Fairmont St Andrews’ director of golf, Callum Nicol, explains how the resort is evolving with shifting golfer demographics, new technology and the rise of content-driven travel. From strengthening junior and women’s golf pathways to embracing data, partnerships and premium service standards, he outlines how the historic venue is preparing for the next era of the game.
The landscape of the golf industry is always evolving, how has your business adapted to change in recent years?
Yes, the landscape is evolving and within our destination, the fast-paced resort environment has helped our business grow in recent years. Fairmont St Andrews has always been a forward thinking, inclusive and welcoming location attracting golfers worldwide. We feel that we are always learning and working towards reinforcing our place within the St Andrews area itself, in particular we adapt and cater to the international expansion of golf travel into Scotland.
One of the fastest changing aspects of golf is how this is consumed, from engagement within social media to the influence of content creators, and we have found success in meaningful partnerships with individuals as well as content creator events that showcase our product to a new and fresh audience.
With newer demographics, emphasis is placed on continuous improvement of the overall golfer experience both on and off the course, and it is our responsibility to continue enhancing this. Growth with change, through collecting accurate data and analytics allows the team to learn and move forward, to make informed decisions and keep up to date with the current and future climate.
When did you join the TGI Golf Partnership and what made you decide it was the right fit for your business?
Fairmont St Andrews was already a partner of TGI when I joined the team back in 2023; it was in early 2019 when we first signed up. I had just come back to the UK after several years overseas and Ricky, now our Scottish Retail Consultant, reached out and reconnected. From a proprietary facility perspective, it completely made sense, and ever since we have kept a meaningful and successful connection. Throughout my past three positions at London Golf Club, Rockliffe Hall and Fairmont St Andrews, the TGI Partnership has been a great fit and has allowed myself and our teams to keep well informed and up to date of industry news, best practices and ideas. Coupled with the ongoing service from the TGI team themselves, there is always assistance and guidance on hand when needed.
How has becoming a TGI partner been of benefit to you as an independent retailer and PGA professional?
From a retail perspective, the network gives us the support needed to keep moving our business forward, and over the past few years we have seen evidence of this. It keeps us well informed of best practices, trends and product development with access to the TGI team and like-minded PGA professionals across the country. Yes, there are different business models within certain clubs and facilities, but the network gives the retail team the confidence to be creative and to know that any idea implemented may have either been tried and tested elsewhere, or if new will be embraced by myself and our TGI retail consultant. With retail trends shifting each season our own team learns from this, and personal development gives the business the consistent enthusiasm to keep us growing.
Personally, as a PGA professional, I have always held the belief that we have such an amazing network of helpful leaders, who will always be open minded and share both successes and perhaps certain ideas that may or may not have worked. Now I am fortunate to be in a position where I can use these successes to help develop members of our own team.
I’ve also had some great personal experiences through the TGI Partnership in recent years, from attending the Business Conference to playing in three Partnership Trophies, the first of which was hosted and held here at Fairmont St Andrews in 2023. We now look forward to welcoming the network to Fairmont St Andrews for the TGI Business Conference in February 2026.
The day of a club professional can see you wear many hats; how do you manage your day?
The nature of my role, and the environment within the resort does often mean many hats! In a pay and play property, it can often be fast paced which is enjoyable and exciting, as very rarely two days are the same. I do enjoy working with the various teams across the hotel as it broadens my own skillset, as well as gives support for the development of the golf teams.
Teamwork in a resort of this size is vital to the overall experience of our guests, and daily we are continuously working with various departments including the front of house operations team, food and beverage, and the sales, marketing and commercial teams. Everyone plays their part to make sure that the guest feels the same level of luxury throughout their complete journey.
There is a constant flow of new golf products – how do you manage your stock to serve the needs of your members and visitors?
A high percentage of our play is visitor golf with most residential guests through the playing season coming from North America. We do however welcome play from the UK and Europe through the year and primarily local golf in the winter season, meaning our demographics can be mixed. We have two retail outlets within the resort, one within the clubhouse and one within the hotel, which allows us to be proactive and move certain items between the outlets depending on the season and hotel occupancy and so on. The stock does differ between the two outlets though as the golf shop caters for golfers, whereas the hotel outlet offers a selection of leisure items to accommodate our gym and spa, as well as families who are residing with us.
Retail like anything else is always evolving and we are very fortunate to have an excellent team that understands and embraces the need to learn, gain feedback, collect data and the importance of precise reporting. In turn this allows us to proactively plan and accurately know what works or what may potentially work for both our members and visitors the following season.
What are you doing to support junior golf and introduce kids to the sport?
Now with a young family of my own I feel blessed to live in an area that has an abundance of successful junior golf programmes and opportunities in and around St Andrews. We have several initiatives of our own that are in place to help support and introduce kids to the game. For example, juniors are included at no cost within our membership categories, and we run an ongoing offer for 12 months of the year where juniors play for free with any adult golfer, so far allowing hundreds of young golfers to experience our courses in 2025. We do focus on families who stay with us inside the resort and throughout the holiday periods have an exciting calendar of events for juniors. Over the past couple of years, we have also introduced new Easter, summer and autumn golf camps which have seen a few kids pick up a club for the first time.
We have wonderful relationships with junior partners and tours and are thrilled to help host events to support the development of tournament golf. In 2025 we successfully worked with The Stephen Gallagher Foundation, the Robert Rock Junior Tour, St Andrews University and in August hosted the Underrated Junior Golf Tour.
Are you actively trying to attract more women to golf?
We are fortunate that our environment does encourage growth within women in golf and it has been very pleasing to see our own team members embrace this. In 2023 when I joined the team we signed and committed to The R&A Women in Golf Charter, and since then have added additional programmes to encourage participation. With many employees across the resort we have actually found success in introducing golf to many associates who would never have had the opportunity to try, before either working or relocating to St Andrews.
From the golf team we have successfully supported two colleagues engage in programmes that will benefit both themselves and the introduction of new golfers, as Kirsten Thorpe this year graduated from the R&A Women in Golf Leadership Foundation Programme, and Erin Wilson forms part of the inaugural team with the Scottish Golf Young Leadership Program.
New events have been added, and a successful partnership with the Scottish Women’s Amateur Tour has helped local engagement, providing a platform for social and competition opportunities.
A lot of PGA pros are having to be a step ahead of their competitors in their offerings and technology – what additional added value services do you provide?
We are constantly trying to keep in touch and up to date with both our competition and technology, and as mentioned we are in a very competitive area for in-bound golf tourism. This gives us the challenge of a very competitive market, but in turn it gives us the opportunity to keep driving ourselves forward and constantly improve. We implement our Fairmont brand standards across the team, and this cultivates the culture that we never stand still. From continued education, to driving forward our overall guest experience and retention it all goes hand in hand to deliver our offering that we believe exceeds our guests’ expectations.
Technology is quickly improving now across all areas of our business, and certainly from a golf perspective we utilise this to monitor and develop what we believe will make the difference. The recent introduction of a new golf system allows us now to build integrations and influence these touchpoints, from loyalty and engagement to our membership, coaching platform and golf event services which will all see enhancements through 2026. From a membership perspective, using our resort services and broadening the benefits that we can offer off the course has helped us see growth in this area
What year did you turn professional and what have been your career highlights, both playing and employment?
I joined the PGA and started the programme at 18 years of age, back in 2000. It’s fair to say that at that time with a handicap of four, playing the game wasn’t really in my plans. I joined the professional team at Turnberry and my game gradually improved as I worked through the PGA Degree Programme. In 2005, TGI partner David Fleming gave me an opportunity to work and learn alongside him at Prestwick Golf Club, at the same time increasing my tournament and playing opportunities. Winning the Scottish Young Professional Championship in 2006 was a proud moment for me, and a few years later when working in the UAE, qualifying and playing in the 2011 Dubai Desert Classic and the 2013 Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship was a fantastic experience.
In 2013 I was head professional at The Els Club Dubai and at the time Ernie was the current Open champion, spending a few days with him and playing the practice round in Abu Dhabi was very memorable. Being the local lad, the team at Abu Dhabi GC placed my locker next to Tiger and although I did miss the cut it was a thrill to be part of the event.
From an employment point of view a highlight takes me back to Abu Dhabi, as I joined the team there for my first Director of Golf role in 2015. I then, as the clubs PGA representative managed the teams to deliver three more successful Abu Dhabi HSBC Championships in 2016, 2017 and 2018.
