Craigtoun general manager Ayden Roberts-Jones said members’ rounds “have probably exceeded expectations” while it was “probably the visitor side” falling short of expectations. He forecasts that around 60% of rounds this year will come from local players and 40% from visitors.
General manager Ayden Roberts-Jones has been at Craigtoun for 24 years (Image: Supplied)
Those “members” include the 350 golfers who belonged to what was formerly the Duke’s Golf Club, as well as holders of the St Andrews Links Ticket, the trust’s broader membership scheme covering its other seven courses in the town. Mr Roberts-Jones said play among those two groups had at least doubled compared with previous years.
He attributed the shortfall on the visitor side to a combination of factors, including a wet start to the year, the challenges of raising awareness of the course under its new name, and the fact that many golfers arrive in St Andrews with pre-planned itineraries centred around the town’s more established courses.
“We had a terrible start to the year: January and February were soaking,” he said. “We probably missed a little bit of low season on that side of it.”
The trust is now looking at changes to the booking process in an effort to capture more golfers who miss out on tee times elsewhere, particularly those unsuccessful in the Old Course ballot.
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“If you are unsuccessful in the ballot and get that email at four or five o’clock, you need to make it easy for people to see what’s available at Craigtoun,” Mr Roberts-Jones said.
“Also, because of the name change, there were probably a lot of people returning to St Andrews asking, ‘Where’s the Duke’s?’ Now it is Craigtoun and they may not have known that, so we might have missed a few rounds from that.”
One of the main strategic arguments for the acquisition is that it will provide additional capacity for the trust’s approximately 6,000 Links Ticket holders. There has been friction about access for local golfers as visitor demand for golf in St Andrews has surged in the years since the pandemic.
“The great thing for us is having the Links Ticket: people are able to come and play through it,” Mr Roberts-Jones said. “That’s probably been the biggest increase we’ve seen, and a big part of why Craigtoun was taken on board.”
Investment plans include a refurbishment and overhaul of the 123 bunkers throughout the course (Image: Mark Alexander)
However, he acknowledged it remains difficult to determine how far Craigtoun is relieving pressure on the trust’s other courses. While there has been “a little bit of a downturn” in play at the Castle Course, he said the overall picture is complicated by factors including construction work that affected the Old Course earlier in the year.
Craigtoun has introduced member-only tee times in the morning and later in the day, with additional availability released through the trust’s booking system. Mr Roberts-Jones said the layout’s two loops of nine holes had proved particularly useful for golfers seeking a shorter round.
Looking ahead, the trust is planning investment that includes refurbishment work within the clubhouse and practice facilities, along with a review of Craigtoun’s 123 bunkers.
Asked how he would judge at the end of this year whether the transition has been a success, Mr Roberts-Jones pointed to three measures: sustained use by Links Ticket holders, ease of access to the course, and support from the local golfing community.
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“First and foremost, the number of Links Ticket members coming to play,” he said. “It has not been a one-hit wonder: they have come up, enjoyed it and become regulars.”
He added that accessibility and the customer experience would be equally important, arguing that success would ultimately depend on whether local golfers embraced the venue’s new role within the St Andrews Links family.
“If we can have the local community really singing about us, that is where it starts,” he added.
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(Image: Damian Shields)