Turnberry targets Open with changes to Ailsa course

Trump Turnberry in Scotland will begin renovation work on its Ailsa course in October 2024, including a new seventh green on the coastal edge.

The project is expected to cost £1 million and take six months to complete, and is being overseen by Martin Ebert of Mackenzie & Ebert, who has completed a major renovation of the course in 2016 and several additional adjustments in 2019.

“On the new seventh hole, we wanted to move the green right on the coastal edge,” said Ebert. “There are not many links courses where you have greens right on the cliff edge, so that is very special in its own right.”

For the eighth, Ebert said: “It made a lot of sense to move the tees over to the right and produce a much better hole. The tee shot will be improved with the new alignment, making the hole visually stunning from your first shot to your last.”

The architect is also planning new banking behind the twelfth and fifteenth greens, tweaks to the thirteenth and tee updates on holes fourteen and seventeen. 

For the first four-and-a-half months of the project, Ailsa will play as a nine-hole loop comprising the opening six holes, a shortened par-three seventh and holes seventeen and eighteen.

Nic Oldham, general manager at Trump Turnberry, said: “The Ailsa is one of golf’s most iconic and acclaimed courses – but historically, Turnberry has never let that stop us from trying to upgrade and enhance where possible. 

“Today’s Ailsa is much changed from the one that first hosted the Open Championship in 1977, and the time felt right to take another leap forward in collaboration with Martin Ebert as we strive and hope to stage the Open once more. 

“We certainly encourage people to visit before October 21 and experience this incarnation of the Ailsa before we open a new and exciting chapter in one of golf’s great stories.”

Richard HumphreysRichard Humphreys

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