Links trust defends seventh golf course plan

Michael Alexander, The Courier, 12 February 2004

St Andrews Links Trust is making a written submission to the planning service at Fife Council after various questions were raised last week over the body’s plans for creating a seventh public golf course on land just outside the town.

Two key issues in particular raised during the departure hearing were the impact of traffic, which was raised by the community council, and a request for further information on the need for another course.

In a statement released last night the trust pointed out that it had already submitted details of the rounds played on the links since 1954, showing the ever-rising demand.

Now, in addition, it will be providing further analysis of the demand to play on the links.

“One fundamental misunderstanding that keeps recurring Is that the need for the new golf course is linked to visitor demand. This is not the case, as it is rising local demand that is the driver, not visitors,” said Peter Mason, external relations manager at the links trust.

“Everyone knows that the town is continuing to expand and the university is forecast to expand as well This is leading inevitably to more golfers wanting yearly tickets.

“In addition, demand from local club members living outside the town continues to increase and we now have nearly 500 people on the waiting lists for yearly tickets - representing around 12-15,000 extra rounds of golf”

The additional submission, however, also addresses visitor demand and particularly the assertion by golf tour operators that visitor numbers have declined in recent years.

Revealing that the recently-released, respected Golf Tourism Monitor figures for the last three years show continuous, small increases in visitor rounds across Scotland, the links trust submission claims that the tour operators’ figures quoted at the hearing by their spokesman were “wholly unrepresentative” of the total market, as the operators tend to concentrate on the North American market.

“The 433 rounds played by the tour operators’ customers in 2003 on the New and Jubilee courses is less than 1.5% of the total visitor rounds on those courses,” added Mr Mason.

“The tour operators have no connection with the vast bulk of visiting golfers who come from within the UK, nor do they handle the huge numbers who book direct with the trust.

“Their figures are not even a quarter of the golfers booking direct on the internet.”

Pointing out that the waiting lists for non-resident local golfers’ year tickets are now over four years long, the trust’s submission reveals that If the waiting lists were released, the extra play would be equal to around 40% of the long-term capacity of the seventh course.

The submission forecasts that by 2006 the pent-up local demand will be at least 20,000 rounds, enough for the new course to sustain in its early years.

On the traffic issue, a further report has been prepared using data taken directly from the figures of golfers using the links rather than the TRICS database, and this will be part of the submission.