Turnberry is a golf resort on the Firth of Clyde in Ayrshire, southwest Scotland. It comprises three links golf courses, a golf academy, a five-starJames Miller-designed hotel from 1906, along with lodge and cottage accommodations.
Turnberry was a popular golf course and resort from its inception, made accessible because of the Maidens and Dunure Light Railway. It closed in both World Wars for military use, and there was concern it would not open following World War II, but it was redesigned by Mackenzie Ross and re-opened in 1951. The course was the scene of the 1977 Open Championship, where Tom Watson scored a close victory over Jack Nicklaus. The property has been owned by the Trump Organization since 2014,[1][2] who now brand the course Trump Turnberry.
The idea of the course came from Archibald Kennedy, 3rd Marquess of Ailsa after the announcement of the Maidens and Dunure Light Railway in 1899. The line would follow the Ayrshire coastline from Ayr to Girvan. The Marquess owned 175 acres (71 ha) of land at Turnberry Green, south of Maidens, which was infertile and unsuitable for agriculture, and therefore an ideal golf course location.[4][5] He realised the new railway would provide easy access for people wanting to visit a quality course. Following the construction of the line, he asked 1883 Open Championship winner Willie Fernie to design a suitable course. Fernie designed an initial round of 13 holes in 1901, with a second-round following later.[4]
The hotel was designed by station architect James Miller, whose other work included Glasgow Central and Stirling railway stations.[6] It was built adjacent to the railway, and opened concurrently with the station on 17 May 1906.[4] The course was intended to attract visitors from across Britain, and was advertised heavily in the national press.[4]
The property was used as an airbase in World War I, and a landing strip built for this purpose still exists, now disused. The Royal Flying Corps trained pilots in the arts of aerial gunnery and combat, and the Turnberry Hotel was used as a hospital for the wounded.[7] After the war, courses 1 and 2 were rebuilt and renamed "Ailsa" and "Arran".[8] A memorial to honour lost airmen was erected on the hill overlooking the ninth hole of Ailsa, which is still standing.[9]
The cycle was repeated for World War II. The hotel was commissioned as a hospital, and the golf courses were seconded for air training for the Royal Air Force (RAF); it is thought that as many as 200 died at the base.[7]
The hotel and golf course was served by its own dedicated railway station. Turnberry railway station opened in 1906 and operated until 1942, when the Maidens and Dunure Light Railway line was partially closed.[10]
Following the war, the course was in need of refurbishment and the hotel was in a dilapidated state. Frank Hole, chairman of British Transport Hotels, convinced the Government that golf courses should be rebuilt and restored. The architect Mackenzie Ross rebuilt the course, removing the wartime runways and covering the land with sand and topsoil.[5][11] Ross is credited with restoring the courses to their high quality, and the Ailsa course was re-opened in 1951, a seaside links with views of Ailsa Craig and the Isle of Arran.[12]
Donald Trump purchased the hotel and golf courses from Leisurecorp in 2014 for $60 million,[14][15][16] and the resort was renamed Trump Turnberry.[17][18] Trump resigned his directorship of the companies which own Trump Turnberry in 2017, just before he was inaugurated as President of the United States, and passed control to his sons Donald Jr and Eric.[19] The Trump Organization claims to have spent about $200 million on renovating the course; $18 million were accounted for in 2016.[20] Donald Trump remains the owner of Golf Recreation Scotland, which in turn owns SLC Turnberry.[21]
Financing for Trump's golf courses came under scrutiny in the Special Counsel investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections. Glenn Simpson testified before Congress that "enormous amounts of capital [was] flowing into these projects from unknown sources and – or at least on paper it says it’s from the Trump Organisation, but it’s hundreds of millions of dollars. And these golf courses are just, you know, they’re sinks. They don’t actually make any money."[22][23]
In September 2019, it was reported that the House Oversight and Reform Committee of the United States Congress was investigating increased military expenditure at Glasgow Prestwick Airport that might constitute a conflict of interest in regards to the Trump Turnberry golf course.[24][25][26] It was reported in September 2019 that the Pentagon had spent nearly $200,000 at Turnberry since Trump took office, although stays by Air Force crews remained consistent compared to previous years with only 6% staying at Turnberry from 2015-2019.[27][28] A report released by Air Mobility Command in response to the investigation found no wrongdoing by its aircrews in acquiring accommodation around the Prestwick Airport.[28]
After the 2021 United States Capitol attack, the organizer of the championship, The R&A, announced that The Open would not be held again at Turnberry as long as its links to the Trump Organization remain.[29][30]
In February 2023, the company managing the golf course, SLC Turnberry Ltd., reported pre-tax losses of 3.7 million pounds ($4.57 million) in 2021.[31]
The other two courses at Turnberry are the King Robert the Bruce course and the nine-hole Arran course. The Kintyre Course, opened in 2001 and existed at the resort until it was replaced by the King Robert the Bruce course in 2017.[32] The Kintyre Course was designed by Donald Steel and built on the foundations of the old Arran layout, which had been rebuilt along with the Ailsa Course following World War II. During the war, the resort was used as a hospital and the courses were flattened and paved for use as a major RAFairfield.[33] The new Arran Course opened in 2002.
In 2003, the 18th hole on the Ailsa Course, "Ailsa Hame", was renamed "Duel in the Sun" as homage to the battle between Tom Watson and Jack Nicklaus in 1977;[34] this is also the name of a sports bar at the resort. In 2009, Watson, 59, held a one-shot lead when he bogeyed this hole in the final round, eventually losing the Open Championship in a playoff.[35]
The two were paired during the final two rounds and finished well ahead of the rest of the field. They posted identical scores for the first three rounds, and were tied through the 16th hole of the final round. Nicklaus missed a short birdie putt on the par-5 17th hole to tie Watson, who had reached in two and birdied. On the par-4 18th hole, Nicklaus recovered from the rough and sank a lengthy birdie putt, which forced Watson to sink his short birdie putt to win, which he did. It was the second of Watson's five Open titles; down two strokes on the 13th tee, he bested Nicklaus by three shots over the final six holes.[citation needed]
Nine years later in 1986, Greg Norman claimed the first of his two Opens (his only major titles), winning by five strokes. Nick Price won his second major (and only Open) in 1994, a single stroke ahead of runner-up Jesper Parnevik.[39]
Stewart Cink, who won the 2009 Open Championship, the most recent to be held at Turnberry
After a fifteen-year absence, the Ailsa Course hosted the Open in 2009, where 59-year-old Watson nearly won his sixth Open Championship. Up by a stroke at the 72nd hole, his approach shot took an unfortunate bounce on the front of the green, then ran off the back and led to a bogey. Watson then lost a four-hole playoff with Stewart Cink by six strokes; Cink birdied the 72nd hole and then posted two pars and two birdies in the playoff to win his only major title.[citation needed]
In 2015, the governing body for Golf, The R&A, announced that the 2020 Open Championship would not be played at Turnberry, even though it had previously been considered likely to host the tournament. The R&A were unimpressed with several remarks by Donald Trump; one member said he would like Turnberry to host the Open again, but "not Trump Turnberry".[40][41] In February 2018 the U.S. Ambassador to Britain, Robert Wood "Woody" Johnson IV, told colleagues that he had been instructed by then-President Trump to seek British government help in securing the British Open for Turnberry. Although advised not to do so by his deputy, Lewis Lukens, he reportedly did suggest to David Mundell, the Secretary of State for Scotland, that the Open be moved to Turnberry. However, a later British government statement said that Johnson "made no request of Mr. Mundell regarding the British Open or any other sporting event."[42]
Following the 2021 storming of the United States Capitol, the R&A announced that it had no plans to stage any of its competitions at Turnberry and would not do so "until we are convinced that the focus will be on the championship, the players and the course itself".[43]
^Lemon, Jason (12 July 2018). "Trump in Scotland: What Does the President Own in the Northern U.K. Country?". Newsweek. Retrieved 17 September 2018. In December, the Turnberry course also lost a controversial tax break from the Scottish government, The Guardian reported. Scottish Finance Secretary Derek Mackay was pressured to make the changes after it was revealed earlier in the year that the Trump property had kept more than $140,000 a year due to a business rates relief scheme.
^"Future venues". Ricoh Women's British Open. Archived from the original on 14 July 2014. Retrieved 12 July 2014.
Sources
Barrett, Ted; Hobbs, Michael (1999). The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Golf: The Definitive Illustrated Guide to World Golf Revised and Updated Edition (4th ed.). Carlton. ISBN978-1-858-68881-7.
Coyne, Tom (2018). A Course Called Scotland: Searching the Home of Golf for the Secret to Its Game. Simon and Schuster. ISBN978-1-476-75430-7.
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