Ury Estate, the site for a £40m Jack Nicklaus Golf Club and resort, near Stonehaven in Scotland, has been given final approval by Aberdeenshire’s infrastructure services committee.

The council’s decision allows plans for the development to move forward and remain on schedule for a 2010 opening.

As well as an 18-hole Jack Nicklaus signature course, FM Developments – which will build, own and operate the project -– plans to renovate the derelict, B-listed, Ury House and convert it into a 100-bed luxury hotel.

The development will also include a spa and leisure facilities such as a shooting range, equestrian centre, tennis courts and wildlife trails with cycle paths.

The project is being funded by the sale of 230 homes to be built in a series of four hamlets set around the 1,500-acre estate.

Ury Estate is the first project in the UK to be chosen as part of the elite Jack Nicklaus Golf Club programme. It will accompany 25 other signature clubs around the world and will offer up to 35 Associate Club Members benefits at other Jack Nicklaus Clubs and access to Nicklaus’s home, which is to be built near the Ury Estate.

Richard Milne, director of FM Developments, said: “Being part of Jack Nicklaus Golf Club reinforces our faith in the potential of the estate to become a golf resort that will attract visitors from around the world.”

Jennifer Craw, regional operations director for Scottish Enterprise, estimates that “each visitor will spend around £400 a day at the resort -and by creating additional facilities, which could keep them here for even an extra day or two, the wealth generated would spiral.” This development could therefore play a major part in expanding the regions tourism sector, which the Scottish Tourism Forum aims to increase by 50 per cent by 2015.