By James Kinnaird
Former US president Donald Trump has announced a 2025 opening for a new golf links situated north of Aberdeen alongside his current course. The new ‘Macleod’ course will bear the name of Trump’s mother, who was born on the Scottish island of Lewis and has already been described by his son, Eric Trump, as “the greatest 36 holes in golf”.
Trump first ventured into the Scottish golf scene in 2012 with the opening of the Trump International Golf Links, which he later added to with his purchase of the infamous Turnberry Links in Ayrshire.
The former of the two courses has gone on to host competitions such as the Staysure PGA Seniors Championship, as part of the Legends Tour, featuring former PGA winners such as John Daly, Angel Cabrera, and local legend Paul Lawrie.
The new Macleod course is to be designed by a team of world class golf architects that includes Dr Martin Hawtree, and Christine Fraser, the former of which helped design Trump’s first Aberdeenshire course.
The former president’s latest expansion is an attempt to achieve his hopes that one of his courses can be used to host the UK’s home major, The Open Championship. Turnberry has hosted the competition four times in the past but has been absent from the Open Championship rota since 2009.
However, despite its establishment and subsequent popularity, Trump International Golf Links has faced local protest from start to finish, and Trump’s new course is facing the same cries of opposition.
Local objection to the golf links is founded in the environmental concerns that the course poses. Trump’s first course was a Site of Specific Scientific Interest (SSSI) prior to the development but has since lost its title. Similarly, the famous dunes on which it sits have lost their status as a nationally important protected environment, leaving a naturally vulnerable site in even greater danger.
However, Trump International disputes claims that it is damaging the local environment, with the course’s principal Golf Contractor Esie O’Mahoney claiming that the course is “by far the most environmentally friendly and sustainable golf project we have ever worked on”.
In addition to the environmental opposition of Trump’s new course, many are concerned with the extortionate price that it inevitably cost to play the course. Trump International Golf Links averages over £200 per round and over £2000 for annual membership.
Heading south to Turnberry and the problem is only exacerbated as summer visitors could face up to £1000 green fees for one round and annual members needing to fork out over £15,000 for the right to play the famous course.
With under a year until the course’s scheduled open date, and the US presidential election in less than a month it will be a hectic year for the former President. Meanwhile the locals and politicians of Aberdeen will continue to seek ways of delaying or halting Trump’s newest endeavour in the hopes that this time, they will be successful.
