Scottish Open

So, an announcement from the ET that next year will be the final year of Castle Stuart hosting the tournament, not too surprising but a little disappointing. But much more unexpectedly, for 2014 the venue will be shifting not to Trumpland, or Kingsbarns, or another flash new course, but instead to the 6th oldest course in the world at Royal Aberdeen. Presumably the reasoning was to tie-in with the new title sponsors.

Wow, surprising that none of the new very well funded clubs like Trumpton, Renaissance, Archerfield or KB did not get this.


Does anyone know if Royal Aberdeen will need much lengthening or alterations to host the euro tour pro's?

I think Trump is a bit new yet Mac, I suspect that Royal Aberdeen is a prelude to it moving there eventually.

KB doesn't have the infrastructure, access would be a real problem and is a bit easy for these guys.

Pretty much what SR says I think is spot on... Once Trump is ready the Scottish Open will move there from Royal Aberdeen.

Not sure if it needs a lot done Royal Aberdeen, havent played there in years although know how good a course it is. Turned out well for the Walker Cup but whether they need to try make it longer or whatever no idea. Not sure they can do much with it to be honest.

interesting news. perhaps the way forward , and a more long term strategy, could be to rotate the event annually around a shortlist of scotlands best links courses with suitable infrastructure. perhaps even including toc every 10 years allowing the open schedule to drop its toc quota to every 10th years too, as it would host one of the two every 5 years.

Senior Open at Royal Aberdeen in 2005, won by Tom Watson from Des Smyth.
Played to a par 71 and winning score was -4 - only five players (Norman, Stadler, Roberts) better than +3.

Imagine some holes could be stretched, and can't remember what the weather was like, but: Sounds as if it was a strong enough test then.

Hopefully get a corporate jolly to the 2014 Scottish Open then. Great.

Wow, interesting news indeed. I actually played it last Tuesday and absolutely loved it. Is it long enough? probably not at the moment but it's certainly a lot stiffer a test than Castle Stuart. I think there is scope to lengthen a few holes, bear in mind though, the Pro's will want a decent but not brutal a test leading in to The Open.

With regard to Trumps, as others say, it's clearly not ready yet but it wouldn't surprise me if it subsequently moved there in a few years time.

I remember when the SO moved away from Loch Lomond, Barclays said that they wanted a permanent home for it, not a rotation however Barclays are no longer the sponsor so it'll be interesting to see what AAM want to do longer term

Played Trump Int'l end of August. Wow what a course, not that much wrong the course other than some of the fairways were a bit bare, would expect them to be a lot better next year. However the temporary clubhouse and lack of hotel will hold it back for big tournaments. Course-wise, played Castle Struart end of July week after SO and it was fantastic but the Trump In'tl is way better IMHO.

Royal Aberdeen has had a load of gorse removed in the last year. We've been speculating here for months that it was to make it more spectator/viewing friendly so it could host the Scottish Open. No surprise at this week's news.

Agree that the SO will almost inevitably move to Trump in due course.