I am on a rooftop bar with its own putting green, sipping cocktails and watching players walk up the most famous fairway in golf. Beyond the golf course, a foreverness of sea and sand beckons north along the East Neuk coast. You don’t have to like golf to love the newly refurbished Rusacks St Andrews, but set phones to selfie max if you do.
Formerly a Macdonald hotel, Rusacks was bought at the end of 2019 by an American hotelier, Marine & Lawn, and was completely revamped during lockdown. Reopened this summer, Rusacks now has a six-storey wing with 44 new rooms, a rooftop restaurant and that spectacular terrace bar and putting green — less than ten steps from the 18th fairway at the Old Course.
Amazingly, the whole thing took about a year to build; and more amazingly, even St Andrews’ famously conservative locals seem to like it, according to the dog walkers that I canvassed on West Sands between rooftop cocktails and bracing dips.
The new owner, which has also acquired the Marine golf hotels in Troon and North Berwick, won’t be drawn on what the refurb cost. However, from the second you walk in, you know it’s somewhere between a ridiculous amount and a hell of a lot. Old carpets have been ripped out and replaced by expensive tiles and bare oak flooring; chandeliers glint from intricately corniced ceilings; the lobby is a Georgian fantasy of fireside armchairs, acres of oak panelling and a marble front desk.
The real trick, though, has been with light. Under the Macdonald chain, heavy drapes made the lobby gloomy, but with the drapes gone, coastal light floods the space, filling it with a shimmering, ever-shifting light. The corridor off the lobby now has sofas and coffee tables, instantly transforming it into a bustling spot for people-watching and blethering with other guests over afternoon tea or late-night single malts. A gallery lounge now has a full-size snooker table and board games. “We wanted it to be elegant,” says Marc Eubanks from Marine & Lawn. “But it should still be a place you come to have fun.”
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To that end, the door to the lowlit downstairs bar, One Under, which had been permanently locked, has been thrown open to entice locals and golfers alike in off the street. It was certainly working the night I was there, when even one week after opening, the artfully weathered leather benches were heaving with golfing buddies gathered around big-screen TVs and pints of Edinburgh Beer Factory ale. There is live music on Fridays and ceilidhs are planned for later in the year. “Five-star hotels can be so quiet and stuffy,” Eubanks says. “But wealthy folk like a good time just as much as everyone else.” It is impossible not to notice how quick the mostly local staff are to stop for a proper chat.
Decor, you feel, has been signed off with an American market in mind. They will love the Victorian landscapes and antlers, the Georgian-style dark green bathroom tiles and tartan carpets. However, with the odd beaten silver sink here, a bright splash of tasselled cushion there, the hotel has more than enough quirky, contemporary touches to appeal to anyone.
The real star is the view. Where the Old Course hotel (the obvious competitor) has cracking aspects of the golf course, Rusacks also has views of West Sands and the North Sea — and blimey, the new owner has gone big on exploiting that USP, with 35 of the 44 rooms in the new wing looking out through all-glass fourth walls on to the golf course and beach. It’s selfie heaven.
As for food, breakfasts (and modern Med-ish lunches and dinners) are served in the revamped downstairs Bridge restaurant, now a light, airy ground-floor space with double-height ceilings, sky-blue brasserie-style banquettes, and floor-to-ceiling views of the 18th fairway and 1850s R&A clubhouse — or “Scotland’s Mona Lisa”, as the restaurant manager José Moreira proudly dubs it.
Upstairs, the new top-floor Restaurant 18 is wall-to-wall glass, spilling on to that rooftop terrace with those mighty views and putting green. Headed by Derek Johnstone, a MasterChef: The Professionals winner who trained under Michel Roux Jr at Le Gavroche in London, the restaurant specialises in flame-grilled local, seasonal game and seafood that’s every bit as good as Johnstone’s credentials suggest it should be. My advice? Book now before word gets out. St Andrews is hosting the Open next summer — once Americans see it on TV, you may be too late.
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Jeremy Lazell was a guest of Rusacks St Andrews (B&B doubles from £219; marineandlawn.com/rusacksstandrews)
