Golf Business News – St Andrews Link Expands Border Limits for Resident Tickets

St Andrews Links Trust has expanded its residents’ borders to recognize the most important town expansion of a generation.

The trust, a charity that manages world-renowned old courses, and six other public courses in the town, announced the change that will be incorporated into two new housing developments over the next 20 years and may have 1,500 households.

The move is part of a series of measures that highlight the trust’s commitment to its original charitable goals.

Founded in 1974 in 1974, Links Trust is responsible for the operation of the course according to the conduct of the parliament. Residents living in St Andrews are eligible to purchase annual link tickets, allowing them to enjoy year-round golf in all seven link trust courses at a discounted price. The 2025 resident link ticket costs £386, violating the current “visitor” green fee of £340.

Two new developments, including St Andrews West, are being structured in stages and completed within the next 20 years. Both are located outside the existing town boundaries, but from April 1, 2026, residents who meet the Trust’s permanent residence standards will be eligible for a link ticket.

In addition to this extension, the Trust is reviewing the categories of its linked tickets to ensure they continue to best serve their diverse ticket holder audience under the obligations of the 1974 Act and the Philanthropic Objectives of Public Welfare.

This will mean simplified ticketing for two major categories starting in April 2027: Resident and Ordinary. This update will see ticket holders within the resident boundary receive the resident category, and all other ticket sellers belong to the normal ticket. Residents of Fav will be eligible for a discount on regular fare prices.

These categories replace former residents, Northeast Favre, regular tickets and open tickets. Discounts will also be evacuated from local club members in St Andrews. This discount was previously introduced in 2002 to support local clubs, when the number of members was low.

Now, in many cases, local clubs including the new, St Rules, St Regulus and St Andrews have strong membership numbers and waitlists in many cases.

However, the Trust stressed that the club will continue to play an important role in the entire golf ecosystem of St Andrews, which will be used with them as they provide opportunities for competitive gaming, kickoff era and social facilities.

Discounts for canceling club members are driven by the need to comply with charitable laws. By associating a linked ticket with a club membership, this can be seen as providing a private benefit to the club.

As part of the overall review process, the Trust also reclassifies its student-link tickets, which will return to semester-based tickets starting in September 2025, offering high-value golf balls consistent with the school year. Exploring options for students who stay in St Andrews during non-semester periods.

Currently, all major categories of link tickets are subject to a lengthy waiting list, except for residents and student tickets. Therefore, the Trust Fund also decided to close the waitlist to new applicants and would not release any new tickets as early as April 2027. Golfers currently on the waiting list will be fully refunded if they wish to remove their name from the list.

The changes introduced are the latest output from the Golf Visit Project Working Group, which was established in 2022 in the Trust Fund to review and monitor the growing demand for ticket holders and visitors to play on St Andrews links. St Andrews Link has experienced a significant increase in demand after excitement, with the golf round exceeding 280,000 for the first time in 2023 history. During this period, voting applications for old courses increased by 67% since the pandemic and advanced old courses were applied.

The Trust launched the launch of Drive Initiative in 2025, ensuring courses are open and accessible to everyone, and the program provides low-cost golf opportunities for Scottish golfers who are not currently ticket sellers. The program will be repeated and enhanced in 2026.

Neil Coulson, CEO of St Andrews Links Trust, said: “Our priority as a charity is to balance the courses of visiting residents and visitors while ensuring the long-term sustainability of the links. Expanding the borders of residents is an important way to open up opportunities for more families to play here, and our ticketing review also ensures that the system ensures that the system is fair, balanced, welcomes our future and provides us with the appropriate scope, we will interact with us to meet our future, we will meet with our scope, we will meet with our subjects, we will meet with our subjects, we will meet with us.

“No link ticket holders will delete tickets as part of the change and we look forward to working with local clubs to ensure they continue to thrive as part of this unique golf ecosystem in St Andrews.”