BOSSES at the Home of Golf have threatened legal action against a new £25 million course if they use the name St Andrews.

The St Andrews Links Trust (SALT), which owns the famous Old Course, has warned St Andrews International Golf Club (SAIGC) that all references to St Andrews should be "abandoned" from the new course.

SAIGC is developing an ambitious private golf course in Feddinch designed by former Open winner Tom Weiskopf.

The course, which is three miles outside St Andrews, has been told "if an adequate and expedient resolution cannot be found, St Andrews Links Trust intend to raise legal action for passing off in the Court of Session".

Legal letters on behalf of SALT and its wholly-owned subsidiary St Andrews Links Ltd (SALL) add the SAIGC, which comprises St Andrews International Golf Club Ltd and Feddinch Developments, should "irrevocably adopt a trading name which does not contain the term St Andrews".

The charitable trust, which manages seven public golf courses including the Old Course, claims SAIGC's use of the name St Andrews is "fundamentally ­misleading" and is causing confusion in a worldwide market where the name St Andrews is synonymous with the reputation and commercial viability of the SALT-managed Old Course and the Home of Golf.

The trust claims SAIGC's marketing programme "capitalises on the proximity to an implied connection with St Andrews Links".