Trump Turnberry (Ailsa)
Trump Turnberry (Ailsa)
Few courses can boast such a setting, such space and such
luxury. The recent makeover of the Ailsa course (by Martin Ebert)
and the hotel has vaulted Turnberry back to golf’s top table.
Everything here is on a big scale and that sense follows you from
one hole to the next. It bristles with confidence and swaggers
from one hole to the next. The back-and-forth nature of the
opening holes might sound tame on paper, but you’ll quickly
appreciate how good they are as they slip down to the sea. Big
bearded bunkers ripple along fairways while their greenside
brethren favour the deep pothole variety, nestling under greens.
From the 5th the course opens up and one excellent hole follows
another as you head out and back to the famous lighthouse. The
new par threes (9 and 11) are outstanding.
Everything here is on a big
scale and that sense follows you
from one hole to the next.
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Trump Turnberry
(King Robert the Bruce)
The King Robert the Bruce course – as it has now been renamed –
may be regarded as the smaller sibling of the mighty Ailsa alongside,
but it is an impressive links in its own right. Donald Steel redesigned
the course in 2001, and he used additional land on Bain’s Hill to create
new holes at the farthest reaches of the links. Mackenzie & Ebert
have since renovated the course (2017), upgrading all bunkers, adding
sanded waste areas to several holes and creating four new holes
around Bain’s Hill, which offers many of the course’s most dramatic
moments as it sits on the coastline and promises some inspiring tee
shots.
Donald Steel redesigned the
course in 2001, and he used
additional land on Bain’s Hill to
create new holes at the farthest
reaches of the links.