By Gordon Berry

PLANS TO develop a new multi-million private golf course and exclusive members club at Feddinch, near St Andrews, are “on hold” but have not been dropped.

This has been confirmed by one of the richest men in the USA, billionaire Tim Blixseth, at a time when the worldwide credit crunch is putting international property development plans at risk.

Recently US golf visitor numbers to Scotland are said to have dropped to post-9/11 levels and concern has been expressed on the future of another tourism-related St Andrews project at Hamilton Hall beside the Old Course.

The latest plans for the Feddinch land south-west of St Andrews were revealed in late 2005, when Mr Blixseth and his wife Edra bought the land with its existing planning consent.

In spite of a statement that work would begin early last year, there has still been no movement on the site, and the Blixseths have since become involved in a highly publicised divorce.

Contacted this week, Mr Blixseth said that there had been a few changes in the overall thinking, but the basic private golf course for members is very much a viable and real plan.

“Sometimes things just take a little longer than they are planned, but in most cases in the end they turn out just fine.

“We are on hold right now but hope to get going very soon,” he said.

Mr Blixseth did not expand any further on the eventual shape the development would take, or whether it would still form part of a planned worldwide network of properties called “Yellowstone Club World.”

As the plans stand, the development would house an 18-hole golf course, clubhouse and spa, and 40 accommodation suites.

When he acquired the Feddinch site, Mr Blixseth spoke exclusively to The Courier and described the move as a “once in a lifetime” opportunity that came his way purely by chance when he had been playing golf with his friend Tom Weiskopf, the golfing great and course designer at Feddinch.

The development was to become part of a group of properties including the Yellowstone Club—the world’s only private golf and ski community—a fishing lodge in Alaska, a villa in Tuscany, a spa in Palm Springs and a historic castle in Ireland.

The previous intention had been for a 20-month spell of construction which would have seen all facilities opened by spring next year.

The land at Feddinch lies close to the existing Duke’s Course complex, where work is now under way on the conversion of the former Craigtoun mansion into an exclusive members club. The building has lain unoccupied for many years following its final use as a hospital and care facility for the elderly.

The Duke’s Course is part of the Old Course Hotel, Resort and Spa operation in St Andrews, which is also in US hands. The owner is Herb Kohler, of Kohler Co, who already runs one of the top golf destinations in the US, at Kohler in Wisconsin, where there are four championship golf courses, two of them inland, and two beside Lake Michigan.

North American interest in North East Fife also extends to the golf and leisure complex overlooking St Andrews Bay from a clifftop site near the town. It is owned by an investment fund and is operated by the Canadian-based Fairmont hotel group.