Archive for March, 2008
March 31, 2008
The Lundin Links Hotel has recently been put on sale for offers over £975,000. The owner is selling the hotel as a going concern and it is being promoted by Colliers Robert Barry, an Edinburgh based selling agent.
The hotel is around 12 miles from St. Andrews in the village of Lundin Links. It has 21 bedrooms, lounge bar, restaurant and function rooms, while it has recently been granted planning permission to build a 3 bedroom townhouse. The residential development plot is on the market for offers over £100,000.
Apparently there has been an Inn of some sort at the site of the Lundin Links Hotel since the early 17th Century. It was originally called the Lundin Mill and seems to have changed it’s name to The Lundin Links Hotel sometime between 1880 and 1890. Famous visitors to the hotel include the Sultan of Brunei, who had lunch at the hotel in 1952.
http://www.lundin-links-hotel.co.uk/
http://www.colliersrobertbarry.co.uk/DesktopDefault.aspx
March 30, 2008
May 1 – 3 Aberdeen Asset Management Ladies Scottish Open, The Carrick, Loch Lomond, Dunbartonshire
May 30 – June 1 Curtis Cup, St Andrews, Fife
June 11 – 15 Ladies British Open Championship, North Berwick, East Lothian
WOW !!!!!! what a summer of golf to come.
* CURTIS CUP
THE 2008 USA TEAM
Amanda Blumenherst, 21 11/4/86 Scottsdale, Ariz.
Meghan Bolger, 29 5/30/78 Haddonfield, N.J.
Mina Harigae, 18 11/1/89 Monterey, Calif.
Tiffany Joh, 21 12/8/86 San Diego, Calif.
Kimberly Kim, 16 8/21/91 Hilo, Hawaii
Jennie Lee, 21 11/6/86 Henderson, Nev.
Stacy Lewis, 22 2/16/85 The Woodlands, Texas
Alison Walshe, 22 5/14/85 Westford, Mass.
THE 2008 GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND TEAM
The Great Britain and Ireland squad for the Curtis Cup, from which the team was chosen, have already visited St Andrews and played a game on the New Course (St Andrews already has six courses and will have seven by the end of June when the new Castle Course opens) against a team from Stirling University.
Liz Bennett, 25, Brokenhurst Manor
Carly Booth, 15, Comrie
Krystle Caithness, 18, St Regulus
Jodi Ewart, 24, Catterick
Breanne Loucks, 20, Wrexham
Florentyna Parker, 18, Royal Birkdale
Michele Thomson, 19, McDonald Ellon
Sally Watson 16, Elie and Earlsferry Ladies
Some of these ladies will be very close to home when they play for their country at St Andrews.
*What do you need to know ?……….where to go for beauty treatments, the best tea/coffee shops, the best pubs !!!!
More to come……
March 30, 2008
Carnoustie Golf Links, which hosted the 2007 Open Championship, are doing a great deal this summer. From 1st April until 31st October, a combination ticket giving you 1 round on each of the 3 courses (Championship, Burnside and Buddon Links) will cost £145. The only condition is that you play the 3 rounds over a 3 day period. Seems to be a good deal considering 1 round on the championship course normally costs £125. They also have some other good combination ticket deals. For more info click here.
http://www.carnoustiegolflinks.co.uk/
March 29, 2008
Apart from golf there are lots of other interesting things to do in and around St. Andrews. If you’re having a day off from golf or have a free afternoon, then you may find a trip to the Secret Bunker interesting. It’s an old cold war nuclear bunker, that was hidden beneath a farmhouse for 40 years, with 24,000 square feet of accomodation, on 2 levels, 100 feet underground. They also have a collection of military vehicles including tanks and missile launchers.
The Secret Bunker is about 7 miles from St. Andrews. Admission prices are:
ADULT : £ 8.60
CHILD : £ 5.60
FAMILY TICKET : £ 23.60 2 Adults & 2 Children
GROUP : £ 7.60 (Min 10 people)
O.A.P GROUP : £ 6.60 (Min 10 people)
CONCESSION : £ 7.10
For opening times and contact details click here.
http://www.secretbunker.co.uk/
March 28, 2008
I found these course updates in the April 2008 St. Andrews Links newsletter.
Old Course
Fairway mats are no longer in operation on the Old Course and their use through the winter has been significant in helping present the course in such good condition for the new season. All fairways were sprayed with wetting agent and seaweed to help protect against early season drought. Gorse removal is continuing in preparation for The Open in 2010. We appreciate that this work can be disruptive and appears unsightly at first, but it is essential in order to allow either the regeneration of new, young gorse or the finer links grasses. A light application of fertiliser will be put on greens and immediate surrounds during April to encourage early spring growth. All aeration work was completed in March and now regular, light applications of top dressing will be applied to true and firm surfaces on greens. Overseeding work to selected areas of greens and fairways will be implemented towards the end of April while attention to presentation is uppermost in our thoughts as we near the start of the main playing season and we continue to prepare the surfaces.
New Course
All bunkers are back in play, with fresh sand added to those that were rebuilt and the remaining ones being topped up. The high winds of February and March added considerably to the workload because sand had to be constantly repositioned within bunkers. An application of liquid fertiliser has been given to greens and aprons to stimulate growth and tees will be overseeded and top dressed to aid recovery after winter play. A new astroturf path has been installed to take golfers from the tenth tee. This completes all the pathways on the New and Jubilee being converted to astroturf which is less noisy and messy than shell. New Course maintenance mornings will again be on Tuesdays, unless there is a competition scheduled for that day. Normal work schedules on maintenance mornings include top dressing, rolling, aerating or brushing the greens and surrounds, all with minimal disturbance to golf, to produce smooth, firm putting surfaces.
Jubilee Course
Course cutting and definition will increase during April, with greens getting cut at least five times per week and rolled twice. We will also use brushing to stand up any lateral growth prior to mowing. All areas are set to be sprayed with wetting agent to aid water infiltration. Herbicide application is likely to be given to fairways for weed control and some fertiliser applications may also occur later in the month if temperatures are suitable.
Eden Course
With the majority of our winter projects completed, work in April will concentrate on course preparation and presentation. Our mowing programme will be dictated by the weather: as temperatures rise, mowing frequency will increase. We will begin our top dressing programme on greens, aprons, tees and selected fairway areas to keep playing surfaces firm and true. Greens and aprons will be sprayed with seaweed and wetting agent along with some tees and other areas which are prone to drying out. Aeration work on high traffic areas will continue but with minimum disturbance to surfaces. All bunkers were topped up with sand and back in play for 1 April and our final winter project, re-routing the road that runs between the thirteenth and sixteenth holes should be complete, with the strip where the old road ran having been landscaped and turfed.
Strathtyrum Course
An iron based fertiliser has been applied to greens and tees to treat moss and suppress weeds. Bunkers have been filled with sand and the trimming of gorse is now complete. All the main tees are back in play, and so are all the bunkers. The fourth/eleventh green is also being used again. The cutting programme will be increased in April. Greens and tees will receive a main spring feed as well as aeration work.
Golf Practice Centre
A spring fertiliser will be applied to practice greens and tees. The worn astroturf to the south side of the building has been replaced. Play from mats at the short game area ceased on 1 April.
http://www.standrews.org.uk/news/newsletter/2008/LinksNewsApr08.pdf
March 27, 2008
The saga of the proposed £1bn Trump golf resort in Aberdeenshire looks to be heading for a conclusion, one way or another. At a special hearing in Aberdeen, it was decided that the public enquiry will begin on the 10th of June. The planning application was initially rejected by the local council last year, only to be called in by the Scottish Government for review. It was then decided that a public enquiry should be held due to the nature of the application and the considerable public interest.
The proposed resort includes 2 championship golf courses, a 5 star hotel, 950 holiday homes and 36 golf villas on the Menie Estate. The plans have attracted opposition from a number of wildlife groups due to the proposed site being an environmentally sensitive area.
To see more detailed plans for the Trump golf resort, click on the link below.
http://www.aberdeenshire.gov.uk/planning/apps/detail.asp?ref_no=APP/2006/4605
Some links to statement made by environmental groups.
http://www.rspb.org.uk/news/details.asp?id=tcm:9-177745
http://www.swt.org.uk/Downloads/02_d_PR_LINK_Trump_12Dec07.pdf
March 26, 2008
I found an article written in the St. Andrews Citizen Newspaper about the growing support for the rail link to St. Andrews to be re-established. Up until 1969 St. Andrews was connected to the rail system but fell victim to the cull of branch lines by British Rail. Since then the only way for people to travel to, and from, St. Andrews by rail is through Leuchers Station, which is around 6 miles from St. Andrews. It seems that people have finally become tired of getting the bus between St. Andrews and Leuchers station due to the poor scheduling of the bus timetable.
When you consider how many people visit St. Andrews every year it seems crazy that there is no train station in the town. At a time when global warming and cutting carbon emissions seem to be in the news all the time, it’s strange that this issue hasn’t had more attention. For a group of people on a trip to St. Andrews who have flown into Glasgow or Edinburgh airport, travelling on to St. Andrews by train is simply not an option as they would have luggage and golf clubs to carry, plus hiring a mini-bus or car would be so much easier.
If you’ve ever been to St. Andrews in the summer months you’ve probably noticed how many cars there are and how difficult it can be to get a parking space. A direct rail link to St. Andrews would surely reduce the number of cars and allow people to bypass traffic jams when big tournaments are on.
Will there ever be a day when someone who has flown into Edinburgh airport can get a train direct to St. Andrews from within the terminal building? Maybe that’s too many steps at once for the politicians but let’s hope they start looking at re-establishing the train link soon.
St. Andrews Citizen Article
St. Andrews Rail Link Campaign
March 25, 2008
I noticed that there is currently a 3 story, 5 bedroom, town house called “The Residence” up for sale which overlooks the 18th green on the Old Course. It’s not for sale as a whole, but as 4 week timeshares. Each share costs £775,000, which gets you 2 weeks in high season and 2 weeks at another time of the year. Annual management charge is £12,000. Just goes to show how much demand there must be for property overlooking the Old Course. It reminds me of a story I read about 2 years ago saying that Phil Mickelson had bought a 9 week timeshare at St. Andrews Grand for $3.4 million. I can’t say I blame people with money for paying these prices, how could you not be tempted if you had that sort of money to spare?!
http://www.theresidence-standrews.com/
http://www.standrewsgrand.com/
March 24, 2008
The Castle Course, which is now the 7th course managed by the St. Andrews Links Trust, will open this summer. Bookings are now being taken for the period between 28 June and 31 October 2008. The green fees are £120 for adults and £60 if you’re under 16. For more information click here.
Lets hope it’s as good as it looks!
Also, i’ve added some information about the Old Course at St. Andrews under golf courses. I’ll try and add in some more courses over the next few months.
March 24, 2008
Hello and welcome to a new blog which is dedicated to golf in St Andrews and the surrounding area.
We will be bringing you news, views, travel & accommodation info, golf courses, things to do, restaurants, and anything else related to golfing in, and around, St Andrews.
If you have any suggestions or ideas for the blog then please let us know.
Eddie
