First impressions of Donald Trump's 'New Course' in Scotland - why the bold claims are not just hot air

Anyone who has been at Trump International Golf Links since it opened on the Menie Estate north of Aberdeen in 2012 will know the original course, designed by Dr Martin Hawtree, is a fantastic test of golf in a dramatic dunes setting.

It should be no surprise, therefore, that the owners are saying the second course is going to be on par with the original one and, no, it’s not hot air. In fact, it might even be better.

The original one is now being called the Old Course and the second one is the New Course, not the McLeod Course as had originally been planned. That, apparently, is simply to make the booking process as straightforward as possible.

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The New Course has been mainly built on ground that was flat and barely worth a second glance. But, involving a team of designers - Hawtree, a very quiet man indeed, but brilliant at his job, was part of it - it has been transformed into another cracking golf course bearing the Trump name.

It starts in a links environment before the test turns into hearthland for a few holes, some of which have wetland areas, before those aforementioned dunes provide some truly dramatic holes.

The par-5 sixth is a stunner, with the approach played over the wetlands, while the seventh is a lovely short hole played to a raised and very undulating green. In a video posted by Golf Digest’s Jamie Kennedy on X, Stephen Gallacher came close to making a hole-in-one there in the official opening event on Tuesday.

A giant bunker sits to the right of the ninth green and there’s no denying who was behind it. “That’s the President’s Bunker,” I was told on a pre-opening tour and it’s so big that it even has its own sprinkler system to prevent the sand from blowing on the green.

Having turned the Ailsa Course at Turnberry into an even more special course than it already was, Trump has now created two outstanding lay-outs in Aberdeenshire.

The Old Course is staging its first DP World Tour event next week and, based on money talking with Adare Manor in Ireland and Camiral in Spain staging the 2027 and 2031 events respectively, don’t rule out a Ryder Cup at Trump International Golf Links at some point in the future.