The Fairmont hotel is the largest of the two, five-star accommodations that the town of St Andrews boasts. Set on a 520 acre estate, the Fairmont sits atop a cliff offering stunning panoramas overlooking the town of St Andrews, the surrounding golf courses, and the wild sea. As befitting of a hotel of this class, the Fairmont Spa & Fitness club have ten luxury treatment rooms, a peaceful pool, fitness suite and a range of hydrotherapy experiences. Guests qualify for a £30 food and drink voucher to spent in one hotels restaurants or bars. Numbers are likely to be limited by availability and season. Smaller teams are always easier to accommodate than large events, but the capacity is quite high
St Andrews is 50 miles (75 mins) from Edinburgh, the Airport being on the west side of the city
The town of St Andrews is a mere 3 miles (7 mins) from the Fairmont hotel. It’s visual.
The hotel provides a courtesy bus
The Torrance and Kittocks golf courses surround the hotel and would be described as ‘walk onto’ (from the hotel)
For a small town of just 15,000 inhabitants, St Andrews punches above its weight, which in no small part is due to the number of visitors it legitimately attracts irrespective of any golf, and also of course, the university. It’s a somewhat younger and more lively place in the evening than you might imagine.
The ancient old town certainly has character and history. The ruined old castle and cathedral are legitimate visitor attractions, as too is the university and beach. The facilities offered by the hotel itself also afford any non-golfers ample opportunity to rest and relax
Neither of the two golf course featured require a handicap, but we couldn’t advise that anyone whose never swung a club before plays.
The Torrance and Kittocks were fairly revolutionary in their concept. Links styled golf courses sculpted out of what was essentially arable land. Many said it couldn’t be done, but it succeeded and other examples such as Kingsbarns and Dumbarnie followed. The two have pinched holes of each other periodically but after becoming a European tour venue in 2020 when it hosted the Scottish Masters, it’s possibly the Torrance that is now held in the higher regard.
The opening 8 holes route around the hotel working their way uphill. The view from the 8th however is stunning and allows to really lean into the layout. The 220yd, par 3, seventeenth is usually regarded as the signature hole, played over a chasm to the sanctuary of the green beyond
The Kittocks is perhaps better suited to accommodating players of different abilities with its choice of tees, and has a bit of an American feel with two man-made lakes, but also respects the St Andrews traditions with two ‘double-greens’ and numerous deep pot bunkers.
After a gentle start the course opens up at the par 5, fifth which stretches the length of ‘the Kittocks den’. The seventh is squeezed up onto the coastline with precarious green clinging onto a promontory. The fifteenth is probably the signature hole, a long par 4, that dog-legs to a cliff-edge green. The two closing holes were taken from the Torrance and now provide a fitting finale
Any corporate golf day at St Andrews will inevitably run into a question about the Old Course. Here’s the bottom-line.
You won’t be able to play the Old Course as part of any corporate package. Some of your golfers will however be able to make private applications to play through ‘the ballot’. This is limited to players who possess a current handicap (24 for gentlemen and 36 for ladies) and they’ll need to pay the green-fee (about £200) independently. Faraway Fairways are happy to make applications for qualified players on their behalf. The draw is made 48 hours before play. If they win, they’ll almost certainly need to leave your corporate group to take up their tee-time and forfeit their other green fee. So long as everyone is happy with this, then yes, it can be done
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