Established 1906, 111 years ago Owned by The Trump Organization | Type Private Total holes 45 | |
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Location South Ayrshire, Scotland Tournaments hosted The Open Championship (4)
Senior Open Champ. (7)
Women's British Open (1)
Walker Cup (1) | ||
The Trump Turnberry is a golf resort on the coast of the outer Firth of Clyde in southwestern Scotland owned by Donald Trump. Located in South Ayrshire on the rugged coast, it comprises three links golf courses, a golf academy, a five-star James Miller-designed hotel from 1906, along with lodge and cottage accommodations. The prominent rock island Ailsa Craig is readily visible to the southwest.
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History
In 1902, golf course designer Willie Fernie was commissioned by the Marquess of Ailsa to lay out a championship course. In 1906, a hotel was built, and the course began to take its modern structure.
The property was used as an airbase during the First World War, and a landing strip built for this purpose still exists, now disused. During this period, 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. After the war, courses 1 and 2 were rebuilt and renamed "Ailsa" and "Arran". A memorial to honour lost airmen was erected on the hill overlooking the 12th green of Ailsa and still remains.
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.
Designer Mackenzie Ross is credited with restoring the courses to their high quality, and the Ailsa course was re-opened in 1951, a seaside links with stunning views of Ailsa Craig and the Isle of Arran.
The hotel was bought by Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. in 1997, and until October 2008 was operated under the Westin brand. In October 2008, Leisurecorp, Dubai World's sport and leisure subsidiary, purchased the resort, with Starwood Hotels & Resorts continuing to manage operations under the The Luxury Collection brand.
Donald Trump purchased the hotel and golf courses from Leisurecorp in April 2014, and the resort was renamed Trump Turnberry in June 2014. Trump resigned his directorship of the companies which own Trump Turnberry in January 2017, just before he was inaugurated as President of the United States, and passed control to his sons Eric and Donald.
The golf courses
The Ailsa Course, redesigned by Mackenzie Ross between 1949 and 1951, has staged The Open Championship on four occasions (1977, 1986, 1994, and 2009). It has also hosted many other important golf tournaments, including the Women's British Open in 2002, the Walker Cup in 1963, the Amateur Championship in 1961, 1983, 1996, and 2008, and the Senior Open Championship on seven occasions, 1987–90, 2003, 2006, and 2012.
The other two courses at Turnberry are the Kintyre Course and the nine-hole Arran Course. The Kintyre Course, opened in 2001, is another championship standard course that has hosted final qualifying for The Open. It 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 RAF airfield. The new Arran Course opened in 2002.
Other golf facilities at the resort include the Colin Montgomerie Links Golf Academy, and a pitch and putt course.
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; 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.
The Open Championship
At its first Open Championship in 1977, the course was the scene of the famous "Duel in the Sun", when Tom Watson claimed a classic victory, one stroke ahead of Jack Nicklaus.
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.
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.
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.
In December 2015 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, because of controversial comments made by Donald Trump about Muslims.
The Open Championship winners at Turnberry, all played on the par-70 Ailsa Course:
The Senior Open Championship
Winners of The Senior Open Championship at Turnberry.
Women's British Open
Winner of the Women's British Open at Turnberry.
The Ailsa Course was played as a par-72 at 6,407 yards (5,859 m) in 2002; and played marginally longer at 6,410 yards (5,860 m) in 2015.