A call to action has been issued for the whole of Scotland to help the country “harvest an opportunity” to use golf as a tool for growing economic benefit. The idea is to create a “ripple effect” from St Andrews being at the heart of visitors from around the world flocking in huge numbers to the sport’s cradle. According to a report that has just been released following a survey conducted by the Sport Industry Research at Hallam Sheffield University, golf’s economic value to St Andrews, Fife and the wider Scottish economy is £317 million annually - the equivalent of the country hosting three Open Championships every year. The figure was described as “astonishing” as St Andrews Links Trust, which commissioned the survey, hosted an event at Dynamic Earth in Edinburgh attended by North East Fife MP Wendy Chamberlain, Scottish Government Business Minister Richard Lochhead and various other stakeholders on Tuesday. The economic impact assessment focused on St Andrews, with the Links Trust, a charitable organisation that currently operates seven courses in the Fife town and is negotiating at the moment to add The Duke’s to that list, being praised for having the “foresight and tenacity” to commission the survey by VisitScotland’s Director of Industry & Events, Rob Dickson. In 2023 alone, the Links Trust courses hosted more than 280,000 rounds - 54 per cent were played by visitors and 46 per cent by local ticket holders - with Americans making up nearly half of the 72 per cent of the visitors coming from overseas. “I think there is much to celebrate - we are in a fantastic position,” said Chamberlain of where St Andrews stands in the game around the world. On a golf engagement at the same venue last year, Lochhead had been delighted about the Scottish Government and VisitScotland agreeing a new 11-year partnership with The R&A that will see 14 majors, including the 155th Open at St Andrews in 2027, being staged in the home of golf in a ten-year period. “Golf at the moment is very vibrant - there is a lot of momentum,” he said on this latest visit across the road from the Scottish Parliament, adding with a smile: “Golf is playing a big role in tourism and the role it plays is super important.” Concurring, Dickson described playing golf in Scotland as a “flagship experience” that was “top of the wishlist for many golfers” and said of the new report: “We wish to be the world’s best when it comes to tourism and looking at the success of St Andrews is no bad place to start”. In a speech, Neil Coulson, the chief executive of the Links Trust, said in a proud tone that St Andrews is where golfers from far and wide “make their dreams come true” by playing there, especially the Old Course, but also said it was a “national, economic, cultural and social asset”. On the back of a Drive initiative launched this year that is offering cut-price rounds to Scottish golfers, he vowed to ensure that St Andrews “remains a place that is accessible and belongs to the many, not the few” and also that local golfers “continue to have access to play on our courses and that tee times don’t just become trophies for the privileged”. In a message to stakeholders, meanwhile, it was stressed that a bid to use the report as a tool for growth extended well beyond the boundaries of the most-famous golfing venue in the world. “This just isn’t about golf at St Andrews,” declared Coulson. “It’s about how we work together to recognise what the country has to offer, the potential of ‘Brand Scotland’, to support local communities and to build a thriving local economy. We must work together. Collaboration is required across Government, industry, tourism and transport to harvest the opportunity to grow.” Asked later by The Scotsman what he saw that growth being, he added: “I think there has to be some joined-up conversations about infrastructure and how people move around. And also about the experiences of people. There’s lots of different sports and tourism sectors doing really good things, but it is how you join those up so the distillery piece is connected to a golf piece that is connected to a heritage piece. At the moment, they are a little bit isolated. They do really good things on their own, but I think the power of joining those up has got to be huge.” He acknowledged that the potential for growth in St Andrews itself in terms of attracting even more visitors was limited. “At the end of the day, we have a finite amount of capacity,” conceded Coulson. “So we need to maintain a balance between local and international and that is very important. Sign up to The Scotsman’s weekly golf newsletter to get unrivalled golf news and analysis - subscribe for free here. “St Andrews is an intrinsic link between the community and the golf course. We can’t just flood it with visitors and ignore that local dynamic. It is not a case of introducing more visitors. In our space, it is understanding what the value of the visitors is that we have now and then looking at how we spread the benefit. “We can’t grow economic and social benefit by just getting more people into St Andrews. But we can do it by trying to collaborate and pushing some of that around Scotland, so we can be a catalyst for people coming - that would be a good thing. “There are lots of great places to visit and great places to go and stay and experience. It doesn’t have to be St Andrews. We might be the driver for them to come in but they can then go out and do other things. That’s how I think we grow. It’s not just about St Andrews; it’s about the national assets that are out there.” In St Andrews alone, golf visitors support more than 1,600 full-time jobs while the corresponding figure for Scotland is 4,300. “Get some of the headline numbers in your head and talk those up,” said VisitScotland’s Dickson of the £317m in particular. “Scotland’s visitor economy is a strength. It is an opportunity and it will drive some of our growth and recovery that we want to see in the future years.”