Once the airport-style security was cleared, once the sound of YMCA had faded, once the smoke from the red, white and blue fireworks had blown away, once the 20 buggies of secret service took off down the fairway, once the President had found the fairway on the first hole … it was then that the “New Course” at Trump International Golf Links in Aberdeen, Scotland, was finally and officially open.
MORE: Australia’s Top 100 Golf Courses for 2024/25
Under strict instructions, from one of the said secret service members, not to follow the group the President was playing in, I did then go out on the course and walk every hole around the Balmedie Dunes.
The course, originally to be named the Macleod course after the maiden name of the President’s Scotland-born mother, now known as the New Course, had always been in the plans when the Trump organisation first bought the land in northeast Scotland nearly 20 years ago.
After the original course, now named the “Old,” opened in 2012, the plan from owners had always been to build “the greatest 36 holes” in golf. Judging by the signage around the course, they believed they have achieved their goal. “The Greatest 36” is now the tagline for the entire property. They have even trademarked the phrase, hence why you’ll see the small “TM” after each use of the phrase around the property.
Dom Furore
Work on the second course began in 2023, led by architects Martin Hawtree and Christine Fraser. Eric Trump made several visits during construction and stood alongside his father and brother, Don Jr, to officially cut the ribbon and open the course on Tuesday.
I was fortunate to be invited to attend the opening and walk the course.
Having played the Old Course at Trump International Links last year for the first time, and seen the construction and shaping going on with the new course, I was eager to see what it would look and feel like.
So, after all the dignitaries and VIP guests, who attended the ribbon cutting ceremony, retired to the hospitality pavilion, I remained on the first tee. I even had a security member ask what I was doing, being the only person left in the 200-seat grandstand erected for the day. After explaining I was more interested in walking the course than the (albeit very good) finger food on display nearby, I set off down the par-5 opening hole.
In similar fashion to its older brother on-site, the New Course opens with a par 5 that plays south towards Aberdeen. There’s just 150 yards between the opening tee shots on both courses. It’ll be challenging to explain the length of each hole as I go through them, given the five different and distinct tees available on each hole. For example, tip it out on the opening hole and you face a 575-yard par 5, with a bunker that cuts into the left side of the fairway at 350 yards. Play it from the members tee and the hole is 520 yards and the bunker starts at 295 yards. Play it from the front tees and those numbers become 422 and 200 yards.
Regardless, the narrow strip of fairway right of the bunker is the goal off the tee at the opening hole. From there, you then have the best view and short grass for your approach to a green with a lot of internal and external movement on it. That will become common on a lot of the putting surfaces on the New Course. Distinct ripples and sections of greens, with fairway-cut run offs and hollows surrounding.
MORE: R&A chief confirms talks with Donald Trump’s son over challenges for return to Turnberry
Jean Van de Velde was playing the opening hole when I was walking there – the course is hosting a Legends Tour event there this week and a DP World Tour event next week. His son was on the back and he faced a second shot of around 200 yards. His son lasered the flag and consulted the yardage book and gave his father the info. Van de Velde senior pulled a club and explained to his son that the number was relatively irrelevant, explaining that in links golf the ball “is going to bounce and roll forever.” Not on this occasion however. His long iron approach never left the flag, landed short of the green but into the upslope short of the green, staying in the hollow just short.
In one hole, you could already the essence of what this “modern links” was going to try to be. Dunes and high rough down both sides of the hole, framing an undulating fairway that leads to a rippled green site, with short grass and run offers at nearly every angle.
The first six holes play toward the southern dunes that are visible throughout the entire site. They weave through natural wetlands, that are not a feature of the original course, that plays closer to the coastline for the most part. Water is in play on the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and par-5 6th holes as you build towards the towering sand dunes.
The long par-4 fourth hole is stroke index one and plays along the wetlands for the entirety of the hole to a green with four of five distinct sections and a likely-to-be-used bail-out area left of the surface.
After playing through the flat wetlands, you arrive at the par-3 seventh hole. The hole plays around 150 yards from the members tees but climbs some 20 feet to a green cut into the dune that divides the course into two areas. The halfpipe-style green will funnel any well hit shot close to a hole location in the middle of the green, but any ball landing short of the green will likely trickle back toward its owner, coming to rest in the rough surrounding the last portion of water on this stretch of the course.
I watched former Ryder Cupper Stephen Gallacher hit a pitching wedge here that lipped out of the hole. “Not sure I’d wanted to have upstaged the President,” he said walking off the tee.
From there, you weave through the dunes to the eighth tee, and the site reveals the dune basin in which you’ll be spending the next seven holes. As you attempt to find the fairway on the short, straight par-4 eighth hole, you’ll almost be able to see each of the holes here before returning back over the dunes behind you to the 15th hole.
Unlike the Old Course here that loops two nines back to the clubhouse, the New Course is a more traditional, out-and-back loop. The ninth green, set below towering dunes on the south edge of the property, is the furthest point from the clubhouse and likely the most spectacular green site on the course.
A giant, wash-out bunker looms over the right side of the approach. A caddie told me it has its own sprinkler system in order to keep the sand damp and stop it from blowing onto the green. As you putt, you’ll half-expect to see a desert-style 4×4 come up and over the dune and down the expanse like adventure seekers do in the Middle East or beyond.
From the green, you climb to the dunes on the coastline, turn for home and play along the dunes north for three holes. The par 4, or perhaps par 3.5, 10th hole starts this trio and plays to a perched green ready to punish any bold, but wild, player from the tee.
Deep with the bunker, or dune to the right of the hole, is another type of bunker. A restored World War II bunker sits hidden by the dunes and has been restored with artefacts and items from Scottish armed forces who would have been stationed here some 80 years ago. It’s worth a look while you leave you playing partners to search for their balls.
Had to take a look in the restored WWII bunker to the right of 10… pic.twitter.com/v7oTudgSHi
— Jamie Kennedy (@jamierkennedy) July 29, 2025
Two holes later, along the same dunes and coastline, is the par three 12th hole. Perhaps the signature hole of the New Course. Another perched green sits atop the dunes and a short iron must carry the roughed hollow short of the green. Find the surface and you’ll see a stretch of holes from the Old Course as you line up your birdie putt.
From there you turn south for the final time as the 13th hole plays down into basin of the dunes. The tee shot drops some 40 or 50 feet and asks you decide whether to carry your ball closer to the green beyond the intervening dunes, or lay back of them, and leave a long iron into the green that shapes from back to front.
Former US Open champion Michael Campbell (pictured below) took on the challenge and then hit a wedge to foot. Be warned, non-major champions may have a different experience taking on the tee shot.
The 14th hole, and following four holes, play back north. The short par four is the last hole in this “basin” area of the course and will be remembered by all who play it thanks to the shark-fin bunker that guards the front of the green.
Playing your approach, you’ll see the putting surface on both the left and right of the bunker. I stepped out the width of the green and measured it at 57 yards wide. Distance control on your second shot will be the key attribute of an approach.
Now over the southern dunes again, we head inland, around the wetlands for the final four hole stretch.
The long, par-5 15th plays from the halfway house known as “Dram in the Dunes,” around and over the wetlands to rippled expanse of fairway surrounding a large putting green. There were whispers from some on-site that this is one hole that may be tweaked further as the course welcomes public play from August.
The final three holes play directly back towards the clubhouse, playing as a par 3, par 4 and par 5. The 16th is the longest par three on the course and plays through and over a host of natural bunkers.
After the penultimate hole plays between the dunes to a green backed by more dunes and a road, you then come to the closing par five. This area of the course was originally planned to be the opening stretch of the New Course but the decision was made to start closer to the coast and finish high here above the driving range and clubhouse.
The final hole plays straight, and uphill, all of the 0000000 or so yards it stretches to from the back tees to challenging green. Any dreams of finding one more birdie before settling into the clubhouse will demand three well played shots to grant you that opportunity.
Thus, my walk was over. I now joined the rest of the guests to enjoy the finger food I turned down in favour of pounding the fairways.
The New Course both resembles the original course here and does some things the older brother does not. The Old Course plays through the giant dunes of Balmedie to largely flat fairways. The fairways of the New Course are noticeably different. In 18 holes here, you’ll hit from uphill lies, downhill lies, side hills and more. The designers have said this was part of the essence of the New Course they wanted to bring to the property.
The course plays in two, some would say three, distinct areas and surrounds. The flat, wetlands take you out to the dunes and basin that exists in the south portion of the estate and the best holes exist within that basin. While the large, rippled greens will challenge even the best of short games early on, the green sites on the 9th, 12th and 14th holes will be remembered by almost all who play.
In opening the course, I’ll always remember Eric Trump joking with the audience, saying “we had an unlimited budget here and we exceeded it.”
MORE: Trumping The Tariffs: How much golf will really cost under Donald Trump
Look at the surrounding dunescapes and you’ll see how they spent that money: Sculpting fairways through the dunes, building the large, rippled greens and weaving the holes through and around the natural wetlands that remain here.
The course is spectacular and has something for everyone. 19th hole debates will do their best to debate the best or signature holes from the course, likely having differing opinions. To me, the best of the course lies beyond the southern dunes. The place feels both creative and created. Did they achieve their goal of building “The Greatest 36” (trademarked)? They will tell certainly tell you so.