{"id":1646,"date":"2007-07-31T07:21:00","date_gmt":"2007-07-31T07:21:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/deaconsbench\/2007\/07\/let-us-play.html"},"modified":"2007-07-31T07:21:00","modified_gmt":"2007-07-31T07:21:00","slug":"let-us-play","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2007\/07\/let-us-play.html","title":{"rendered":"Let us play"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a> Hot on the heels of my post yesterday<\/a> that mentioned golf, here comes news<\/a> that some chaps in Britain are turning the grounds of a closed seminary into a world class golf course:<\/p>\n

The \u00a3115m development of a former Catholic seminary on Deeside, west of Aberdeen, will include the transformation of the historic Blairs College into a hotel, conference and leisure centre.<\/p>\n

The course at the heart of the development is the third championship venue planned for the Aberdeen area.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump is seeking permission for “the best links golf course in the world” on the Menie estate near Balmedie to the north of the city, and last week Jack Nicklaus flew in to the Ury estate, near Stonehaven, where he plans to design a course.<\/p>\n

At least another three courses are planned in Scotland, including Gleneagles, St Andrews and East Lothian.<\/p>\n

The Muir Group, which is responsible for the development at Blairs, said yesterday the project would safeguard the long-term future of the Blairs Museum which for almost two centuries has housed a collection of paintings, vestments, silver and Jacobite memorabilia belonging to the Scottish Catholic Church.<\/p>\n

John Muir, chairman, said it would also create 1000 jobs and help the area become “one of the world’s top golfing destinations”.<\/p>\n

He added: “Blairs will unite all that is good from Paul’s amazing worldwide golf course experiences with the stunning countryside of Royal Deeside a design that I am confident will attract a European Tour event to the north-east in future years. I see it as like St Andrews, which is world class.<\/p>\n

“The same opportunity is presenting itself to Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire. If it had all three, it would become a centre of excellence of difficult golf courses.”<\/p>\n

Scotland already boasts more than 550 courses, including five of the eight Open Championship venues, but membership at golf clubs has fallen over the past decade.<\/p>\n

However, the top courses are still as popular as ever and industry experts say the high-quality developments under way will give a boost to the industry. VisitScotland figures taken from research on 70 courses around Scotland shows the value of golf tourism from these alone is more than \u00a396.7m.<\/p>\n

Golfers are also high spenders. On average, they spend twice that of other visitors to Scotland. For every \u00a31 spent on a green fee, a further \u00a35 is spent in shops, restaurants or on accommodation.<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I’m not sure what to make of a world that wants fewer seminaries and more golf courses.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hot on the heels of my post yesterday that mentioned golf, here comes news that some chaps in Britain are turning the grounds of a closed seminary into a world class golf course: The \u00a3115m development of a former Catholic seminary on Deeside, west of Aberdeen, will include the transformation of the historic Blairs College…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":365,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1646","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nLet us play - The Deacon's Bench<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2007\/07\/let-us-play.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Let us play - 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