AP – American real estate tycoon Donald Trump has announced the biggest addition yet to his golf course holdings — Open Championship host Turnberry, the scene of Greg Norman’s first major.
Trump said in a statement that he had agreed to buy the fabled links course on the west coast of Scotland, calling it “an honor and a privilege to own one of golf’s greatest and most exciting properties.”
The Trump Organisation did not disclose terms of the deal, but the The Daily Telegraph reported Trump bought it for the “bargain price” of STG35.7 million ($A65.16 million) from Dubai-based Leisurecorp.
Trump said he intended to invest “many millions of dollars” to improve the resort’s Turnberry Hotel, although he said he wouldn’t consider any changes to the golf course unless the Royal & Ancient, global golf’s governing body, approve them.
“I won’t do anything to the golf course at all without their full stamp of approval,” Trump told golf.com.
Turnberry’s Ailsa Course has hosted the Open Championship four times, most recently in 2009, when Stewart Cink defeated Tom Watson in a playoff.
Watson won the first and most famous edition of the Open to be held at Turnberry, claiming a one-stroke victory over Jack Nicklaus in 1977, their final round battle known as the “Duel in the Sun.”
Norman won the first of his two British Open titles at Turnberry in 1986 and Zimbabwe’s Nick Price won there in 1994.