St Andrews set to go seven up

Mike Aitken, The Scotsman, 15 February 2000

A new extension is required at the home of golf. With supply struggling to meet demand, plans have been drawn up to add a magnificent seventh golf course to the range of facilities already administered by the St Andrews Links.

While most of the land available nearby suggests the creation of another classic links is unlikely, the latest course will strive to echo traditions which date back to the 15th century.

Along with the Old Course, which accepts 42,000 rounds a year, the New Course, the Jubilee, the Eden, Strathtyrum and Balgove together put on another 160,000 rounds. Since around 205,000 rounds is close to the limit of what the complex can manage in comfort, the Links Trust is actively seeking to expand on what, at 660 acres, is already the largest golfing complex in Europe.

Given the importance of maintaining standards in St Andrews, regarded as a Mecca by the world's golfers, there is no immediate rush to build the new course, but it is hoped the project will be completed and open to the public by 2005.

While a number of other courses, including the Duke's, a parkland layout designed by Peter Thompson, the impressive links at Kingsbarns and the 36-hole development involving Sam Torrance at St Andrews Bay are other new additions to the scene, the Links Trust says that all fresh developments in the area increase pressure on the Old Course.

The desire to increase the number of holes on offer at the public links from 99 to 117 - the Balgove is a nine-hole layout - comes after the Trust has spent more than £11 million on improving and upgrading facilities over the past few years.

Since 1993, when the Strathtyrum was opened along with the redesigned Balgove, a 45-bay practice centre has been built, while the splendid St Andrews Links clubhouse was opened by Bernard Gallacher in 1995. This spring, the new Eden clubhouse will provide additional changing-room and restaurant facilities for all members of the public.

As well as offices for the Trust, two greenkeeping centres were constructed and a state-of-the-art £2.5 million irrigation system is also close to completion. "There's been a revolution here," said Alan McGregor, general manager of the Trust.

For an organisation which most people have never heard of, this list of substantial improvements makes impressive reading. Although many golfers, if they think about it at all, believe the Royal and Ancient runs the Old Course, the property is, in fact, in the hands of the Links Trust, a charitable organisation set up by an Act of Parliament in 1975.

McGregor is a former army officer who issues the orders to a team of more than 200 soldiers of the links in the high season. With the 26th staging of the Open at the Old Course due to take place in July, this is a particularly significant year for a body which wants to make its presence felt.

Last week, McGregor conducted a personal tour of the premises and showed himself to be enough of a diplomat to lose a tightly fought, if unrelentingly undistinguished, match in high winds with yours truly on the 18th green of the Old Course.

Running golf courses as famous as the ones in St Andrews is a challenging way to make a living. McGregor had not picked up a set of clubs for over three months. Mostly, he is too busy trying to balance local interest with the revenue-raising needs of visitors.

While local residents pay £98 for access to all the courses and under-16s in St Andrews play for free - youngsters also receive complimentary tuition - visitors to the Old Course are charged a green fee of £80. That fee is a bargain compared to what it costs to play, say, Pebble Beach in California.

McGregor is a defender of the controversial arrangement with the Keith Prowse Agency which involved selling a number of tee-times to commercial interests. Though no figure has ever been put on the value of the deal, it is thought to have raised around £6 million for the Trust and helped achieve annual revenue of the same amount.

“Before that deal was done, premiums were being taken on Old Course starting times by tour operators rather than the Links Trust,” he explained. “So no money was being ploughed back in. What this agreement allowed us to do was initiate a development plan which helped us to get out of the bit. For example, we couldn't charge a decent green fee on the Old Course until we gave visitors the changing facilities they expect.

“Although there will always be a few who want to get on and are unsuccessful in the ballot, the truth is the Old Course is more accessible than I thought it was before I came here.

“As a visitor you can either use our advance reservation system - some folk have already booked up for 2004 - or you can go into the daily ballot, for which 50 per cent of our tee-times are kept. Another method, which is less well known, is for ones and twos to register with the starter and join in with other twos or threes.”

Needless to say, once Tiger Woods and company have attracted the attention of the world to the Old Course in July, interest in visiting St Andrews will reach even greater heights.

Cost is not really part of the equation for most foreign visitors, but the Trust is ever mindful of its responsibilities to Scottish golfers.