A year ago, a student of my acquaintance was paying £1,350 a month (approximately $1,765) for her share of a two-bedroom flat in the centre of St Andrews. For the purposes of the 150th Open championship, a golf fanatic has shelled out £13,000 (approximately $16,975) for a week’s stay at that same property. Unbelievable? Not at all.
Some students have done a deal with their landlords. Their usual 12-month contracts have been terminated (this can come as a relief) and they will head for home while their landlords make hay not just during the Open but the rest of the holiday season.
“The city is bursting at the seams,” said David Scott, the general manager at the nearby Dumbarnie Links, that much-heralded new course which caught the eye of golfers the world over during last year’s Scottish Women’s Open.
“Where To Stay” requests for the Open are on an R&A website, but since the R&A themselves are not licensed to deal with that side of things, people will be directed from there to the Open Accommodation Bureau.
For the most part, would-be visitors will start off by looking for a hotel.
What they are most likely to get under that heading is a blank space below the advice that there is no availability. Mind you, there is a slither of hope in a recently added line, “We are currently collating our hotel inventory.” (The R&A book all the accommodation in premier establishments such as the Rusacks Hotel and the Old Course Hotel well ahead of time, though there is always the chance that some players and their management teams will make a last-minute decision to opt out of any hotel arrangement and rent a house instead.)
The properties-for-let heading certainly shows more promise, though anyone seeing a property which appeals would do well not to dither between one house or apartment and another. The ones within walking distance of the Old Course disappear as quickly as they appear, though, in fairness, they are popping up all the time as neighbours pass on the details of the mouth-watering deals they have arranged for themselves.
Still up for rent at the time of writing was a lower ground floor flat in the heart of St Andrews describing itself as “a chic, calm property with lashings of contemporary style.” With two bedrooms and one bathroom it was priced at £18,000.
Asked for his advice on how those who have only just made up their minds to come to the Open should get started, Scott suggests that they should scour the R&A website in the hope of cancellations of one sort or another before ringing round individual hotels, boarding houses and Airbnbs.
Again, a property no more than two minutes from West Sands Beach and 0.4 of a mile from the course – this one was offering five bedrooms and four bathrooms – was going for £15,000.
Outside St Andrews, some properties do not shift as quickly as you might think. For instance, there is, or was, a handsome, nine-bedroomed mansion, plus a stable block, some 16 miles from the town, with the overall price for a total of 14 bedrooms and 12 bathrooms of £48,650.
At £25,000, a “unique” eight-bedroomed, eight-bathroomed detached property in Cupar, which is 13.6 miles away, looked a good bet for those blessed with the financial wherewithal.
The Open camping site, which is in walking distance from the championship entrance, looks appealing on the website and sounds even more so at a time when the long-term forecast for the Open is for temperatures of between 21c and 24c degrees (70-75° F). However, bearing in mind that there is usually one bad day during a championship at the Old Course (there were two in 2015 thanks to heavy rain and howling wind) you might need to be a little wary of those figures.
Hardy folk might survive in a small tent for which they would pay £50 per person per night. More ordinary mortals, on the other hand, might prefer “glamping,” which is often described as luxury camping. For well-anchored glamping accommodation for four, the price would be £330 on the Wednesday and Thursday nights and £380 on the Friday and Saturday before returning to the lower rate on the Sunday. There are under-cover refreshment areas which, judging from what people have had to say in previous years, are alive with merry chatter in the evenings.
In the town, the restaurants are as busy as everywhere else and anyone thinking of taking friends out for a meal might have to think again. All the restaurants were fully booked by Christmas. True, there are a couple of first-class fish and chip shops on Market Street, but no one should expect to dash out and buy them in five minutes as would happen at any other time of the year.
Post Open, fans from all over the world are staying on to play golf themselves, with the aforementioned Scott saying that he has starting times from 6.20 until 5.20 every day the following week, along with lengthy waiting lists. The price for a four-ball is £1,082, a sum which is no different from what they are charging at the Old Course or at Carnoustie, though rather less than what people will be paying at Kingsbarns.
Asked for his advice on how those who have only just made up their minds to come to the Open should get started, Scott suggests that they should scour the R&A website in the hope of cancellations of one sort or another before ringing round individual hotels, boarding houses and Airbnbs.
And if they have no luck there, he thinks they should consider staying in Dundee or even Aberdeen. From both of these cities, there is a direct train to Leuchars Junction with buses lying in wait at the St Andrews end.
Edinburgh is another option, though Edinburgh in that July week will be busy even without an Open 50 miles away. There is a Van Gogh Alive exhibition in Festival Square until the 17th of the month along with a Jazz and Blues festival from the 15th to the 24th.
Were you to stay at the city’s Waldorf Astoria, suites boasting a view of Edinburgh Castle would set you back a little matter of £5,700 per night. Why so much? Maybe it’s down to a daylight view of the castle being available until 10.15 p.m.
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