“If [the result] was clear and decisive, then maybe it’s time to go and play golf at Turnberry.”
That was Nigel Farage’s advice to Donald Trump, offered ahead of the election in the event of the president suffering defeat at the American polls. Now it will be a surprise if we see him on the Ayrshire coast anytime soon.
Bigger fish to fry – like running the ‘free world’.
That said, Trump’s love of golf isn’t just limited to playing. The 45th and soon-to-be 47th President of the United States of America owns extensive golf properties across the world – and has some of the highest-profile courses in Great Britain & Ireland in his portfolio.
And he’s not finished yet.
You’ll be one of the planet’s most uninformed people if you didn’t know he owned Turnberry. Trump acquired the Open venue in 2014 for a reputed $60 million and set about transforming the Ailsa course.
Celebrated golf course architect Martin Ebert restored the layout – the highlight of which is the sensational clifftop par-3 9th around the famous lighthouse – and the Trump Organization says it has invested £200 million into the hotel.
The aim was to make it the “finest golf and spa resort in the world”, but despite being lauded by players and pundits alike – it sits at No. 3 on NCG’s GB&I Top 100 list – the Claret Jug is yet to return.
The R&A has been clear as to why, pointing the finger clearly at the President. “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,” said outgoing R&A chief executive Martin Slumbers in 2021.
Trump’s election victory over Kamala Harris now means it’s likely that policy will continue, although Mark Darbon is about to take the reins at the governing body very soon.
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Turnberry won’t give up. “We’re always looking to get The Open and we will do anything the R&A want us to do,” Turnberry general manager Nic Oldham told The Mirror.
“After the Old Course, it is the highest-rated Championship venue, it’s in the best condition, it’s got the best hotel facilities, it’s got the most land – that’s all ours – around it to create the environment. We are set to host an Open.”
Should politics get in the way? Sky Sports Golf commentator Ewen Murray told NCG they don’t have “anything to do with our sport”.
“I think these two things are apart and political views are always going to cause opinion,” he said. “Going there for The Open would be the reason I would want to go there, I don’t really care who owns it.
“But every time we’ve had an Open at Turnberry, it has been a great success. You go back to Norman in 1986, and you go back to the Duel in the Sun in 1977. These were fabulous Open Championships, and I think it would be again.”
Donald Trump golf: ‘The greatest 36 holes in golf?’
The Ailsa course is now going through another Ebert-led revamp as alterations are made to the 7th and 8th holes.
While a £1,000 high-season green fee for visitors who don’t stay in the hotel attracted headlines earlier this summer as the most expensive in the UK, the course is also turning a profit.
The latest set of accounts revealed they rose to more than £3.8 million last year – up from £186,261 the year before – and ended a run of losses.
If Turnberry is Trump’s highest-profile acquisition, though, the work at Trump International Scotland, near Aberdeen, has arguably been more impactful.
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The opening of a new links at Menie on the highlands shoreline in 2012 predictably wasn’t without controversy.
The way the layout carved through the dunelands saw them lose their status as a Site of Special Scientific Interest – a decision branded “highly politicised” by the course.
The development also led to a high-profile feud with locals.
A second course, designed by Martin Hawtree, will now open at Trump International Scotland next summer.
The MacLeod Course, named after Trump’s Lewis-born mother Mary, will form the “greatest 36 holes in golf” and feature the “largest sand dunes in Scotland”, say the resort.
It’s claimed more than 1 million sprigs of native marram grass have been planted with some 6 tonnes of marram seeds harvested. Another 10 hectares of natural vegetation has been located and it is said new wildlife habitats are emerging within the wetlands.
Given the hype surrounding the project, it is likely to drop in strongly in updated course raking lists in the coming years.
That would give Trump four courses within GB&I’s Top 100s rankings with Trump International Ireland also featuring strongly.
The president-elect bought the Doonbeg resort, in County Clare on the west coast of Ireland, for an estimated 8.7 million euros in 2014 after the course had been ravaged by storms the previous winter.
Renowned for its spectacular Atlantic views and its risk and reward holes, a green fee right now will set golfers back 250 euros.
So like him, or loath him, agree with his politics, or disagree fundamentally, Trump’s influence on golf in GB&I is immense and its impact is only likely to get bigger.
Now have your say
Donald Trump golf: What do you make of Donald Trump’s US election win and his portfolio of golf courses in Great Britain & Ireland? Let us know with a comment on X.
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