Donald Trump handicap looms over reborn Turnberry

The US billionaire’s political exploits have complicated the reopening of his golf course in Ayrshire, which has undergone a £200m transformation

Where the ninth green and the 10th tee meet on the Ailsa golf course in Turnberry, on the south Ayrshire coast, is one of the most stunning vistas anywhere on the planet where this old game is played.

Rising from the rough grass on this clifftop is a white Victorian lighthouse, the landmark that lends this golf course its most enduring characteristic. Built in 1873, it stands as a memorial to the remains of the 13th-century castle of Robert the Bruce, Scotland’s greatest king. 

e .The Irish golfer Pádraig Harrington, a double winner of the British Open championship, describes the ninth as “an iconic hole, a special place”. For the great US golfer Tom Watson, the course has become a sacred place. Here, in the hot summer of 1977, Watson participated in one of the most enduring rounds of major championship golf ever seen when he duelled with Jack Nicklaus for the Open crown. Watson famously won at the last hole as the lighthouse and Bruce’s stones bore witness.“If Trump wins the presidency,” a seasoned observer said this weekend, “passing ships may have to get used to seeing a statue of Trump guiding them along the coast, instead of the lighthouse.”Ever since the purchase, Trump’s most trusted senior lieutenants have insisted that their boss, the loudest man in the world, would do nothing to alter the character of this place. Yet there are others who fear the newly installed Republican champion for the White House will be unable to resist making Turnberry’s white house a permanent memorial to his greatness.

 Donald Trump at Turnberry in June last year. Photograph: Ian MacNicol/Getty Images

Graham Spiers, one of Scotland’s top sportswriters and a resident of this part of Ayrshire, says he would be surprised, however, if Trump made any attempt at turning this place into a Donald shrine. “I’ve reported on two Opens held at Turnberry and have been privileged to play here myself, and reports of its beauty and ethereal atmosphere are not overstated. Trump, despite all his grandstanding and playing to the gallery, is no fool. When he decided to build his course in Aberdeenshire, he hired Martin Hawtree, one of the most respected golf-course architects in the world, to confer some magnificence on it, which he duly did.”