Thanks once again, Mr Trump

[Rich Goodale]

If only Scottish (and rest of the UK) developers had such brains, Mark......

[Niall C]

Patrick/Rich

I've said before on here, that no UK developer would have bothered looking at the scheme Trump came up with, and by that I'm referring to the whole bang shooting match of hotel, houses and courses on land that wasn't zoned for what is fair sized development never mind the trashing of a SSSI. What he proposed and what he subsequently got consent for was so far out the box in planning terms it was a straight forward refusal, no question. No UK developer would have spent the money making the application.

Looking at it in hindsight, if a UK developer had employed the same tactics as Trump and tried to bounce the local and national governments into granting consent the way Trump did, they would have been given short shrift. Why ? Because  pretty well every major developer in the UK is run by professionals sitting behind a desk that no one has heard of. Thats not meant to be disparaging, they just do there job. Donald on the other hand is showbusiness, and the politicians love showbusiness.

Mark

Your post reminds me of a bit in MacKenzies book when he refers to Leeds and Harrogate members telling him before he built Aldwoodley that people in Leeds don't really like golf and that there wasn't room for a third club in Leeds. MacKenzie then goes on to boast of the ten courses he designed in the area. Scotland has plenty of scope for further golf development, its just there not going to be developed in the way they were 100 years ago.

Niall

[Rich Goodale]

Hi Niall

As you know I respect you and your point of view, but could you please refresh my memory as to which contemporary Scottish developers have created any significantly innovative (or even viable) real estate/golf development.  Of these developments, are there any which include golf courses of any architectural merit?

All the best

Rich

[Niall C]

Rich

I was referring to development in general rather than specifically golf related development. With regards to golf related development, I'm struggling to think of any at all. I guess Letham Grange might have been an example but don't know who did what and how much of the resi element was with the golf development. Of course you may debate its not of great architectural merit, and I wouldn't necessarily argue the point although I did enjoy the course the couple of times I played it. Another might be the Ayrshire which has a Scottish developer as one of the joint venture partners behind it. I think I'm right in saying Kidd is still lined up to sdesign that one.

Thinking about it further I guess the only "Scottish" commercially based golf development of any quality might have been Gleneagles where most of the original shareholders were Scottish. Turnberry might be another although I can't recall off hand whether that was originally down to the railway company or the local landholder or both.

An interesting question might be why not more quality course produced by Scottish developers and I think historically the answer is that the Scottish mindset has been to see golf as a recreation rather than a business opportunity. Tom D started a thread recently about business taking over from basic club golf. I think in Scotland that has never really happened.

Niall