Despite significant investment, the US President still has work to do to get his wish
Between waging tariff wars and bending the ears of warmongers to end actual wars, Donald Trump is planning time in the diary for a non-executive trip to Scotland this month.
This will not involve the trappings of state, save for ensuring safe passage, since the President of the United States is eyeing a visit to Menie in Aberdeenshire to cut the ribbon on the latest course in his golfing portfolio.
The proximity of the Open Championship at Royal Portrush may or may not be a factor in the timing of the trip, yet for a vainglorious golf nut who understands better than any the power of his cultish presidency to shape the news agenda, it is inconceivable that Trump would pass up the opportunity to link a visit to Scotland with his campaign to restore Trump Turnberry to the Open rota.
The jewel in the Trump crown last hosted the Open in 2009 when Stewart Cink ruined Tom Watson’s fairytale in a play-off to win his only major.
The upscaling of the Open since then from a tournament significant to golf to a world class sporting event has compromised the ability of remote venues like Turnberry to host the global pageant.
The US President is expected to arrive at his Scottish golf resort later this month (Photo: Getty)
A total of 120,000 attended in 2009, a figure which falls someway short of the 240,000 demanded of Muirfield by the R&A should that venerable old club push for its own return to the rota after an absence that currently stands at 12 years.
The rule of thumb for any Open venue is the close proximity of 60,000 hotel beds, not to mention a transport infrastructure to support them, both of which are absent on the Ayrshire course.
Turnberry’s position is further hampered by Trump’s volatile political profile, which crossed one of many red lines in 2021 during the storming of the Capitol building in Washington, in which his involvement was alleged.
Tapping into the prevailing mood of the day, serving R&A chief executive Martin Slumbers declared the Trump association too toxic and Turnberry venue non grata.
Slumbers has since left his post to be replaced by Mark Dabon, who has declared his enthusiastic support for Turnberry, which has undergone a significant redesign under the Trump regime, returning it to its former eminence among links courses.
Dabon is simply reading the political room following Trump’s return to power, taking his cue from the obsequious attentions of Sir Keir Starmer, who, according to reports, as well as swooping to collect from the floor Trump’s fumbled documents, has lent on the Department of Culture, Media and Sport to explore Turnberry’s return.
Trump has been banging the drum since the renovations of the historic Ailsa Course and hotel were completed earlier this year, declaring with absolute certainty that “everybody wants to see the Open back at Turnberry”.
Well, everybody bar activists raging against America’s support for Israel and Benjamin Netanyahu’s prosecution of the Palestinian conflict.
Turnberry’s clubhouse was daubed red in March by demonstrators who also painted “Palestine is not for sale” on one of the greens following Trump’s wild pledge to turn Gaza into a Mediterranean tourist attraction under American control, requiring the forcible relocation of two million Palestinian people.
Theoretically the Open schedule is vacant after 2026 at Royal Birkdale, bringing added significance to any tubthumping for Turnberry, which Trump is planning to visit should Air Force One touch down in Scotland as expected sometime this month.
Turnberry, one of 18 courses in Trump’s global portfolio, has been in his possession since 2014.
He has subsequently invested £200m in the renewal of the site.
As well as Starmer, Trump has A-list support among the golfing community, including Colin Montgomerie, who declared: “Turnberry needs to happen.
“It’s ranked No 1 and rightly so. It’s the best course we have – not in Scotland but in Britain. I don’t think I’m being biased saying that. I think that’s what we all feel.
“To host the greatest championship in golf is a must somewhere down the line.”
Short of buying Glasgow and moving it 50 miles west, or redeveloping the Ayrshire coast into the Scottish Riviera, it would appear Trump still has work to do to get his wish.
But where there’s a will, and a Monty, there’s a way. Expect the campaign to be turbo-Trumped shortly.
