Justin Timberlake, Tiger Woods Are Turning an Old Scottish Cinema Into a Luxury Sports Bar

Justin Timberlake and Tiger Woods — or, technically, a luxury real estate development company in which they are shareholders — will be opening a new high-end sports bar in St. Andrews, Scotland, the BBC reports. 

The bar, T-Squared Social, will be located in a historic movie theater, the New Picture House Cinema. Two of the original movie screens will be remain as part of the redevelopment plan, which will also bring in dining, drinking, duckpin bowling, darts, and sports simulators.

The developer, Nexus Luxury Collection, first proposed turning the theater into a sports bar last year, and the Fife Council finally granted the project its approval this month. The Council said the proposed plan would “protect and enhance the character and appearance of the conservation area,” while also creating between 40 to 45 new jobs. 

The owners of the New Picture House Cinema — which first opened in 1930 and seats 700 people — were big backers of the T-Squared Social proposal. In planning documents, they said the theater was no longer “viable” as a “stand-alone cinema operation” and was currently running at less than “10 percent occupancy.”

It’s unclear exactly when T-Squared Social will open in St. Andrews, but the terms of the proposal state work has to begin within the next three years. 

Timberlake and Woods came up with the idea for T-Squared Social after golfing together in the Bahamas (“T-Squared,” in case you were wondering, stands for “Tiger” and “Timberlake”). The first flagship location opened in New York City last year, though there were always plans to take the club global. 

St. Andrews is a fitting locale for their second venue: The Scottish city is known as the “home of golf,” thanks to the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews, as well as the Old Course at St. Andrews Links, frequent host of The Open Championship, the oldest golf tournament in the world. Woods has won The Open three times during his career (2000, 2005, and 2006). Meanwhile, Timberlake once played in the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship on the Old Course at St. Andrews in 2019. 

In a statement, Woods said he’d had “many special moments” in St. Andrews, and hoped the new bar would be a “welcoming place” for locals and tourists. Nexus CEO Christopher Anand added: “We are taking great care to preserve and celebrate the historic architecture and design of the theatre and continue its tradition of showcasing great films.”

News of the T-Square Social’s approval in St. Andrews notably comes just a few weeks after Timberlake was arrested for allegedly driving under the influence in the Hamptons. He was arraigned on a misdemeanor DWI charge and released from jail; he’s set to appear in court again on July 26. Woods also famously faced a DUI charge in 2017 after he was found passed out in his car with prescription drugs and marijuana in his system; he later pleaded guilty to reckless driving and entered a diversion program to avoid a DUI charge.