It was the first major examination of Dundonald’s tournament credentials ... and it passed with flying colours. Last weekend’s Aberdeen Asset Management Ladies Scottish Open went down as nicely as some of the waistline worrying puddings they dished up in the marquee. The icing on the cake could now be a men’s Scottish Open.
With the ethos of birling the domestic showpiece around the country – it’s been to Inverness, Aberdeen and Gullane in the last three years – the championship’s main players have always been keen to find a suitable home in the west.
There is no shortage of fine links venues in this neck of the golfing woods, of course, but Dundonald, with its ease of access and vast acreage to play with, ticks plenty of boxes.
The Scottish Open returns north to Castle Stuart in 2016 while leaked plans to take the event to Donald Trump’s Balmedie links in 2017, 2019 and 2020 have been put on the backburner in the wake of the American tycoon’s tirade about Mexican immigrants.
Like the men’s Scottish Open, the ladies’ equivalent was held the week before the main Open itself and that slot on the schedule helped to attract the likes of world No 2 Lydia Ko and Suzann Pettersen, the world No 7, to Ayrshire. With free entry to boot, the first day at Dundonald attracted an estimated 3000 spectators – more than the whole weekend’s attendance at Archerfield a year ago – while play on the Saturday was watched by around 4200.
The men’s Scottish Open is a bigger beast altogether – a total of 63,000 descended on Gullane for the championship earlier this month – but those trusted with adding another venue to the rota have clearly been impressed.
“The men’s Scottish Open is definitely coming to the west of Scotland,” said Martin Gilbert, the chief executive of Aberdeen Asset Management, who stopped short of naming the actual venue “I think if the crowds for this event (the Ladies Scottish Open) is anything to go by it could break all the attendance records (for the men’s Scottish Open). There are great golf courses here in the west, but clearly they are excluded on the grounds of access and so on. The weekend was a big test for the event and we were delighted with this first visit to Dundonald. It’s the type of course we like, and I’m sure the men would love to come and play.”
Dundonald has staged qualifying events for the Senior British Open when it has been held at Royal Troon and Turnberry while it hosted stage one of the European Tour’s qualifying school for four years.
Carved out of a 280-acre site, the golf course at Dundonald takes up about half of that expanse. There is plenty of room for erecting the various tents, hospitality units and general paraphernalia that comes with the Scottish Open circus while there would be a sizeable outlay on internal tarmacing of routes within the grounds. With the Scottish Government involved in the funding of the championship, the prospect of an economic boost to an area like North Ayrshire gives the Dundonald bid added weight. “We can extend it as far as we need to,” said Guy Redford, the director of golf. “I don’t think we expected the numbers to come for the Ladies Scottish Open. That took us by surprise a bit but we coped. We’ve tried hard (to get big events) and it was North Ayrshire Council who came to us to see if we would be interested in bidding for the men’s Scottish Open. It’s a big chunk of change to be tarmacing roads and having construction round about. It’s a great event to have but it still costs the club money to have it. We supply a lot of infrastructure here for the tournament, and that shows the club’s commitment to having the Scottish Open.”
The relationship between the European Tour and Dundonald is strong due to the links forged when the Scottish Open was a regular visitor to its sister course, Loch Lomond.
Now broadcast live on US television, the Scottish Open has reached a status that Lyle Anderson, the former owner of the Loch Lomond Golf Club, visualised a number of years ago. “Before he left Loch Lomond, Lyle was keen to have the Scottish Open at Dundonald,” added Redford. “His goal was to get the Scottish Open on TV in the States. That was his mission.”
It could soon be mission accomplished for Dundonald Links.
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