Bloody vandals.....

At least that is what I will be shouting from the top of the dunes whilst waving my hickory chipper at trump and his cronies.

Anyway here are the latest photos of the greatest course in the world.

Spoiler:

I wonder if the main aspect of his business model is the sale of balls in the pro shop, you will certainly need a few given the playing corridors are totally surrounded by deep rough.

Those pictures make the holes look totally contrived, not to mention unplayable.

kwinigolfer wrote:Those pictures make the holes look totally contrived, not to mention unplayable.

wot 'e sed.

Who's the designer Mac? Get the impression I could have done a better job

Unplayable may be the only way to describe it, miss the fairway by an inch and you loose a ball. I hope this is just a development phase and that the rough will be cut back before it opens for real.

Ned

The designer is hawtree but I think trump and his sons may have gotten a little too involved with the design decisions.

Wasn't Charles Hawtrey in many of the Carry On films? Seemed a bit of a gay blade (not that there's anything wrong with that).
Just up the Donald's street.

I think it only looks odd at present because of the contrast of the colour of the grass and the dunes. Once the turf settles and takes on proper links characteristics and colours it will look just as natural as Portrush, Troon, TOC or any other links course built on or amidst such dunes.

It seems you'll protest about anything Mac, are you living (or going home at night) at St.Pauls at the moment. Those bad bad capitalists.

McLaren wrote:Bloody Vandals

Oh I don't know Mac. Golfers should be able to find the green more easily when the haar rolls in.

Hawtree Jnr is quite a decent designer. His dad built many good courses in his time. I think he did work for the R&A when they tweek the Open venues.

McLaren wrote:Unplayable may be the only way to describe it, miss the fairway by an inch and you loose a ball. I hope this is just a development phase and that the rough will be cut back before it opens for real.

Ned

The designer is Hawtree but I think trump and his sons may have gotten a little too involved with the design decisions.

Has it ever occurred to you Mac that Trump knows a lot more about course design than you do? And if you put your petty prejudices aside you might actually see that the course could be something pretty special.
Also he may have also read Doak

How many courses has he built and how many courses have you built?

What's the fuss with the rough? How long till the course opens? I'm sure they'll cut it before it opens but why moan about it now?

I'm sure from an agricultural point of view they know a lot better than you Mac or Gael with your trump hating hats on.

Before the course opens they'll have everything as it should be for a championship course.

Here's an alternative if you hate the guy so much, don't talk about him or his creation which he will be paying top dollar to designers for and I'm sure they are more clued up than any of us on course design.

I'd be willing to wager Mac as much as you seem to Trump on about Donald and his vandalism you will play the course!

What nonsence. Its more than six months till the course will be open pretty sure the rough will be cut down. The holes look very good in the pictures.

There are plenty of pictures on the official website. Introductory green fees have been set at £150 for non residents, not cheap but from the pictures it certainly looks spectacular. I'd say at least on a par with Kingsbarns.

www.trumpgolfscotland.com

"The Great Dunes of Scotland" Don't know why he didn't go the full hog and name the course "Brigadoon" but, I guess you have to be a yank or a sassenach to not understand just how cheesy such a description is to any self-respecting scot.

Reference "the rough" ... by the way ... it's meant to look that "rough". It's not meant to look like some poofy manicured sassenach parkland course.

gaelgowfer wrote:"The Great Dunes of Scotland" Don't know why he didn't go the full hog and name the course "Brigadoon" but, I guess you have to be a yank or a sassenach to not understand just how cheesy such a description is to any self-respecting scot.

Reference "the rough" ... by the way ... it's meant to look that "rough". It's not meant to look like some poofy manicured sassenach parkland course.

Don't you mean 'any self-respecting jock' Gael?

I'll tell you what makes me go , chippy flag waving Scots somehow thinking they are superior.

Oh for goodness sake s_r, do me a favour and crawl back into the hole from whence you came.

Gael, in absolute seriousness, are you like this is real life? If so, do you have many friends??

MPB ... given you're posting here on a Saturday evening ... do you?

A) I'm currently at a dinner party with a dozen friends and decided to look on here whilst they're all watching xfactor, and
B) so that's a no from you then? Thought so

MustPuttBetter wrote:A) I'm currently at a dinner party with a dozen friends and decided to look on here whilst they're all watching xfactor, and
B) so that's a no from you then? Thought so

Are you with Diggers?, that's his favourite show.

"dinner party"? ... "xfactor"? Hmmmmm.

Ha I might be SR! How would I know?? Interesting....

Gael, it's not my dinner party. Xfactor is popular like it or not. One things for sure, I'd rather watch this all evening than endure a party with a dozen Gaels......

And yet, you're on here talking to me.

MustPuttBetter wrote:Ha I might be SR! How would I know?? Interesting....

Gael, it's not my dinner party. Xfactor is popular like it or not. One things for sure, I'd rather watch this all evening than endure a party with a dozen Gaels......

Imagine how humourless that would be!

This is getting a bit nasty and personal, why don't we just get back on thread?

gaelgowfer wrote:And yet, you're on here talking to me.

Whilst you're at home on your own no doubt watching reruns of Newsnight. The envy....

Thankfully there are others to talk to on here as well as you. I wouldnt be here if there weren't. I'm sure you don't doubt that

D4S, it is indeed. And the first nasty comment....

gaelgowfer wrote:Oh for goodness sake s_r, do me a favour and crawl back into the hole from whence you came.

As usual....

Pots n'kettles s_r, pots n'kettles ...

Clearly, you've only come on here to pick a fight s-r because if, you are a scot, then I refuse to believe you can't be anything other than disgusted with Trump naming dunes (which I would remind you he does not anywhere near own in their entirety) "The Great Dunes of Scotland".

D4S ... are you vying for a moderator's postion by any chance?

gaelgowfer wrote:D4S ... are you vying for a moderator's postion by any chance?

No definitely not, I'd be more than happy for the admin team and our ex mods to resolve their differences and for them to be reinstated.

All I want is a bit of interesting and thought provoking debate. There has been far too much sniping on here recently, frankly I'm getting a bit fed up with it.

Trump hasn't named dunes as far as I can see, it's merely a caption on the image on the website.
In fact the website images are a sequence of several photographs each with it's own caption which when added together read as follows:

The Birthplace of Golf, along the great dunes of Scotland, the new standard in course design, challenging and breathtaking, honouring Scottish tradition.

So he hasn't named the course as you suggest, he's merely describing the area in which it is built.

Do you think he personally worded the website anyway?

And yes, although I'm a Scot, I couldn't care less that I am, it means nothing to me, and it wouldn't bother me where I came from, there is nothing particularly laudable about being Scottish and plenty to be embarassed about. It's merely an accident of birth.
I do however know how to have a laugh, whereas you appear to maintain a very serious tone at all times.

What a load of rubbish, its a name for gods sake, it means nothing.

He can call them "the dunes from the land of the haggis eating, kilt wearing, ' sheep s******* who spend all their time impregnating teenagers but at least they have claim to being the home of golf." for all i care.

I think 99% scots have more important things to care about than the naming of a golf course.

drive4show wrote:There has been far too much sniping on here recently, frankly I'm getting a bit fed up with it.

Ditto
And it's usually the same people

drive4show wrote:

gaelgowfer wrote:D4S ... are you vying for a moderator's postion by any chance?

No definitely not, I'd be more than happy for the admin team and our ex mods to resolve their differences and for them to be reinstated.

All I want is a bit of interesting and thought provoking debate. There has been far too much sniping on here recently, frankly I'm getting a bit fed up with it.

D4S ... I have no idea what's been going on behind the scenes, so to speak, but surely you can't realistically expect "interesting and thought-provoking debate" 24/7 without somebody falling out over something?

gael

No, I don't expect world peace and harmony 24/7, there will always be disagreements and differences of opinion.

However, I do expect that we can all be adult enough not to start slanging matches.

Dream on D4S ... dream on ...

Gael:

No-one expects harmony 24/7. What D4S is saying is that there's been enough mud slinging and insults on here in the last 3 days to last a lifetime. Whether they be because something happened behind the scenes or in full view is not the point. People on here want to debate the points at hand, and if there's a disagreement due to that then so be it.

The issue however seems to occur when you make personal insults on people or their personalities because they happen to disagree with you. I know people have responded to you accordingly, but the initial insult was made by yourself.

So please for the sake of debate and good topics of conversation before everyone decides enough is enough how about returning to the point in question and lay off the personal slants on peoples character or where they come from!

Dunes surely it should be Doons.

What a dreadful name to call a golf course, Mr Trump once again shows the world that he has no class.
The grass in the photos appears to be marran, you can't just cut that back to make a fairway/semi rough.

Doon the Water wrote:Dunes surely it should be Doons.

What a dreadful name to call a golf course, Mr Trump once again shows the world that he has no class.
The grass in the photos appears to be marran, you can't just cut that back to make a fairway/semi rough.

That's not what it's called DTW, as often happens Gael has leapt to a conclusion that wasn't actually there.
I'd also not worry about the marram grasses. These guys building the course aren't amateurs. They know what they are doing, even if Gael and Mac think they know better.

Donald Trump is, however, an amateur.
Not much better than a caricature here of how he sees himself.
I personally hope the entire enterprise is an economic catastrophe for Trump. A very nasty man.

s_r ...

"So he hasn't named the course as you suggest, he's merely describing the area in which it is built."

I suggested no such thing. This is what I actually said ...

"The Great Dunes of Scotland" Don't know why he didn't go the whole hog and name the course "Brigadoon".

And, just for the record, there is plenty of evidence on the internet to support my claim that he did re-name those dunes. His reason: well, he felt that as no-one had ever heard of the Menie Dunes (they certainly have by now!) it was his opinion they needed a "bigger" name.

What I find so insidious is that the wider world will assume the entire dune area belongs to him instead of just a part of it. Call me a cynic but it seems to me his decision to re-name the dunes had nothing to do with altruism and everything to do with marketing!

Maverick wrote:Gael:

No-one expects harmony 24/7. What D4S is saying is that there's been enough mud slinging and insults on here in the last 3 days to last a lifetime. Whether they be because something happened behind the scenes or in full view is not the point. People on here want to debate the points at hand, and if there's a disagreement due to that then so be it.

The issue however seems to occur when you make personal insults on people or their personalities because they happen to disagree with you. I know people have responded to you accordingly, but the initial insult was made by yourself.

So please for the sake of debate and good topics of conversation before everyone decides enough is enough how about returning to the point in question and lay off the personal slants on peoples character or where they come from!

Strange, because I thought s_r threw the first punch.

As for insulting people from where they come from, the only two references I believe you could be referring to are "yank" and "sassenach"? I would simply respond by reminding you that given the extent of sexual innuendo that is regularly posted on this board, you seem to have rather warped view of what is acceptable and what isn't.

Marram grass has been planted for the specific purpose of stabilising that part of the dune. I have yet to see marram grass that as ever been cut. Given the tightness of the holes, there will be many lost souls looking for lost balls. As far as Trump's Brigadoon course is concerned, the six hourly round will become the new five hourly round!

gaelgowfer wrote:Marram grass has been planted for the specific purpose of stabilising that part of the dune.

Eh? Marram grass doesn't get "planted", it's a natural coloniser. Yes it does a good job of stabilising dunes, but it's all a natural process, there's no "specific purposes" involved. The main reason we don't see marram grass being cut very often is cos dune systems are entirely natural places, and don't tend to have much management of any sort.

To be honest, a sensitively designed golf course, kept away from the sensitive and changeable foredunes, isn't necessarily that damaging to a dune habitat. Problem is that firstly, I don't trust Trump to stick to a "sensitively designed golf course", and secondly, he's not just building a golf course but also concreting a massive hotel and dozens of houses over the dunes. That's why tree-hugger people like me are so annoyed by the project....

Ned ...

http://www.scotsman.com/news/an_eagle_eye_view_donald_trump_s_dream_golf_resort_takes_shape_1_1560046

"Work began last winter on the construction of the golf course when workers moved onto the dunes to begin the first phase of marram grass planting. SOL Golf Course Construction, based in Ballydesmond, Co Cork, has been appointed as the main contractor for the development – working to a design by Dr Martin Hawtree, the prominent golf architect and a leading authority on links golf who has previusly worked on Royal Birkdale, Portmarnock, Lahinch and Carnoustie.

A team of 20 marram grass planters have been working since November on the second phase of hand sprigging thousands of marram plants on the dunes with work due to be completed in a matter of days."

So they're actually having to plant species to make the course look how Trump wants???? Ridiculous, marram is the colonising species, if it's not present on the areas he wants it it's because those dunes have already been stabilised and other, later-succession plants have moved in. He should be embracing whatever species are there, not tearing them all out so he can put the one boring one that he wants back in. It's an SSSI for a reason.

I quite like the look of it.

:troublemaker:

McLaren wrote:Unplayable may be the only way to describe it, miss the fairway by an inch and you loose a ball. I hope this is just a development phase and that the rough will be cut back before it opens for real.

Ned

The designer is hawtree but I think trump and his sons may have gotten a little too involved with the design decisions.

If anyone had read this comment would I have had to trawl through all the comments about development and growing in phases? I only added the "hope" because trump has talked about the hardest hole in the world and therefore might be considering keeping the rough at that height.

The whole kerfuffle over the name is hilarious. Prior to the project I doubt that anyone who didn't come from the area had ever heard of it the dunes, far less cared about it.
However, now that a bewigged and albeit intolerable man has plans to do something with it, suddenly armchair protestors are suddenly up in arms about the whole thing as if it is they somehow own it and how he is denuding a valuable resourse and that it is violating their "Scottishness".
Trump, can call it whatever he wants. It's a total irrelevance.

I wonder though, if you were to win a free fourball via a club competition whether you would take it up, or whether these protestors would conscientiously object.
It seems clear that the whole protestation is more to do with Trump, which is entirely understandable as he's a pretty foul man,than it is about the dunes, which in any other situation, no one would give two hoots about.