There was a time if you asked the-then Prince Andrew if he fancied a few birdies at the weekend, he would assume Jeffrey Epstein was inviting him to his island again. We also all know ‘Air Miles Andy’ loves nothing better than playing 18 holes – even more than ‘Randy Andy’ liked playing the field.
By all accounts the one-time Duke of York, 65, is an accomplished golfer and, of course, was once the captain of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club, based in St Andrews in Scotland – the home of the sport. So nothing will shatter his prickly and infamously inflated ego more than this latest damning humiliation in the wake of the Jeffrey Epstein scandal – the Duke’s course at St Andrews (named after him in 1995) is being rebranded.
The heathland Duke’s Course, which is three miles from the centre of the Fife university town, will become the Craigtoun Course, renamed after a nearby country park.
As the country park has never repeatedly emailed the shamed US paedophile sex trafficker, it’s a much safer bet than keeping Andrew’s old royal name.
Over the decades nothing warmed an impoverished Brit’s cockles more during a cost-of-living crisis than seeing the then-Prince Andrew land on a golf course in a helicopter for a quick putt or two.
The nation’s finances may be going to the dogs but at least taxpayers can help Andrew chip in on a long par four to save his par.
This is how his Air Miles Andy moniker came about.
In 2009 he once took a 113-mile taxpayer-funded helicopter trip from Windsor to the Royal Cinque Ports Golf Club in Deal for a party.
It took 45 minutes and cost you and I thousands but in his defence the same journey by train would have been a gruelling three and a half hours – including a Tube ride – and cost around £30.70.
An official report by the National Audit Office (NAO) previously slammed him for using the late Queen’s helicopter and RAF aircraft “like taxis” for personal convenience, such as to “fit in an extra round of golf”.
The shame of his associations with Epstein has sunk his royal career quicker than a hole-in-one.
He’s already no longer a prince, Duke of York, Earl of Inverness and Baron Killyleagh or Colonel of the Grenadier Guards – and has been shorn of the Order of the Garter and the Knight Grand Cross of the Victorian Order.
Andrew’s also lost several overseas honorary roles, including colonel-in-chief of The Royal Highland Fusiliers Of Canada, and colonel-in-chief of the Royal New Zealand Army Logistic Regiment.
Soon he and Sarah Ferguson will also be booted from Royal Lodge, at Windsor.
Both have been found to have associated or communicated with the disgraced New York financier for longer than they originally and publicly claimed.
Now – after already giving up his honorary membership to St Andrews as part of his retreat from public life – Andrew faces the shame of seeing first streets named after him being renamed, now an entire golf course.
The course and club are also to come under the management of the St Andrews Links Trust on a long-term lease, with the club’s logo also being changed, to remove the royal association.
The trust already runs seven public courses around Fife, including the world famous Old Course, which hosts the Open Championship every five years.
A press release confirmed the course would take on a “revitalised identity” but it did not mention the former prince.
Andrew is slowly being hooked into the long grass. For the Royal Family it cannot come quickly enough.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.express.co.uk ’
