A mortal blow to links golf has been struck in the Home of Golf. The approval of a much ballyhooed new links course, Coul Links has been denied by the Scottish Government.
The course was to be built near Dornoch, Scotland which is home to one of the top links courses, Royal Dornoch was to have been a boon to the local economy and draw more visitors to the remote Highland village.
With the golf industry, particularly golf courses, struggling of late a new course would have been an exception…especially a links course. With the project finding support from many local and national Scottish organizations the approval appeared to be likely. Now, the primary developers of Coul Links are stunned and disappointed.
The cast of characters behind the project in the tiny village of Embo, Scotland were serious and prominent men who have track records of success.
Mike Keiser who was a partner in the plan has single handedly developed a new industry: Destination Golf. With his success at Bandon Dunes which brought links golf back the the United States he has developed multiple courses all over the world. With him the plan had the most serious of players.
His partner, Todd Warnock, an American with a love for Scotland has already been a force in Dornoch where he has a boutique hotel and bankrolled businesses in the village which employ dozens and helps the local economy which is soft on its best day.
The two partners tapped Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw to design the course and no golf architect has a better history of leaving the existing land as it is for their designs. The land dictates the course not the architects is their mantra. And no men are more sensitive to nature and the ecology of their projects.
These are serious men all and any project they were involved in would certainly be of the highest quality and adhere to any and all government regulations while at the same time give the local economy a chance at improving.
The quaint area of Embo and Dornoch could have certainly benefited from such a group of dedicated and earnest men but the Scottish Ministers have chosen to forbid them continuing.
It has to be the Trump Hangover that has doomed Coul Links. Trump bullied his way into the Scottish landscape with promises of jobs and houses and millions of dollars pouring into the local economy near his Trump International course near Aberdeen. He was given permission to build on SSSI land (Site of Special Scientific Interest) and has since damaged the land so much that designation has been removed form his development.
His promises rung hollow, his course is losing money and he has tainted any project that has an American attached to it.
It’s truly a shame that Warnock and Keiser have been blocked from building their Coul Links. Keiser had said that this piece of land was one of the best links land he has ever seen. And thanks to Trump’s impact it will remain a links without a course.
A links with no course…a links lost. What a shame.
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