All publicity may be good publicity, but the team at Trump International Golf Links in Aberdeen, Scotland, must nevertheless have enjoyed the build of a second course that was positively under-the-radar when compared with the furore that accompanied the first.
Donald Trump was five years away from beginning his first term as President when the now-named Old course opened in 2012. Upon taking office in 2017 he passed responsibility for the operation of his golf portfolio to his sons. Eric Trump has led the New course development, able to proceed without quite the same scrutiny that his father’s project attracted.
That in part is because the course does not enter a Site of Special Scientific Interest. But maybe it was expected to be a more modest affair, too? Not so, says architect Martin Hawtree: “The immediate feeling was for a course in no sense a junior.”
When master planning both courses, Hawtree saved the Southern Dome – a system of high dunes at the south of the property – for the New. And this land is as extraordinary as any part of the Old. “The site commanded the best in the business,” says Sarah Malone, who has been in charge at Trump International Scotland for 16 years. Malone is effusive about “one of the most remarkable stretches of linksland anywhere in the world” and emphasises just how important the entire Aberdeen project has been to the Trump family, highlighting their “passion for golf, love of the land, and ancestral heritage”.
The short par-three tenth is the first of three holes that run directly alongside the beach (Jacob Sjöman)
Eric has been the driving force in the design of the New course and evidently shares his father’s philosophy that a golf course should deliver maximum excitement.
Hawtree has largely retired since completion of the Old, but remained involved with the New, alongside Canadian architect Christine Fraser, who has also worked with Hawtree at Lahinch and Doonbeg, among others.
Central to the development of the New course was the appointment of Esie O’ Mahony as contractor. He led the Old course construction for SOL Golf before establishing his own firm, GolfLink Evolve, and as an established and trusted advisor to the Trump team, would be instrumental in both the evolution of the routing and the detail of the design, along with his lead shaper Jamie O’ Reilly and the club’s superintendent Steven Wilson.
Swedish architect Christian Lundin of (re)Golf was also hired in early 2024, visiting the site on a regular basis with particular attention to strategy and shotmaking (Lundin has a business partnership with Henrik Stenson, and is himself a scratch golfer), which included decisions on placement and style of hazards, and – together with O’ Reilly – green designs.
As construction approached, and with O’ Mahony’s encouragement, the club adopted some fundamental changes to the initial plan and the final routing plays “more or less in reverse”, according to Hawtree. This switch means the round begins close to the clubhouse and finishes with a home green on a high plateau.
“Another change was the introduction of a seventh hole in the Southern Dome,” says Hawtree. “The incentive for as many holes as feasible in this dramatic landscape was understandable but left some difficulties in stretching the last four holes back to the home green, one of which would probably need to be a par three.
“The development of the design focused on the need for this course to be spectacular, challenging, but introducing a quite different experience from that of the first course. There needed to be a reason to play this course and not the first course.”
The par-three seventh hole plays over wetlands to a green set into the side of a dune (Jacob Sjöman)
Parts of the course are routed on former arable land, and the site also had some existing areas of wetland. By expanding these, and introducing new wetland, the construction team gained material to extend the dunescape into holes that would otherwise have been completely flat and out of character with the rest of the course. So in places, as Hawtree explains, “it became a created links with dunes where we would like them, as well as the addition of an unusual links feature – water on a grand scale.”
The final design has water in play on holes two to four, six, seven and fifteen, which could have given the layout something of a split personality, were it not for considerable craftmanship to tie everything together.
“The real challenge in working with distinct natural zones is maintaining flow and ensuring the transitions feel intentional rather than abrupt,” says Fraser. “The routing moves from high ridge lines to low-lying basins, through expanses of marram, open linksland, and coastal heath. The key was identifying how each zone could contribute its own identity while still feeling part of a continuous journey. The New course uses contour transitions, horizon lines and framing vegetation to maintain cohesion. The routing was absolutely critical to ensure each hole revealed something new without feeling disconnected. The result is a course that evolves hole-by-hole, tells a story, and always feels grounded in place.”
The final product nevertheless retains the capacity to surprise; it is a tale of the unexpected. The scene is set at the opening hole, where the shaping team has created a dunescape that feels entirely authentic and could lead a golfer to believe that they are embarking upon a traditional links test. But that notion is immediately dispelled, with wetland in play from the tee on the second hole. Two more water holes follow, then two surrounded by heather.
The New course (indicated with black flags) plays from the clubhouse down to the Southern Dome, for holes eight to fourteen among high natural dunes, before returning via four closing holes further inland. It is easy to see the potential for a compos
O’ Mahony describes the course as “moving from gear to gear as it builds in excitement” and the senses are certainly elevated on the seventh, a par three over water to a green set high into the side of huge natural dune, and flanked left by enormous bunkers.
The next tee sits on top of the dune and provides the first look into the Southern Dome, where the true drama unfolds. The entire environment for the seven holes that follow is a playground of golf, with one thrilling shot after another. It reaches a crescendo at the twelfth green, an island among the dunes, set right alongside the North Sea and with views across the entire property.
The thirteenth plays from a high tee back down into the centre of the Dome, while the fourteenth heads back out, punctuated by a large bunker that sits directly in front of the green. There are several distinctive ‘conical’ dunes on this part of the site and the shaping team has reproduced more elsewhere – it is difficult to distinguish which are natural and which have been created.
From here, the golfer exits the high dunes for a closing stretch over former arable land that, by stretching four holes into an area that was originally earmarked for five, is inevitably long. “We spent a lot of time as a team discussing how we make every shot on these long holes interesting,” says Lundin. “So the fifteenth, for example, is a three-shot hole. How do we make the tee shot interesting? How do we make the second shot give you tonnes of alternatives, even though one of those is not likely to be to reach the green? That was a fun process. And on eighteen, how can we get players into a position where we get them to ask the question: do you dare go for it in two, or do you lay up and pop it on the green for three?”
Among the notable contrasts with the Old course, fairways on the New are generally wider, while more contoured too. “I wanted to make it playable, so golfers could come in and have fun,” says Lundin, who encouraged the introduction of more width, more contours in fairways and more forward tee options. It’s definitely still a strong test, but Lundin points out: “It’s a golf course where if you play to the strategy of the hole, you will get rewarded.”
Hazards have a different aesthetic to the Old, too, with a combination of great swathes of sandy waste area and large bunkers that have irregular shapes. “We wanted a style that kept it all together, and believed the blow-out bunker look would work in the sandscapes of the Southern Dome, and also on the more heathland areas where we have heather and could splash sand,” says Lundin. Bunkers that currently look quite formal will be encouraged to erode and weather, adopting a more natural look over time.
The putting surfaces are large and heave with undulation; most memorably at the tenth and eleventh holes, back-to-back par fours along the primary dune. And there are several bunkerless greens, defended by ground contour alone. O’ Mahony and Lundin both refer to the New as a ‘modern links’, and it is a marked contrast to the more traditional styling of the Old.
“The Old course is defined by its scale, elevation, and traditional links features and landforms,” says Fraser. “In contrast, the New course offers a more varied and rhythmic journey through a mosaic of natural environments – wetlands, heath, low-lying basins, and exposed sand zones. The New course embraces the site’s varied landscape and was designed in tandem with it. The result is two exceptional golf experiences, each rooted in its own identity, and together offering a rich and complete expression of the linksland.”
With a green high in the dunes overlooking the North Sea, the eleventh hole is one of three holes on the New course that run directly along the coastline
Some golf course architects would baulk at the idea of being part of a collaboration, but those involved with the New appear to have embraced the dynamic.
“It has indeed been very much a team-led project,” says Hawtree. “Under the inspirational direction of Eric Trump, all those involved have contributed to the end result. It could probably not have been done quite like this if it were not for the experience of Esie’s team in working for Mr Trump on the first course (as well as at Turnberry and Doonbeg in Ireland) and many years’ understanding of the links environment for golf. The burden of achieving the Trump vision has been made easier with the leadership of Eric but all consultants – who included ecologists, agronomists, geomorphologists, civil and hydraulic engineers, irrigation specialists, greenkeepers, project managers as well as architects – have contributed hugely and formed a remarkable and stimulating team.
“It is a different course to the first one, as intended, but its themes are wholly compatible and sympathetic to those of the first course. They make a unique duo. To use a musical term I may have produced a ‘ground base’ for this course but it is not a Hawtree course, it is a Trump course and that is what it should be.”
The green of the par-four sixth, one of six holes with water in play (Jacob Sjöman)
The New is a high-octane adventure that offers a thrill a minute, particularly among the holes routed among the enormous natural dunes. Is it better than the Old? The jury will probably be divided. But that’s exactly what the club will have wanted: two courses of marked contrast but comparable appeal, where anyone visiting for a single round would miss out on one of golf’s most startling experiences.
This article first appeared in the July 2025 issue of Golf Course Architecture. For a printed subscription or free digital edition, please visit our subscriptions page.