A Scottish course designed by the legendary Ben Sayers has been sold to a US-based online golf community at "well over" the asking price of £750,000.
Opened in 1907 on the Moray coastline at the mouth of the River Spey, the 18-hole Spey Bay Golf Course has been purchased by Links Golf Club. Described as a collective of "tech-forward" Millennial and Gen Z golfers, the community was established in 2021 under the name Links DAO and is said to have more than 5,400 members from throughout the world, though most are based in the US.
Marketed by joint agents Shepherd Chartered Surveyors and Strutt & Parker, the facilities also include club house premises, a former driving range, and a camper/caravan site with easy access to Aberdeen and Inverness.
The late Prime Minister Ramsay Macdonald was a member at Spey Bay, and the club championship trophy which remains at the club was presented by him.
READ MORE: Cryptocurrency firm 'wins bid' to buy historic course
“There was an extremely competitive closing date and offers well over asking price were received," said Neil Calder, partner in the Inverness office of Shepherd Chartered Surveyors. "It is a rare opportunity to own a true links course in Scotland, the home of golf and we wish the new owners well in their venture.”
Euan MacCrimmon, director at Strutt & Parker, added: “The volume of enquiries for Spey Bay golf course was incredible, and we received enquiries and offers from a wide range of UK and international interests.
"We are delighted to secure this deal with LinksDAO and wish them all the best with their exciting plans for the course."
The property was sold by Colin Murray of Colin Murray Development, who said: “We were delighted to appoint both Strutt & Parker and Shepherd Chartered Surveyors to be the joint selling agents on our behalf.
“The professional approach by both Euan and Neil gave us complete confidence from the outset. Their marketing approach to the proposed sale was excellent, which captured a huge interest from far and wide.”
Why are you making commenting on HeraldScotland 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 here