Arnold Palmer, ASGCA Fellow, and Arnold Palmer Design will attach his name to his first new course in Scotland. Golfweek magazine reports that after more than 300 projects in 25 countries, “the King is going to Scotland.”
Brad Klein, 2015 ASGCA Donald Ross Award recipient and architecture editor for Golfweek reports: “The course will be at Castle Stuart, just east of Inverness, and will be the second course onsite, a companion to the highly regarded layout designed by Gil Hanse, ASGCA, and project owner/developer Mark Parsinen that opened in 2009 and is ranked No. 3 on the Golfweek’s Best Modern list for Great Britain and Ireland.
“Parsinen told Golfweek that what’??s being referred to as The Tribute Course will start will start upland and behind the existing front nine, near the eponymous 17th-century castle that is within view when playing the current par-3 fourth hole. The new course will stretch out to the west along a little bay formed at the bottom of the Moray Firth. The site is sandy and elevated, offering long views of the lower firth and downtown Inverness, seven miles to the southwest.
“Palmer’??s two design associates, Thad Layton and Brandon Johnson, will oversee much of the on-site work in conjunction with Parsinen. The two architects have just returned from a two-week long site visit during which most of the routing was finalized. Parsinen called the collaboration “?’fundamentally a co-design between AP Design and myself.’ The arrangement includes terms whereby the Arnold Palmer Group has become an equity partner in Castle Stuart Golf LLP to fund the second course. Palmer, who has been kept abreast of the project, will visit the site for the first time in July when he attends the Open Championship at St. Andrews.
“Formal application for planning permission is expected to start in two months, with construction preliminarily scheduled to commence in early 2016 and the course opening in 2019.”