Donald Trump will not be happy. It seems increasingly likely that the delightful links of Cruden Bay will host an Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Open before Trump’s course at Balmedie in Aberdeen. There will be a snorting, indignant response on the President of the USA’s Twitter account before you can say “fake news”.
While this year’s domestic showpiece roars on at Dundonald Links and the 2018 venue has been unveiled as Gullane, it was claimed recently that the 2019 edition of the championship would be heading for the Trump International Golf Links but Martin Gilbert, the chief executive of Aberdeen Asset Management, has effectively dismissed that particular notion.
Gilbert remains a huge admirer of the course Trump has created on the dunes of the Menie estate. In these turbulent times, though, most folk are not touching the bold Donald with a pitching wedge let alone a barge pole.
“We’d love to go back to the Aberdeen area at some stage (Royal Aberdeen staged the event in 2014) and, if we went back, we’d look at various courses,” said Gilbert. “There are various criteria that come in. Royal Aberdeen was a great success, although some of the players thought it to be a bit too tricky. The biggest issue (at Royal Aberdeen) is it’s still a men’s only club and one of the conditions we have is that we don’t go to single sex clubs. It may well change because it’s going to have to do something in future there I think. The (European) Tour have been to see Cruden Bay. The thing is there we’d have to do a composite-type course.
“Trump, I don’t need to tell you, is a great golf course, but there are issues if we went there. Look, I don’t agree with anything he says. The worst thing would be if he came! No decision has been made, but, there are clear issues, shall we say.”
The R&A, organisers of the Open Championship, have distanced themselves from Trump and have not made a decision on when the world’s oldest major will return to the storied Ailsa Course which is also in Trump’s portfolio.
Asked if a decision on Turnberry by the R&A would ease matters on the Scottish Open front, Gilbert said: “That would definitely help. Politics aside, Trump would be an ideal venue but you can’t put politics aside.
“That is the issue so we will wait and see. It is a great golf course and it would certainly be up there with Cruden Bay and Royal Aberdeen when and if we go back to the north-east of Scotland.”
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