R&A stand firm on Trump golf resort Open hopes
It comes as the Ayrshire course to get redesign
Donald Trump’s Ayrshire golf resort has been told it won’t be hosting The Open Championship any time soon – despite getting the green light to redesign one of its courses.
Golf governing body The R&A insists they still held concerns about handing over one of the sport’s most high-profile events to the Trump Turnberry facility in South Ayrshire.
On Tuesday, a bid to move the seventh hole of the iconic Ailsa Course into a fixed dune grassland west of its current position was given the green light by local authority planning chiefs.
The eighth tee will also be reinstated to the right of the new seventh.
No change
In the report submitted to the committee, it states the proposed alterations to the links will “enhance the overall golfing experience for all members and visitors” and aims to “facilitate the return of The Open Championship to Turnberry and South Ayrshire.”
However, The R&A told West FM they hadn’t moved from their position regarding Mr Trump and his Turnberry resort.
Chief Executive Martin Slumbers – who is stepping down from his role at the end of 2024 – said publicly in January 2021: “We have 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.”
Today’s Golfer correspondent Michael Catling explained Mr Slumbers won’t budge from his position and warned Turnberry could fall off The Open Championship course rota altogether.
He told West FM: “The reality is that Trump Turnberry is never going to host The Open as long as Donald Trump is associated with it.
“Martin Slumbers has made that clear in conversations I have had with him as well as many times in his annual Open Championship.”
The proposed new design for the course will be located close to a site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI).
However, this has been accounted for in the planning application and SEPA and NatureScot submitted no objections to the plans.
Historic
Turnberry last hosted The Open in 2009, five years before Mr Trump bought it from Dubai-based group Lesiurecorp.
The Ailsa Course has been ranked the number one golf course in the UK and Ireland on several occasions, due to its outstanding setting alongside the Ayrshire coastline, with Arran and Ailsa Craig acting as a unique backdrop.
The course was previously remodelled in June 2016, following the Trump Organisation taking ownership of the Turnberry Hotel estate, with over £200m invested to completely restore and revamp the resort, including the Championship Ailsa Course.