SCOTLAND is the home of golf – and also the ancestral seat of Donald Trump’s mother Mary Anne.
So it was perhaps inevitable that the former US president– a man said by Jack Nicklaus “to lovegolf more than he loves money” – was going to make it a central part of a golf empire which stretches to NINETEEN golf resorts globally.
We told you how the FIFTH course at his TWO Scottish developments is currently in production.
It will be situated at his existing Trump International resort in Menie, around 10 miles north of Aberdeen, with builders breaking ground on it last year.
It will be a second 18-hole project, situated next to Trump’s original course built in 2012, and named the MacLeod Course.
That’s in homage to the maiden name of Trump’s late mother, Mary Anne, who was born in Scotland before emigrating to New York.
It will feature world’s largest natural bunker, mountainous sand dunes, and infinity greens hugging the coastal dune ridge – all sitting next to the existing championship links course.
But there’s already been stirrings of unrest, with Scottish Greens MSP for the North East region slamming it as: “A vanity project, through & through!
“The approval of this course took no consideration for the services people really need, really want, or the beautiful natural environment in the Shire.”
Plans for the resort initially included a 450-bedroom hotel on-site – but currently accommodation is limited to just 21 rooms and a lodge.
It all contains echoes of the political spat which surrounded the opening of the Trump International Resort back in 2012.
Although the northern part of the course covered part of a Site of Special Scientific Interest – one of Britain‘s best examples of a mobile sand dune system – planning permission was granted by the Scottish Government as it was felt that the promised $1bn spend outweighed the environmental concerns.
But project director Neil Hobday told the BBC in March that he and the rest of Scotland were ‘hoodwinked’ by it.
Hobday said: “He was willing to fight the environmental battle and create this impression that this was a $1bn project and Scotland absolutely needed it. But I think he never really had the money or the intention of finishing it.”
He added: “I feel very hoodwinked and ashamed that I fell for it and Scotland fell for it. We all fell for it. He was never going to do it.”
There was clearly no love lost between Trump and Nicola Sturgeon, saying that the people of Scotland would be “much better off” without Ms Sturgeon in the top job following her exit.
“Good riddance to failed woke extremist Nicola Sturgeon of Scotland!” he said in a statement.
Then there are the controversies over Trump Turnberry, which has two 18-hole courses and one 9-hole course.
The legendary 7,489 yard, par-71 Ailsa Course needs little introduction – although we told you recently how planners have given the go-ahead for work to begin on the seventh and eighth holes.
Since 2017, there’s also been the King Robert the Bruce Course, which comes in at 7,203 yards and par 72.
Priding itself on being a four-time Open venue – including the 1977 Duel in the Sun – Turnberry is no longer on the schedule for the Open Championships and two years ago the R&A were quick to knock down claims from Trump that they wanted it back on any time soon.
Chief Executive Martin Slumbers said: “We had no plans to stage any of our championships at Turnberry and will not do so in the foreseeable future.
“We will not return until we are convinced that the focus will be on the championship, the players and the course itself and we do not believe that is achievable in the current circumstances.”
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