Features

Above par at St Andrews

1 Dec 2008 by Tom Otley
St Andrews

Golf gift shops, golf memorabilia shops, golf antique shops. In every café, a golfing theme; in every bar, a man so obsessed with his last game, that his idea of a round is 18 holes rather than buying some drinks. If you found yourself in St Andrews by accident, it wouldn’t take you long to work out where you were. This is the “Home of Golf”. If you’re here and you’re not a golfer, you’re a student.

Ah yes, students. In recent years, St Andrews has had a fair amount of publicity for being the university of heir to the British throne Prince William (and his long-term girlfriend, Kate Middleton). They have long gone, but the association did the town no harm, and even out of season (November to March) the voices on the street are more likely to be Japanese or American than Scottish.

What makes St Andrews slightly different from other beautiful but remote towns in Scotland is both how well-known it is around the world, and the ease with which international travellers can reach it.

Eighty kilometres south and about an hour’s drive is Edinburgh, from which there are regular flights to London Heathrow or Emirates’ double-daily flights direct from Dubai. Fifteen minutes away is Dundee airport, which has daily flights to London City, and a 10-minute drive takes you to Leuchars railway station (connections from London King’s Cross via Edinburgh). For the super-rich, there’s also the option of St Andrews Leuchars Air Base for private jets or chartered aircraft up to the size of a Boeing B737, which ought to be enough for a 50th birthday party treat.

The attraction for conventions and incentives is clear. Lindsay Brown, UK marketing manager of VisitScotland’s Business Travel Unit, says: “St Andrews and its wealth of historic landmarks continue to thrive as a top business destination. The area has a distinctive allure when it comes to attracting major conferences and events to the area and, as the definitive home of Scottish golf, there is much to offer in the way of incentives.”

This opinion is backed up by the managing director of the Old Course Hotel, Debbie Taylor. “It’s very accessible,” she says, “and because of the whole backdrop of the old course, our organisers say the attendance is superb – everyone accepts an invitation to St Andrews.”

This popularity is also helped by the activities of the university, where in 2007/08 a third of the 6,788 students were international, including large contingents from China and the US. (Indeed, St Andrews hosts one-fifth of all US students in the UK.)

Brown also points out the significant investment being made in accommodation. “The Old Course Hotel Golf and Spa Resort has recently completed a £12 million (US$18.8 million) refurbishment to upgrade the art spa and fitness studio, and the Fairmont is undergoing a multimillion-pound redevelopment to create a destination spa venue to complement the golf and sporting facilities.”

The Old Course Hotel has changed ownership in recent years, from a Japanese company to Kohler Hotels and Resorts, an operator better known in the US than the UK (although famous worldwide for its bathroom products). The spa has been upgraded and turned into a Kohler Water spa, with hydrotherapy and coloured lights incorporated into the treatments.

The hotel was originally built in the 1960s as an 80-room property and it’s hard to believe anyone would today receive permission to build alongside the 17th hole – the famous Road Hole. (In fact, when you watch a tournament here and they put the professionals’ tee further back for this hole, they are practically playing over a corner of the hotel.) Since then, the hotel has been through several refurbishments, and now has 144 rooms including 35 suites, 65 percent of which have views over the old course.

Inside, the hotel doesn’t feel Scottish – you could be in the US were it not for the warmth of the welcome from the predominantly local staff – but you are unmistakably in five-star luxury in the greatest location for golf in the world. And that will be enough of a draw for a substantial majority of the golf-playing public.

“It’s iconic, it’s unique, and the surroundings lend themselves to the incentive market,” says Debbie Taylor. “Kite-biking along the West Sands, beach barbecues, fishing, whisky-tasting guided by master distillers, off-road jeeps, hot-air ballooning, falconry, historic walking tours, and for events we hire kilts for guests and have a kilt-dresser to help them look the part. They can go off to Glamis Castle and, of course, we have 12 golf courses nearby.”

The hotel’s business reflects its location, with only about 1 percent of its customers being corporate business travellers, 30 percent being conference and incentive guests (C&I), and the rest leisure. The C&I market grew by 25 percent last year, though, partly because of the refurbishment of the conferencing facilities in 2006. These now offer between eight and 12 meeting rooms, including a ballroom with capacity for up to 300 people.

The hotel has been designed so that the majority of the 144 rooms and suites look out over the course. In the evening, with the windows open and the fresh sea air entering the room (something you’d attempt only for a few months each year at St Andrews – it can get bitterly cold in winter), I watched as someone sliced their shot. It fell just short of the beer garden of one of the hotel’s bars, the circa-1850s Jigger Inn (a jigger is a type of golf club). A few minutes later, the next set of golfers hacked one into the garden beneath our window, reason for the warning in the garden of the Jigger Inn to keep watching for wayward shots.

It’s doubtful there’s a finer spot for a golfer to sit than at one of these pub tables watching four-ball after four-ball playing the penultimate hole at St Andrews. The first floor of the club house is visible a few hundred yards away, its lower storey sinking beneath the undulating course, like a ship floating on a sea of green. Beyond there is only the sky and the promise of the West Sands – famous for those training scenes from the film Chariots of Fire – and then St Andrews Bay. You don’t need to play golf to appreciate St Andrews, but it helps.

Old Course Hotel, Old Station Road; www.oldcoursehotel.kohler.com. Prices start from £235 (US$368) for an Eden Room.

National Express East Coast has four direct departures daily to Leuchars, close to St Andrews, from London King’s Cross. Prices from £30 (US$47) for standard class. Book at www.nationalexpresseastcoast.com or by phone at 44 8457 225 225.

Seafood restaurant

Overlooking the West Sands, The Seafood Restaurant has 60 tables in a modern building with floor-to-ceiling windows, an outdoor decking area and an open kitchen where chef Craig Millar and team calmly put together delicious seafood. This is a high-end operation, with linen tablecloths, an impressive wine list and food presented in faultless fashion by young but confident staff. Starters for lunch included rosemary skewered monkfish with citrus couscous, guacamole and rosemary syrup, or chicken liver parfait with apple jelly, foie gras and Parma ham boudin, while main courses included grilled fillet of sole with Savoy cabbage, pancetta, root vegetables and celeriac cream, or pan-seared fillet of halibut with seafood and pancetta chowder and braised pak choi. It’s all about flavours, and the portions are such that choosing the excellent value three-course menu (£26/US$41) is the way to go, allowing for working off the calories on a brisk walk along the West Sands in the afternoon.

The Seafood Restaurant, Bruce Embankment; tel 44 1334 479 475; http://theseafoodrestaurant.com. Lunch menu: two courses £22 (US$34); three courses £26 (US$41); dinner menu: three courses £45 (US$70).

THE UNIVERSITY OF ST ANDREWS

Almost one in three students at St Andrews is international, coming from the US (the university hosts one in five of all US students in the UK) and China (where the university’s English Language Teaching department undertakes targeted recruitment), as well as Germany, Italy, Canada, India and Taiwan. In total, the university is a temporary home to students of 75 nationalities.

Despite being one of Scotland’s smallest universities, St Andrews has a formidable reputation and receives over 11 applications for every place, and fees from overseas student recruitment and research activity now account for 20 percent of total income. In addition, the newly opened £45 million (US$70.45 million) School of Medicine and the Sciences has been supported in part by an £8 million (US$12.52 million) donation from the Sekhar Foundation of Malaysia, the charitable arm of the Petra Group. The School will be named after the late Dr B C Sekhar, founder of the Malaysian rubber industry and father of the current Petra chief executive, Vinod Sekhar.

The donation is the largest single gift ever received by a Scottish university. As part of the donation, the university and the Sekhar Foundation are establishing scholarships to allow bright young Malaysian students to study the arts and sciences at St Andrews.

Lindsay Brown, UK marketing manager of VisitScotland’s Business Travel Unit, says: “We anticipate the school will be a major draw for associations and conferences to St Andrews, where delegates will not only be able to experience many of the town’s world-famous attractions but also new incentives.”

Further information is available from [email protected] or via the web at www.st-andrews.ac.uk

Fast Facts

• 2.26 million business trips were made to Scotland in 2007
• Business tourism generated ?826m (US$1,293m)
• Business visitors spend £96 (US$150) per night, against £53 (US$83) for other visitors.
• Scotland accounts for 25 percent of all international association meetings held in the UK.
Source: Business Tourism Statistics – Scotland 2008

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