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".
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article