"Lawrence Donegan
Wednesday November 29, 2006
The Guardian
Donald Trump, the real estate developer, television star and enthusiastic amateur golfer, wants to build a golf resort in the north-east of Scotland. Like the man himself the project is not modest: an eight-storey hotel, 950 holiday homes, 37 "luxury" lodges and two courses fit to stage a major championship. "Our ambition is to one day host the Open Championship," Neil Hobday, the project director for Trump International Golf Links, said yesterday.
Whether the R&A can be persuaded to stage the oldest major championship on a new course is a subject for future debate but the Trump organisation faces more immediate problems as it seeks to transform 1,400 acres of coastline north of Aberdeen into a golfers' paradise.
Aberdeenshire council is due to decide on the planning application by next summer and objections to the proposals are mounting, with environmentalists claiming the project does not represent an appropriate use of land designated as a site of special scientific interest. "Basically this is just another real estate development for the benefit of Mr Trump and his rich friends," a spokesman for the Scottish Green Party said yesterday. "Scotland doesn't need another golf course. If Donald Trump wants to invest money in Scotland he could do a lot worse than put it into much needed renewable energy schemes in the north-east."
The stretch of coastline chosen by Trump is home to hundreds of thousands of seabirds, according to the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. "There are no endangered species in this area but this is an SSSI and as we would with any development in an environmentally sensitive area we will be keeping a very close eye on this project," a spokesman said.
Scotland's leading golfers, however, have given their support. "I know Donald and he's a very keen golfer. His money coming to Scotland can only boost Scotland," said Colin Montgomerie. The 1999 Open champion, Paul Lawrie, a native of Aberdeen, agreed: "If Mr Trump is willing to put up that kind of money then it has got to be a good thing." The Trump organisation claims its plans will create more than 400 jobs, so it is hardly surprising that the region's economic development organisations are supporting the scheme.
When plans for the resort were made public this year the estimated cost was about £300m but as the scale of the resort has expanded so has the budget, to about £1bn. "That is a lot of money but the size of the investment we are prepared to make shows how committed we are to this project," Hobday said. "To make this work as a viable business model there needs to be an element of real estate involved but really we want people to know that this projects starts with golf and ends with golf. We aim to build the greatest golf course in the world."
Trump, who visited the site this year, cited his Scottish heritage - his mother is from Stornoway - as one of the main reasons for choosing Scotland, adding that he had never seen such a spectacular setting for a course.
Trump owns four exclusive golf resorts in the US but his plans for Scotland may be overly ambitious, according to a leading figure in the world of golf-course architecture.
"You can't deny Donald Trump is a showman but golf courses are not his strongest point," said Geoff Shackelford, author of The Future of Golf. "From what I've seen of this project he has his hands on a beautiful stretch of links land, so maybe that will rein in his ego. I ain't holding my breath, though.""
I like Geoffs comment!
