Scottish Open going to Trump International Links

[Brian_Ewen]

https://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/fp/sport/golf/605380/trump-lands-scottish-open/

Donald Trump’s Balmedie golf course to host Scottish Open for three years
10 June 2015 by Paul Third
Trump International Golf Links at Balmedie will host the Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Open in 2017, 2019 and 2020.

Donald Trump’s course near Aberdeen has landed the honour of hosting the event after impressing European Tour officials.

An announcement on the future host venues for the tournament, which will be played at Gullane next month before moving to Castle Stuart near Inverness in 2016, is imminent.

But the Press and Journal understands plans to take the tournament to the west coast of Scotland after the Highlands have been delayed following a successful pitch from the American billionaire, pictured right, to the tournament sponsors, the European Tour and the Scottish Government.

Trump, who will formally open his new clubhouse at the Menie Estate today, hinted an announcement is expected when he said: “Well, we’ll see what happens. I think you’ll be hearing something about that pretty soon actually.”

[Jon Wiggett]

Successful pitch Cheque book me thinks Good thing on the whole if it happens and I suspect this is all leading up to trying to get the Ryder Cup at some point. I just hope they get decent weather with no strong winds.

Jon

[Marc Haring]

Seems like not too long ago the only links stop on any tour was at the Open.

Seems like we're being spoilt for choice now. Nice to see the tours embracing it.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/golf/32962846

[Ally Mcintosh]

Seems like not too long ago the only links stop on any tour was at the Open.

Seems like we're being spoilt for choice now. Nice to see the tours embracing it.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/golf/32962846

I wrote the below for Golf Digest Ireland in February 2011. Nothing new on here these days but there does seem to be a lot of articles just in the last 6 months that are stating the same thing.

You cannot have a full appreciation of golf course architecture without being entwined in a long-term love affair with the links courses that the game started on. Almost every modern design has a genealogy that can be traced back to those early seaside layouts, to be found in the mounding that imitates dune formations, bunkers that ape the open scars of sand created by the wind or contours that mimic the unpredictable roll of the land.

Any Irish golfer should consider himself blessed that 25% of the world’s links courses belong to these shores. Tourists travel from far and wide to play them and although the first taste can prove frustrating for some, all leave knowing that they have come one step closer to the origins of the sport.

Not surprisingly, I’m bewildered at the almost complete absence of links golf on the elite pro tours. The European Tour in particular appears to be missing a trick by not taking advantage of the great variety of courses afforded to it. As a spectator, what I’d be keen to see is a mini-links tour within the tour, played out over one month in the middle of the summer. The skeleton of the structure is already in place with the Open. In addition, the tournament that is played out immediately prior to the British Open is the Scottish Open, which has been housed for the past fifteen years at Loch Lomond, an undeniably beautiful setting but an American style parkland design that does not reflect the first thoughts we have when picturing great Scottish courses. In a refreshing move for 2011, the powers that be sought to take the tournament back to the coast, eventually choosing the new venue at Castle Stuart near Inverness, one of a handful of high quality new links courses in Scotland that together form conclusive proof that seaside golf is as much a part of the future as of the past.

With two championships already in place for our mini-links tour, all we need are two more and the logical third pick is the Irish Open, ideally to be held (with some juggling of various calendars) during the week before its Scottish equivalent. Portmarnock would be a leading candidate, as it should have been for the Ryder Cup held in 2006, but there is a plenitude of other courses with suitable length, challenge and close by amenities that could also host the top professionals.

The fourth and final piece of the puzzle would likely be the Dutch Open. We normally don’t associate the stereotypical flat, Dutch landscape with suitable golfing ground, but that is to neglect the thin stretch of heaving, rolling links land that resides on its North coast. Nestled amongst these sand hills are three of the best courses to be found on the continent, each easily capable of testing the tour pros on their day. Indeed, the Harry Colt designed Kennemer has done just that on many previous occasions. This tournament could be earmarked for the week after the British Open, providing a climax to our mini- tour and setting the scene for the “Links Champion of the Year” to be crowned.

Calendar difficulties aside, the main thing we need to consider is whether the pros themselves would actually buy into it? Links golf is anathema to many of today’s pampered pros, who have honed their game on a production-line style of tour course that plays host to them week in, week out. When you hear a pro moan that he doesn’t like links golf because the wind plays havoc with his swing, then you know that the wiring that once connected him to golf’s grass roots has short-circuited somewhere along the line. A reconnection with these roots would offer a welcome change of pace, a unique selling point to world golf and a reminder that we amateurs aren’t playing and enjoying a completely different sport to those privileged paid few.

[Brian_Ewen]

Mr. Trump telling reporters today that the European Tour wants the Scottish Open to be permanently at Balmedie.

[Adam Lawrence]

The interesting thing about this is that I'd heard from multiple sources in recent years that Trump could have had the a Scottish Open whenever he wanted it, but he was not interested, as he (presumably) had bigger fish to fry.

It will be interesting to see how the property works for spectators. There is loads of room around the holes in the centre, but there are other areas on the course, notably round 14, that look very difficult indeed for crowds.

[Thomas Dai]

Will the haar roll in?
Atb

[Dean Stokes]

Successful pitch Cheque book me thinks Good thing on the whole if it happens and I suspect this is all leading up to trying to get the Ryder Cup at some point. I just hope they get decent weather with no strong winds.

Jon

Jon, if the wind blows those pros will have the tees brought forward and down the hills in a heartbeat! They dont want to look silly on tv.

[Brian_Ewen]

Will the haar roll in?
Atb

In July, unlikely.

[Brian_Ewen]

https://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/fp/news/aberdeenshire/606238/donald-trump-suggests-scottish-open-is-coming-to-north-east-for-good/

Donald Trump suggests Scottish Open is coming to north-east for good
11 June 2015 by Shona Gossip



Donald Trump hinted the Scottish Open could become a permanent fixture at his Aberdeenshire golf resort – as he officially opened its new multimillion-pound clubhouse.

The New York-based businessman made the revelation during a visit to the north-east to set the seal on the latest piece in the jigsaw of his Trump International Golf Links Scotland development.

He said he hoped his plans for a hotel at the resort at Menie, near Balmedie, would progress in time for his championship course’s anticipated hosting of the Scottish Open for the first time in 2017.

He also reaffirmed his commitment to completing his vision for the resort, which includes a second 18-hole championship course and staff accommodation.

He made the pledge just days after losing his latest legal challenge to an offshore wind farm planned for nearby Aberdeen Bay.

He said work on the course and hotel accommodation, which will be villas built in units around the five-star MacLeod House & Lodge Hotel, would begin as soon as planning consent was granted – which he expects will be within the next four months.

“I am able to build the hotel in phases because of the way that it is laid out,” he said.

“We’re going to need the rooms, the Scottish Open is coming. They want it to be permanent, forever, they don’t want to go to other places.

“We’ve had rave reviews of the first course and we’re going to try and match that with the second course. We’ve got some of the best land left, with tremendous views and tremendous North Sea frontage.

“We’re also looking at doing a 50-bed employment suite so our staff have somewhere to stay.”

Mr Trump told a group of invited guests that his vision to hold championship tournaments at Menie began to fall into place after he took the chief executive of Aberdeen Asset Management – which sponsors the Scottish Open – on a tour of the site last year.

He said: “I have great respect for Martin Gilbert, he’s done an amazing job. He called me about a year ago and he said he had heard great things about this course.

“We toured it with his lovely daughter and he said he had never seen anything like it.

“So they do want to have the Scottish Open here. We are in the process of getting it finalised and they want it here for many years.

“And the reason is because we’ve built perhaps the greatest golf course out of anywhere in the world and that’s why they want it here. They want links and this is the ultimate links course.

“We have the makings of the deal, we are very much in the final documents.”

The Press and Journal revealed yesterday a three-year deal had been struck to bring the European Tour to Trump International Golf Links Scotland in 2017, 2019 and 2020.

However, Peter Adams, championship director of the Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Open, said: “Trump International Golf Links is one of a number of clubs with which The European Tour has been in conversation.

“Confirmation of the selection of the venue for 2017 will be announced in due course.”

Mr Trump said the move to hold the tournament at his Aberdeenshire course would be a huge boost for the region.

He added: “We’re going to bring tremendous amounts of tourism to the area with the Scottish Open. It will open everyone’s eyes, people will love this place.”

His comments were echoed by Aberdeenshire’s newly-appointed provost Hamish Vernal, who said: “I have played here a couple of times a year since it opened. It’s a fantastic golf course.

“I think it’s very important to the north-east, not just to Aberdeen city and shire, but the whole of the north-east.

“The news from Mr Trump that the Scottish Open will most likely be coming here is wonderful news. It will be an important economic boost to the north-east.”

[Ally Mcintosh]

I'm happy for the area. Although it was at Royal Aberdeen t'other year, I think it is this one that will catch the public's imagination.