The 1,200 sq-metre facility, will provide St Andrews Links Trust with a two-storey building that once completed will serve as an office hub for more than 50 staff working across a range of different operational disciplines, including IT, HR, Food & Beverage, Finance, Technical Services, Tournaments, Golf and Commerce.

The building will provide Links Trust staff with open-plan offices, meeting spaces and dedicated areas for the training and development of more than 400 permanent and seasonal staff employed by the Trust at the Home of Golf.

Euan Loudon, chief executive St Andrews Links Trust, said: “This new office adjacent to the Balgove and Strathtyrum Courses isn’t just about new desks and a new location. Bringing our people from four sites onto one provides us with the opportunity to change the way we work together and will enable us to deliver further enhancements for golfers and visitors to the area.

“This new facility has been designed to harness one of our single greatest assets: our people. Their hard work and dedication is the foundation of everything we do. With this design we will have new, flexible ways of working so we can provide a modern, fit-for-purpose environment for existing staff as well as ensuring we continue to attract and retain the best talent to help drive St Andrews Links forward for the next stage in its development and renown.” 

The new offices have been designed by Dundee architecture firm Nicoll Russell Studios. The building has been planned in an energy efficient, environmentally sensitive manner and will sit quietly yet confidently in the Links landscape, drawing influence from the unique history of St Andrews while also reflecting the qualities and values for which the Home of Golf is famous around the world.

Scott Turpie, director at Nicoll Russell Studios, said: “We are delighted to be working with St Andrews Links Trust on such an exciting project. The new headquarters will fulfil a key role in the Trust’s wider and ongoing improvement plans for the area, consolidating a range of administrative resources together under one roof and strengthening capacity to deliver further enhancements for golfers.

“We are looking forward to the months ahead as the project moves into its construction phase, and to continuing our work with the Trust as it strives to deliver ever better services and facilities for the golfing community and for St Andrews.”

Preparatory work on the site began this week as contractors demolished a former residential property that served as a starter’s hut for the Balgove Course and provided limited office and meeting space. The footprint of this building and surrounding area will form the site of the new headquarters.

Plans were approved by Fife Council in September 2018 with work on the new building expected to begin early this summer ahead of an estimated completion date of November 2020.

As well as creating new headquarters the project will also include:

• The creation of a new “Eden gateway” facilitating wayfinding, drop-off, cycle parking and seating
• A new shared utilities and plant room services hub for the offices and the Eden Clubhouse
• A new starter box for the Balgove course

An additional, sensitively screened, 75 car parking spaces for the Eden car park, providing both increased provision for the new office facility and additional capacity for visitors coming to the Eden Clubhouse / Pilmour House, the Golf Academy and the Eden-side courses.