Welcome to The Herald’s weekly snapshot of golf business news in Scotland.
Findings from The Herald Scottish Golf Survey 2026 which will be released in the coming days reveal an increasingly complex and layered market where pricing, confidence and opportunity vary sharply.
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Now in its second year, the survey is a measure of the financial health of the sector across the country. Participants span the range of golf courses in Scotland, from high-end proprietary venues and elite members’ clubs down to nine-hole, rural and community facilities.
(Image: Damian Shields)
This is not a story of crisis, but as our three-day series will explain, a closer look at what at first glance might appear a generally buoyant industry reveals a more complex and less comfortable picture. This year we have chosen to focus on who is bearing the brunt of rising costs for energy, labour, maintenance and insurance.
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The three-day series begins on Thursday as the Big Read in June’s Business HQ Monthly. The main feature examines the data to reveal which parts of the country have seen the sharpest increases in the cost of playing golf during the past year – and why.
Home of Tiger Woods and Justin Timberlake bar on market
The bar is based in a Category B listed building formerly known as The New Picture House (Image: Shepherd Chartered Surveyors)
Hospitality premises in St Andrews which are home to a sports and entertainment bar owned by golf legend Tiger Woods and singer and actor Justin Timberlake have been brought to market.
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Shepherd Chartered Surveyors declared it was anticipating “much interest” in the property, which houses the celebrity duo’s T-Squared Social outlet and sits at the north end of North Street on the edge of the town’s main commercial centre, next to the university campus. The surrounding area comprises a mix of retail, office, licensed, and residential properties.
Woods and Timberlake developed T-Squared Social in the Category B listed building known formerly as The New Picture House, which is understood to date from 1931. The duo first unveiled their plans for the venture in October 2023 and eventually launched the sports and entertainment gastropub in October last year.
Read the full story here.
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Troon Welbeck backs its council season ticket model for links golf
Members of Troon Welbeck play across the Lochgreen, Darley (pictured above) and Fullarton courses (Image: Clyde and Forth Press Ltd)
Troon Welbeck Golf Club, founded in 1973 on South Ayrshire’s public links, is fighting to prove that a roughly £890 package for club membership and a council season ticket offers good value even as the local authority leans harder into higher‑yielding visitors’ golf. Club secretary Graham McAra, a member for 31 years, stresses that the club still sees itself as a positive and well-run operation working with the council to maintain the backbone of public links golf in Ayrshire.
Read the full story from Around the Greens here.
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