Video: I Have Seen Trump International Scotland...

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...and the verdict is? Greatest course in the world?

Well, unfortunately that will have to wait until Golf World Monday, followed by a feature story for Golf World reviewing Martin Hawtree's design. In the meantime, enjoy this excellent Guardian compilation of Internet reaction to the course. 

One hint about my review you might pick up from the below and decidedly low quality iPhone video compilation is the repeated use of the word "extraordinary."

"Every attribute Scots hold dear has been offended by this man – and yet attention and hostility have served only to feed his overwrought sense of self-importance."

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It's great fun to ask locals about Donald Trump and the reaction I'm getting is fairly similar to that of Lesley Riddoch in this Guardian piece.

Though it's fascinating how many prefaced their disdain for Trump International by saying they supported the project but simply think The Donald has gone too far in his wind-turbine campaign.

It takes quite a lot to unite the people of this notoriously fractious little country in a collective shudder. But Trump has effortlessly managed to strike the wrong note in just about everything he's done. He sneered at locals in modest homes who wouldn't move out of his way. He bragged about his power and wealth. He designed a hotel that made Disneyland look culturally authentic. He staged, posed toe-curlingly brazen photocalls. He struck a bullying manner with staff, reporters, supporters and opponents.

He made endless reference to Hebridean roots – among root-bound Scots unaccustomed to the endless and self-conscious display of national credentials. He used pictures of rusting Hawaiian wind-turbines in misleading Scottish newspaper ads to oppose a renewables test centre supported by every political party and business organisation in the north-east.

In his bizarre appearance before Holyrood's energy committee, Trump explained his opposition to the planned European Offshore Wind Deployment Centre – a test centre that should help reduce the need for onshore wind farms – by calling it a "tourism-crushing eyesore". Asked for proof, he responded with the unforgettable line, "I am the evidence." It grabbed headlines – it also sealed the man's fate.

The Donald Declares His Course The Greatest In The World...After Nine Holes

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A wire story from The Scotsman was not nearly as fun as the printed version I got to read over breakfast, so I'll have to dig up a few of the quotes in there.

But for now, this was great fun from opening day of Trump International Golf Links where the developer declared it was the greatest in the world before he'd even finished his round!

After completing the first nine holes with George O'Grady and Sandy Jones, the chief executives of the European Tour and the UK PGA respectively, Mr Trump called it the "greatest golf course anywhere in the world".

"We're having a great time, the course is playing great and the weather has held up," he said. "Colin loves the course and he's playing really well, he's a great player and a great guy."

Though by the sounds of this Monty quote from another story by Martin Dempster, he was being paid to be there. Not that such a thing would influence his views.

“We are similar in that way and it’s why I will never give up as a competitor, no matter what I am doing. For instance, it’s not right to be trying to beat the boss [Donald Trump] today, but I will be trying.”

George O'Grady, head of the European Tour, loved it, as quoted in this Dempster story on the prospects of major events at Trump International.

“It’s a man’s golf course – it’s meant for the highest level of play,” acknowledged O’Grady as he gazed down the first fairway of the Martin Hawtree-designed layout.

“What he [Trump] and I have agreed is that, when we are both ready, we would try and persuade someone to come here – and I don’t think it will be too difficult a task. There’s the Scottish Open to think about and I’m sure that’s in the mind of our sponsors, but there are other events as well. It’s certainly capable of taking the biggest and best, I would say.
“It is a unique golf course and, once the photographs of it are seen, many people will want to come here.”

USGA's Davis On Trump: "For all that comes with Donald as a business icon and media personality, he couldn't have been a more gracious host."

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Translation, even though he seems like a blowhard, he actually can host a championship well enough that we'll put up with a "partner" that would have made Joe Dey jump off the Brooklyn Bridge.

At least, that's how I took USGA Executive Director Mike Davis's remarks, though a transcript from the day can't be found at the usual spot USGA transcripts appear.

This was an interesting element in the decision to take the 2017 Women's Open to Trump National.

"We really get to showcase our museum and we get to showcase where we test balls and clubs," Davis said. "Far Hills is not the easiest place to find, so to get the golf world for a week here, it's very exciting and we will expose the campus."

Brad Klein got to spend some time driving around the course with The Donald and came away swooning about the man, even dropping the "h word. (Humble...really).

Enthusiasm and attention are why he got to Trump National 90 minutes before the news conference. That gave him time to inspect work in progress on the club’s new 10,000-square-foot locker room. And it’s why he insisted on accompanying me on a drive through the back nine of the Old Course. His discourse during such a trip is filled with superlatives, about this being the largest single green in the world and the whole course being the best in all of New Jersey and worthy of a top-10 national ranking. He’s an incessant follower of course ratings and thinks that Golfweek, in rating Trump National-Old at No. 72 Modern, we’ve not shown the course (or him) enough respect.

USGA.org featured a slideshow from the media day. This one had a caption, but somehow I know you can do better:

"Trump International Golf Links Scotland is destined to become one of the most polarizing courses in all of golf."

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Darius Oliver with the first Trump International Scotland review from a trustworthy source.

The main issue with the playability of the Trump International Scotland course, is that fairways are relatively tight given the frequent high winds here and the off fairway areas are quite penal. There is no doubt that over time the maintenance crew will have to soften some of the problem areas, and likely learn to keep the marram grass in the immediate surrounds under control. What will give operators more trouble are the teeing grounds, with golfers able to choose from more than 100 different tee boxes across the property. Virtually every hole has a spectacular back tee, which is often placed high on a bordering dune and completely exposed to the elements. Hawtree has admitted that he is uncomfortable about some of these back tees, and with good reason too as players with poorer techniques are likely to find the narrow fairways even harder to hit from such elevation. The other concern with having so many tees is that the course invariably becomes longer to walk, and therefore longer to play. Even fast fourballs playing solid golf will struggle to keep rounds under four and a half hours. Busy days with high winds could be brutal here.

The Donald Does Bohemian Rhapsody!

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Niamh Anderson of the Daily Mail reveals the overnight UK sensation (1000 YouTube views!!) though I must say, I'll never look at Donald Trump's comb-over quite the same again. And that's saying a lot. (Thanks reader David for this.)

The woman behind the video, freelance writer Hazel Cameron, 52, said she was delighted with how it turned out. She said: ‘It took nearly two years to complete but we are thrilled with it.’

She came up with the idea in 2010, when she and her friends were talking about Trump’s plans. Miss Cameron said she ‘had to do something’ to raise awareness about the links course.

She said: ‘His actions are appalling. I’ve spent almost my whole life working in business and I know how difficult planning and environmental laws can be.

'So why was he able to come in and sweep them all away? We have hundreds of golf courses in Scotland and we don’t need another one – especially if it means that people will lose their homes.’

She emailed May asking for  permission to use the song and was surprised to receive a reply within four hours. May told her: ‘I hope you will be able to stop this nasty project.’

Tuesday's Trump Files...

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It's a mixed bag for the Trump Olive Oil Company today, as Kerry Singe reports the "Trump Organization" has lost interest in buying The Point Lake and Golf Club due to member disarray and indecision. Shocking, that people of means can't agree on selling to other people of means.

Eric Trump, son of real estate mogul Donald Trump, flew to Charlotte Monday to meet with Crescent and club board members.

On Wednesday morning, Trump said, he called the board to say he was no longer interested.

"There's a lot of confusion at the club. A lack of direction," Trump told the Observer. "It's a great asset, and with a lot of capital could have been terrific. But we don't want to get bogged down with a deal that has a lot of different parties all moving in different directions at the same time."

Meanwhile, SI's Michael Bamberger watched the new "You've Been Trumped" documentary at the Miami Film Festival and came out of it feeling that filmmaker Baxter portrays Trump as a bully and blowhard, yet Bamberger finds The Donald "weirdly charismatic."

The Trump that appears in Baxter's film is a bully and a blowhard, and he comes off the same way in my friend Mike Tollin's ESPN film "Small Potatoes: Who Killed the USFL?" (Trump! At least, that's Mike's considered view.) I don't doubt that Trump can be a bully and a blowhard, but I have a different take on him. I found Trump to be smart, open and weirdly charismatic.

But the thing I liked best about him is that he didn't take himself too seriously, or not overly so. When I was doing my reporting on Trump, he had an ugly, ongoing feud with Rosie O'Donnell. Three days a week or so there was a "Page Six" item about their Seinfeldian war over nothing. I said to Trump, "This thing with Rosie, you're loving it, aren't you?" He said, "Michael." (If you meet him and you can help him, he will learn your name and use it often.) "Rose O'Donnell is the gift that keeps giving." In other words, she kept his name in the paper, and he likes that. More recently, I've abandoned my old view. I now think Trump takes himself very seriously.

No, really? You sure Mike?

You've heard him talk about running for president and questioning Obama's birth records.

Unfortunately.

There was no wink in any of that, not that I saw. He used to talk to me about golf-course construction as a hobby, the way gardening is for other people. Now I think golf has become something more for him.