Arnold Palmer is set to create his first golf course on Scottish soil at Castle Stuart near Inverness.
The 85-year-old, whose course design group boasts a hefty worldwide portfolio, will join forces with Castle Stuart's managing partner, Mark Parsinen, and his team to create a second 18-hole layout on the Moray Firth.
Plans for the venue's new course will be submitted within the next couple of months and it is expected that work will get underway early in the new year. Castle Stuart, which hosted the Scottish Open for three years from 2011 and will return to the rota in 2016, opened to great acclaim in 2009 and it is hoped that the new links will be open by 2019.
Palmer, the seven-times major winner who won his second Open title on Scottish turf at Troon in 1962, is expected to make a trip to the Highlands in the summer.
Parsinen, who also co-designed Kingsbarns Golf Links in Fife, said: "We have been in discussion for more than a year now with the Arnold Palmer Group and we are delighted that it has joined the partnership at Castle Stuart Golf Links."
Stuart McColm, Castle Stuart Golf Links' general manager, added: "This is fantastic news, not just for Inverness, but for the Highlands and for Scotland. We at Castle Stuart have focused on working with other partners to promote the Highlands as a world class golfing destination and this announcement that the Arnold Palmer Group wants to partner with us can only enhance that reputation.
"Having two world class courses in Inverness, together with all the other great courses in the Highlands, will undoubtedly drive more people to this area and have a significant economic impact."
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