St Andrews golfers' launch survey amid claims locals are being squeezed out by visitor boom

It has come from a new group set up amid concerns that they are losing out as visitor numbers to play the globally renowned courses run by St Andrews Links Trust continues to grow.

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 the boom in overseas visitors getting tee-times. The trust - the charitable body responsible for managing the historic courses in the town - recently reported an 11% increase on the previous record set in 2019 with course occupancy across its seven courses also hitting a record high of 78%.

The St Andrews Resident Golfers Association (STARGA) launched a website which it said was a “central platform for all resident golfers of St Andrews” with the aim of gathering and reflecting their opinions of the sport on the town’s links courses. It said it hopes by engaging with it residents it will become clearer as to what the views and issues are from a local golfer perspective - and once there is clarity, it intends to raise them with the relevant authorities “to promote change.”

A spokesperson for association, said “We have been very pleased and surprised with the number of people who have engaged with us and we are now in a position to undertake the survey quicker than we had planned. The comments that we have received already suggest some common themes such as concern about the increasing number of visitor tee times, the impact from the western expansion of the town and demand from the larger numbers of students at the university which is putting pressure on tee times and these issues will be included in the survey.

“Once the residents’ views are know we will be engaging with the Links Trust and other stakeholders to determine how any concerns can be taken forward.

The association said the trust’s most recent annual report indicated that there were over 150,000 visitor rounds which is significantly more than ticketholder rounds and up to 50% more than historic trends - and it added: “We feel that it is important that residents engage with us.”