Video: I Have Seen Trump International Scotland...
/...and the verdict is? Greatest course in the world?
Well, unfortunately that will have to wait until Golf World Monday, followed by a feature story for Golf World reviewing Martin Hawtree's design. In the meantime, enjoy this excellent Guardian compilation of Internet reaction to the course.
One hint about my review you might pick up from the below and decidedly low quality iPhone video compilation is the repeated use of the word "extraordinary."
**Joe Passov played on opening day and delivers a rave review, with these quibbles:
So is Trump Scotland the greatest course in the world? No. Well, not yet, anyway. It’s my job to nitpick, and I can tell you that Trump Scotland lacks the smallish, chaotic fairway contours that make many links so enticing. Also, too many green surrounds have a manufactured sameness to them, with scooped out depressions and corresponding ridges that lack the randomness I warm to on classic links.
Most significantly, I’m not sure even after two trips around that this course will be realistically playable in the stiff breezes that typically blow through this area of Aberdeenshire. Yes, the fairways are surprisingly wide—certainly friendlier than they appear at first glance—but virtually the slightest pull or push disappears into impenetrable gunch. The caddies don’t even bother searching. You just drop and play. For me, this eliminates one of the greatest aspects of golf, especially links golf, which is recoverability. Oh well, Pine Valley isn’t high on recoverability either.
