THE NEW multi-million pound golf course being developed on a cliff site on the outskirts of St Andrews, will help to meet worldwide demand. According to St Andrews Links Trust, waiting lists in some categories for tickets to play on the town’s links now extend up to 20 years.

Officials at the trust took the decision to construct a seventh course to meet the sharply rising demand. The course is set to open in 2008.

The links administrators are delighted at the progress of the course at Kinkell Braes, to the south-east of the town.

After good headway was made in its first year of construction, the course, which has the working title of No7, is beginning to take shape and five holes—the 12th, 13th, 14th, 16th and 17th—have now been seeded, project manager Peter Mason said yesterday.

Drainage and shaping work has been continuing over recent months and seeding is due to resume in spring and be completed by the end of August. Should the weather prove favourable, it is hoped that No7 will be open for demonstration play late next year.

Mr Mason, who is also the trust’s external relations manager, said that work throughout the 220-acre site is progressing well. Plans are being developed for a circular clubhouse beside the double ninth and 18th greens, which will offer spectacular views to the North Sea.

Two key appointments have already been made to the team—Allan Paterson, former head greenkeeper of the Kings, Queens and Wee courses at Gleneagles, has been appointed head greenkeeper, while his deputy is Trevor Harris, who has moved from Arbroath Golf Club where he was also head greenkeeper. Mr Paterson said, “It is a huge challenge developing a new course which is required to live up to the standards expected of the Home of Golf, but it is one which we are all relishing.

“It is very exciting to be given the opportunity to see a course all the way through from construction to normal play. We are determined to take all the time necessary to ensure that the course is in excellent condition when it opens, and I think people will find that No7 will be something a bit special.”

The course is being planted with a fescue-bent mix of grasses, very much in the links tradition, with pure fescues and a wild flower meadow mix being used in the large areas of natural rough. The fairways will be wide at the landing areas, but undulating with mounds and humps and hollows and the approaches to the large greens are being made similar to the greens themselves to allow for the traditional links running shot.

Mr Mason said that a great deal of care has been taken to ensure that the routing of the course makes the most of its spectacular cliff setting and will enable golfers to enjoy wonderful golf holes framed by breathtaking views. The course is set out in two loops of nine holes, most of which run on an east to west axis. Six of them run along the cliff’s edge.

One of the course’s most striking holes will be the 17th. The testing par three will present golfers with a dramatic challenge as it invites them to take on the rocky chasm below to fly the ball to a green sitting atop a rocky outcrop.

Each hole will feature five tees and consequently it will play anything from 5600 to 7200 yards.