Trump That! Not Another Golf Course?!

Having already established a championship golf course at his £750 million Aberdeenshire golf course, tycoon Donald Trump has formally submitted a planning application for a second championship course at the same venue. If successful, he plans to name the course in honour of his Scottish mother.

The second course at the Menie Estate will be named the Mary MacLeod course as a tribute to his late mother, Mary Anne, the seventh child of Lewis fisherman and crofter Malcolm MacLeod and his wife Mary Smith.

The new course has been designed by acclaimed golf architect Dr Martin Hawtree who also designed the main championship course at the golf resort. Mr Trump, who will be visiting the North east of Scotland in April to open the second season of his championship links course, said: “Once again Martin Hawtree’s design is genius - we have the greatest piece of links land in the world and the unprecedented demand to play our championship course has accelerated our plans to build the second course.”

Sarah Malone, executive vice president for Trump International Golf Links Scotland, said the first stage of the detailed application process with Aberdeenshire Council had now begun with the submission of indicative plans for the new course to be laid out to the south of the existing championship links.

She said: “Our plans for the second golf course are moving forward rapidly and we’re delighted to reveal the indicative layout. We are more committed than ever to creating the greatest golf destination in the world. Following the launch of our championship course last year, Aberdeenshire is now considered a must visit destination for golf. The addition of a second course will further strengthen this.“

Dr Hawtree said: “I am excited at the opportunity of developing a second course for Mr Trump. At the centre there will be an outstanding Par 72 golf course, ranging between 7,500 and 5,500 yards, and situated on land with an extraordinary richness of landscape and topography; but every inch a seaside links course. The special and subtle challenge for me is to ensure that it sits comfortably beside its majestic neighbour, neither outshone by the existing course nor making any attempt to mimic or rival those Leviathan qualities.”

The new course will be a par 72 course measuring over 7.500 yards and will be laid out on 350 acres of land to the south of the main “championship” course at Menie. The site is outside the designated Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) which was at the centre of the controversy over the development of the first 18 holes.

Mr Trump said his decision to name it the Mary MacLeod Course, as a lasting legacy to his mother, had been a “very easy decision to make.” He continued: “I thought in terms colours and I thought in terms of east-west and north-south but in the end I decided the first one should be named the championship course and I always felt the MacLeod Course would be great name for the second - there is such a great history with MacLeods and Scotland and my mother was a Macleod.

“She was a proud Scot. She loved this country so much and I think she would be very proud to have the course named after her. My mother would go to back to Scotland religiously and she loved everything about it.” The tycoon explained that he had originally believed it would be between five to ten years before he began planning second course at the Menie estate. But 10,000 rounds had already been played at the championship course since it opened last July.

Said Mr Trump: “We have over 11,000 bookings already this year - double what we had last year at this time. People are coming from all over the world. It has been incredible for Scotland and Aberdeen in particular and every hotel owner in Aberdeen loves me. The hotels are packed.

“We have had such a tremendous demand to get on the course and such an amazing second site that a second course is now being planned.” And he continued: “The course is magnificent. We are going to do our best to make this course as good as the championship course - I don’t know if that’s possible but we are going to do our best. It is very,very hard to compete with what we did. The beautiful thing is that it is not in the SSSI so we don’t have to go through that long process again.”

But he again warned that he will not go ahead with plans to build a luxury hotel and homes on the Menie estate if plans for a controversial offshore windfarm in Aberdeen bay , in sight of the resort, are given the go-ahead. Scottish Government Ministers have still to announce their decision on the proposals for the £230 million European Offshore Wind Deployment Centre off the Aberdeenshire coast.

Mr Trump declared “We have the designs for the hotel and I am confident that it will be one of the best in Europe, if not the world. Scotland has seen nothing like it. It is worth more than the windmills, and will create more jobs than the windmills. But I will not build it if the view is ruined by the monstrosities, which are going to ruin Scotland.”