New St Andrews golf group announces first open meeting for members

The St Andrews Resident Golfers Association (STARGA) will welcome them to St Andrews United Clubhouse on Langlands Road on Monday (November 25) at 7:30 pm where it will announce the results of its survey which indicated that there was extensive dissatisfaction with access to the courses, as well as formalising its constitution and appointing office bearers.

A spokesperson for the association said: “We are keen to understand the current views of members and how they wish to take the issues that they have identified forward. We would encourage as many members as possible to attend to make their views known”

Anyone who wishes to join the nearly 200 existing members to attend can do so at www.standrewsresidentgolfersassociation.com or by email at [email protected] .

STARGA launched in summer amid concerns that resident golfers were being squeezed out by a huge boom in visitor numbers. Locals have a historic right to get a ticket to play the seven courses run by St Andrews Links Trust (SALT), which include the world famous Old Course, New Course, Eden and Jubilee. There are around 700 resident ticket holders in the town, and the association said there was a feeling that their “golfing experience” had been impacted by more and more overseas visitors getting tee-times.

STARGA’s survey showed 90% of respondents agree or strongly agree that increased visitor numbers had a negative impact on their golf experience - and 97% felt there were more visitors all year round. Some 75% wanted to see students’ tickets limited to term time, while many comments called for more local tee times and wanted the Links Trust to revert to its pre-pandemic 7:00am opening which residents felt worked well.

The Trust said it had experienced a “significant increase and unprecedented demand” to play the renowned courses, but said there had been no decrease in the number of times available to ticket holders during this time.

Its own survey of our ticket holders, with more than 1,200 responses, showed nearly nine in 10 of those who responded said their links ticket represented good value for money with the majority of courses receiving positive feedback for availability of access. However, course access was highlighted as an area of concern for many with more dedicated ticket holder times cited as the best way to deliver improvement.