originally all the courses were closed on a Sunday. There is also a more practical question. As the late St Andrews professional Andra Kirkcaldy once said: "If you dinna need a rest on the Sabbath the Old Course does."

•Prof de Groot insults the intelligence of the average local when he claims they do not understand the basic economics of running a massive golfing complex. Nobody disagrees that visitors provide the greatest part of the revenue and nobody would argue that visitors should not be catered for. What people object to is that the balance has been excessively tilted in favour of visitors because of the Links Trust’s greed for money-making. The 1974 St Andrews Links Trust Act has been broken, certainly in spirit and arguably also in the letter of the law.

•I am told by some employees of the Links that the Links guarantees a time on the Old Course provided another time is bought on the New or Jubilee Courses. If true, this undermines the integrity of the ballot for times on the Old Course. Also, as often these times paid for on the New or Jubilee are not taken up, this also reduces locals’ chances of a time on these courses as they are told the times are not available.

•It is doubtful to say the least whether the Links Trust has the legal authority to purchase the ground on which the proposed new golf course is to be built.

•The statistics quoted by Prof de Groot are highly selective and tendentious. He claims locals play 60% of the rounds and provide only 1/9th of the revenue. Twenty years ago we were told locals played 80% of the rounds and provided about 20% of the revenue. The population both of the town and of golf-playing students has greatly increased, yet locals are playing a smaller percentage of a more or less fixed total! Furthermore, these figures do not tell us is what percentage of rounds are played by locals and visitors on each of the courses, in summer and in winter. Ten years ago I was told locals played on 33% of the rounds on the Old Course in the summer months. That figure is certainly much less nowadays.