Do you sell many £1,000 bottles of wine? Of course, it’s The Open!
An eye-popping despatch from St Andrews, the town that the cost of living crisis forgot
IT is the corner of Scotland that the cost of living crisis forgot. At the Adamson restaurant in South Street, St Andrews, director Julie Dalton is wondering whether she ordered enough oysters for Open week.
Certainly she should be fine for champagne. There are 100 bottles of Veuve Clicquot in the fridges and two more deliveries scheduled in the coming days – both among the largest the place has ever taken.
Around the corner in another eaterie, Little Italy, owner Beno Abonghano excitedly tells me that five-times Open champion Tom Watson has booked a table tonight at 8pm with his new bride LeslieAnne Wade, days after they tied the knot.
‘This was the first place in St Andrews he wanted to take her,’ he says proudly. ‘He loves it here.’
Given that they are celebrating, it is entirely possible they will ask for a bottle of Mr Abonghano’s finest red. That’s the Sassicaia Super-Super Toscan – ‘one of Italy’s most iconic bottles’, according to the menu which, instead of listing a price, says ‘please ask’. I do. ‘It’s £1,000,’ whispers the owner.
Does he expect to sell many bottles this week? ‘Absolutely,’ he beams. ‘It’s the Open.’ That much is impossible to miss. Around 17,000 people call St Andrews home, but the fact that it is also the home of golf and that this week it is hosting the 150th Open accounts for an influx of 290,000 ticket holders over the next few days.
Some, such as Simon Green, 44, and his sons Alfie, 11, and Henry, six, are here on a budget. They are paying £445 for six nights of camping in a family tent on a rugby pitch yards from the entrance to the Old Course Hotel – which caters for the top end of the market.
A batch of fourth floor rooms with views over the Old Course was advertised to American markets last year at some £9,000 for the duration of the championships.
COMPARED to the prices some are paying to rent houses for Open week, that is almost cheap. One four-bedroom property within walking distance of the golfing showpiece was snapped up last autumn for £31,000. At the weekend a nine-bedroom manor house ten miles away in Newport-on-Tay was still available for £40,000.
Yesterday, as practice rounds began for the tournament, which starts on Thursday, the town was already abuzz with visitors putting sizeable dents in the vast stocks of beer, wine and champagne ordered for the week.
The best selling bubbly at the Adamson is the non-vintage Veuve Clicquot at £20.50 for a 175ml glass; its rose equivalent is £24.75 a glass. ‘The buzz and energy around the town are amazing,’ says Miss Dalton. ‘I think after Covid people are intent on having a good time and, yes, spending a bit of money.’
The restaurant which, in recent weeks has welcomed golfing legend Gary Player and US basketball star Dwayne Wade, charges £85 for Chateaubriand, while its ‘small plates’ outlet next door offers caviar for £25.
Naturally, it is fully booked for every evening of the week except for a ‘couple of tables’ held back for special arrivals.
This week, that could be anyone from Tiger Woods, the game’s most successful active player, to Jack Nicklaus, the most successSt ful in golf history. Both are in town this week – the former to compete in what many believe could be his last major tournament and the latter to receive honorary citizenship of St Andrews at a ceremony today. Indeed, in terms of living golf legends, it may be easier to list those who are not at the Home of Golf this week.
Woods and Rory McIlroy teed off together in a four-hole challenge yesterday. Gary Player, Lee Trevino, Tom Watson, Nick Faldo and Scotland’s Sandy Lyle – none of whom are competing in the official tournament – also dusted down their swings for the exhibition match as Nicklaus watched wistfully from the side of the first tee. He won the Open twice here in 1970 and in 1978 – and it was in Andrews in 2005 that he bid farewell to professional golf.
Returning to the scene of his triumphs for the first time in 17 years, he said: ‘Whenever I come back, this old grey town just lights up for me.’
He may remember it as such, but this is the 30th Open to be played at the Home of Golf and it’s fair to say it has learned a thing or two about trading on its name.
THIS week’s 290,000 ticket allocation is by far the largest in Open history. The next largest was 239,000 back in the year 2000 – also in St Andrews.
In all, the economic impact of this week for Fife is reckoned to be £200million.
Yesterday afternoon, as the sun blazed on the town centre, there was a touch of Paris or Rome about its al fresco bars and cafes, their uniformed waiting staff and the expertise with which they delivered eye-wateringly expensive drinks on trays to deeppocketed visitors.
As they sipped away, silver Mercedes vans with blacked out windows purred past several times a minute, heading for the links. These convey the players from dream hotel suites to the golf course that is the stuff of dreams for golfing amateurs and professionals alike.
Ultimately, perhaps, everyone – even Tiger – is here to be part of the dream represented by the Old Course, the most iconic in golf.
Woods, who suffered horrific leg injuries in a car accident last year, says of St Andrews: ‘I’ve won two Opens there and it’s near and dear to my heart. It’s my favourite course in the world.’
Back at the campsite new arrival Mr Green, 44, from Grantham, Lincolnshire, says he believes St Andrews 2022 may be the last chance for his sons to see the game’s most extraordinary player of the last quarter century.
‘I think he may say farewell on the Swilcan Bridge on the 18th on Friday or Sunday, depending on how he gets on,’ he says. ‘It’s where all the greatest players say goodbye.’
For that, six nights in a tent is a small price to pay.
With that, he and sons Alfie and Henry depart the bargain basement camping field and head for the field of dreams.