The Old Course at Trump International is another in the mould of a modern links, and one that has risen up the NCG Top 100s: Scotland list.
The venue only opened in 2012, so it feels odd to be calling it the Old Course. However, this is due to the opening of the New Course last year.
The Old Course has improved massively since its inception 14 years ago, going on to host both the DP World Tour and European Legends Tour in recent years…
Following the addition of the New Course, Trump International‘s new slogan is the ‘Greatest 36 Holes in Golf’, and they may well have a point…
RELATED – Check out the NCG Top 100s: Scotland list
Why has Trump International’s Old Course broken into the top ten on the updated NCG Top 100s: Scotland list?
As mentioned, it is a layout that has improved hugely since its opening in 2012, and it is a course almost unlike any other.
Thanks to the incredible dunescape that it sits in, you only see other groups when you’re stood on the elevated tee boxes that are dotted around the course. At all other times, it feels like you have the course to yourself!
With six teeing options, ranging from 7,500 yards for the professionals, all the way down to a much more manageable distance for us mere mortals, it is also a course that is now set up to be enjoyed by players of any ability.
RELATED – NCG Top 100s: Trump International (Old)
What do our experts think about the Old Course at Trump International?
Dan Murphy, chairman of the NCG Top 100s Rankings, started by mentioning the opening day of one of the newer courses in Scotland..
“Another new course, though now, confusingly, called the Old Course – we’re now at Trump International, Scotland. We’re in Aberdeen, the original course now called the Old, and it is a huge riser! It is up eight places and breaks into our top ten for the first time, into No.9,” Murphy said.
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“Very happy to see it there, it has come quite a long way in our lists. We were actually there on the opening when Donald Trump was there, long before his Presidential days, but it was still quite a surreal experience. That was 2012/2013, before his first term.”
Tom Irwin, co-host of the NCG Golf Podcast and the NCG Top 100s Podcast, was also there that day, on a surreal day for golf…
“It was quite the thing wasn’t it, because he played with [Colin] Montgomerie, his sons were there, and everywhere he went he had a bagpiper following him around. It was very strange being there as the media because we had to wear yellow bibs so he could see us coming. It was an odd thing.”
Murphy, bringing it back to the current day, explained how much the layout has gotten better in the decade since its opening, and how it has risen up the rankings.
“It is my view that the golf course has improved massively since it opened, as most golf courses do, they tend to be like fine wines in that respect, if they’re well looked after. I was there twice last year, but I played the Old Course very early in the season. In terms of agronomy, just astonishing. Everywhere else had that early spring feel, which is fine, but at Trump it was like winter had never happened. I don’t know how they do it but the course was absolutely prime!” Murphy stated.
“What it has got, is a lot of elevated greens, to which some purists would say there are too many. If you think about a green that is elevated that far up then it makes it more difficult to run the ball up into it, which is something that I love trying to do, and most links purists say the same.
“However, it is way firmer than it used to be, so certainly when you’re around the greens, you do now have the chance to show some imagination and versatility in your short game, and it does demand it because of the way the greens are set up. You need to have different shots if you’re going to get it close, or anywhere near really.
“It has also softened off, and it was quite extreme at the start. Often new courses, you have to grow the rough up and then you can start managing it. Especially if you were stupid enough to go off the tees that are 7,500 yards on a squally day, and the tees are all up in the air! It has become more playable and they have widened it, though I think they could actually go further in some places. It is way more playable than it was, so there is less of that element of reloading. It certainly felt, at the start, that you needed a decent sack of golf balls to go out there with.”
The locals also enjoy it, thanks to the economic boost that the entire venue has provided to the region in and around Aberdeen.
“It is an amazing bit of land, just in terms of dunescape and the overall scale of the property. The other thing I would say about Trump International, is that we have had an outpouring of local opinions about various different places on the list, and this has been a real theme, with Fifers popping up to tell us we have got Fife wrong and Ayrshire do the same etc,” Irwin mentioned.
“There isn’t really much distaste for the Old Course amongst Aberdonians – they’re quite fond of it. It has obviously brought a lot of jobs to the area and they’re proud to have it. They’re not that way about other courses in Aberdeen, and that probably speaks volumes about it. A county of Scotland that is full of golf golfers are quite respectful of the golf course!”
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“That’s a good point, and of course there are people that are ideologically opposed to it, which is fine, but they’re not qualified to judge whether the golf course is any good because they haven’t been. I agree, in my experience, that people who have been, speak very, very highly of it. I think it certainly hits the spot!” Murphy said to finish.
Listen to the NCG Top 100s Podcast
CHECK OUT – Castle Stuart at Cabot Highlands – the ‘poster boy’ for new Scottish links
CHECK OUT – How you can play the New Course at Trump International on the NCG Top 100s Tour
Now have your say
Have you been fortunate enough to play the Old Course at Trump International? What did you make of it? Let us know your thoughts with a post on X, formerly Twitter!
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