Wednesday
Jul112012
Monty On Trump International: "One of, if not the best links course I've ever played."
The Scotsman story I referenced earlier was by Frank Urquhart is now posted. It includes a Scotsman-produced video from Monday's opening of Trump International Scotland. 
And here was Monty's exact quote. I wonder if he knows who designed the course? He does know who signed his check to be there Monday.
“I expected good, but this has surpassed my expectations. It’s as dramatic as you get. It’s not for me to say this is the world’s’ greatest golf course. What I can say is that it’s one of, if not the best links course I’ve ever played.
Nice photo too of The Donald and Monty. Thankfully Monty is fully logoed, otherwise I wouldn't be able to tell them apart.
And the video piece:
Wednesday, July 11, 2012 at 03:11 PM
Reader Comments (36)
Not a bra. A manssiere.
I just enjoy listening to Trump tell the world that this is the greatest golf course ever and that everyone in the golf business is talking about it. Makes you wonder what most of us are all missing.
Sheesh, seems only like yesterday when Trump stated he'd be a good neighbour to those who wouldn't bend to his will. If that's his idea of being a "good neighbour" then I hate to think what kind of a bad one he'd make!
Get over your issues with The Donald. If a man's legacy is measured by his accomplishments and what he leaves behind, this golf course will cement his contribution to the game. It's spectacular and majestic.
The Menie Estate in 2008
http://robinwilson.net/menie3/menie.html
How is this irreplaceable stretch of coastline improved by one more golf course in a country with, how shall we put it, several of its kind already, even if they are all slightly inferior? The only hope for the rest of the site is those windmills...no "housing estate/hotel." We all know that Trump is a man of his word. One more question: How many sunshine/blue sky days per year such as that in the panorama in an otherwise dark (shadow of the Grampians in the long summer twilight?), fairly cool, damp, haar shrouded place?
btw, Joe Passov at Golf.com pronounced it "bucket list, must play course right now, on its opening day" (Golf.com)
Most significantly, I’m not sure even after two trips around that this course will be realistically playable in the stiff breezes that typically blow through this area of Aberdeenshire. Yes, the fairways are surprisingly wide—certainly friendlier than they appear at first glance—but virtually the slightest pull or push disappears into impenetrable gunch. The caddies don’t even bother searching. You just drop and play. For me, this eliminates one of the greatest aspects of golf, especially links golf, which is recoverability.
"Don't even bother searching?" Yuck.
- the wording of his statement is unpleasantly disingenuous; "it's not for me to say.." he begins, but in what follows he does say that the course is the best links he's ever played, and it's well-known that he has played St Andrew's, etc. Thus he's saying it's the best links in the world, as Trump is doubtless paying or "entertaining" him to say.
- Doesn't his wife's family own Gleneagles?
- Though the course may be wonderful it's not needed - Scotland has more courses than the economy can sustain.
- Trump will not really bring economic benefits. The money will go into his course and its facilities. Most of it (if not all) won't be money that he has brought in to the golf economy, but money that will be taken away from other courses and resorts. The kind of jobs that these places create are for low-paid people who come in from the outside (we all know this about the hotel business).
- The great courses (and the many gems like Dornoch, etc) have earned the little recognition that has come their way through a century and more of golf. Trump's course, however good it may be when you get out on it, has its immediate profile and reputation (and the reviews, etc) on the back of his sleazy liaisons with reality TV and so on, and because of the brutal treatment of locals that has brought more publicity (there's no such thing as bad publicity for the Don, despite his lip-service to good-neighbourhood).
- I love golf and links golf especially, but I don't think that a links creation, parasitic upon the great courses, is a positive "legacy" that outweighs the negative impact of the project in terms of the environment, the local community, and the local economy.
After all the wet weather, the fairways must be soft, yet a slightly off line drive (not even a hook or a slice) results in a lost ball? Sorry, that makes no sense to me.
I don't want to debate Trump the personality, the celebrity, or his hair. I'll leave that to those whose cultural expertise and status exceeds mine. I just want to focus on the golf course and it's placement among its peers, local, regional and afar. It's an exceptional course, and like EVERY OTHER SCOTTISH COURSE THIS YEAR, DUE TO RECORD RAINS, is gobbling up miss struck balls. For all of Scotland, it's a steroidal growing season.
As for effect on the local economy, it's surely too early to tell, but I stayed at the wonderful Marcliffe and talked with Stewart Spence, it's proprietor, and he's over the moon to have Trump there. His bookings, he said, are up 55% for the next year already and he believes his competitors are experiencing similar increase.. We played at nearby Royal Aberdeen and their pro and secretary both waxed enthusiastically about having it as a neighbor. They too have already seen a jump in guest play. So I suspect you speculative naysayers are far from accurate, especially when they say they have "more courses than their economy can sustain." Pure Bullshit. Sure, the Peterheads and Old Morays aren't the attractions of. Trump or Dornoch, but please try to tell me that the likes of Kingsbarn and Castle Stuart don't generate a net positive for their respective local economies......
All you others who want to put some tag on me, a pox on Trump or any other negative spin ought to look in the mirror and tell us they haven't any flaws. Yup, Trump is bombastic and over the top in any number of ways. So were many other egotists who left us better off than before ( i.e. Steve Jobs, Pablo Picasso, etc....) I don't care about reality TV or fancy named buildings, but I do care about golf and this new links course is a 100% positive in my book.
Go ahead sharpen your knives.....just be careful not to nick yourselves.
@ Sean, I don't agree. There has already been benefit in that a local construction company built the course and local suppliers supplied materials. I'm no fan of Trump the man, but anyone who builds golf courses is fine by me. You like to chime off about all the great old courses, like we all don't know which ones they are, and yes those names are holy, but without people who had money and some determination, many of those courses would not exist either. A hundred years from now people may have forgotten about Donald Trump, but there may be many people who go have a nice experience on an enjoyable golf course, and they may owe a debt of gratitude to Donald Trump.
Which are the great old and holy courses that you talk about that required people with money? Kingsbarns? Castle Stuart? Loch Lomond? The redo of Gleneagles? St. Andrews Castle course? Machrihanish Dunes?
Although Castle Stuart has been a wonderful suprise and Kingsbarn is pretty good, the rest lower tier. None of these are holy for sure.
@Sean is right. Before the recent golf building boom in Scotland, I already felt like an oversexed man at an orgy.