Scotland's Golf Course Boom

Scotland is set to experience one of its biggest-ever golf booms over the next two years as a glut of brand-new course developments near completion.

The 13 new layouts - which, combined, are being built at a cost of over £250million - will propel the 'Home of Golf's' total number of courses to 570, which in turn should consolidate Scotland's standing as having the most course per capita of any country in the world (roughly 1 course per 8,946 of the population).

There is quality just as much as there is quantity, too, with esteemed golf course architects, including David McLay Kidd, Tom Doak, Colin Montgomerie and Jack Nicklaus, amongst those behind the new courses.

Nicklaus' course at Ury Estate will be only his second signature design in Scotland, whilst McLay Kidd has overseen the development of two new layouts, Machrihanish Dunes and the eagerly-anticipated Castle Course, the seventh St Andrews Links course.

Kidd, a prolific golf course designer whose work has taken him from Morocco to Fiji, admits to using Google Earth to suss out sites for potential new projects. Richard Milne, meanwhile, the director of FM developers who are behind the Ury Estate project, believes that few places rival Scotland when it comes to somewhere to design a new golf course. "Scotland is the 'Home of Golf'," he enthused. "It is a significant part of the golfing experience in that it has some of the most established courses in the world and a wealth of historic and captivating landscapes that are pretty hard to beat."

He also believes that Ury Estate will, in itself, attract thousands of visitors to the North-East and benefit the region's annual economy to the tune of tens of millions of pounds.

With courses in development in every region of the country, a similar cash windfall at each new venue would unquestionably be a massive boost to the Scottish economy. American golf tourism alone is a valuable contributor to the Scottish economy and top golf tour operator Gary Wilkinson hopes the new courses will add to the appeal for foreign visitors.

"I think these new courses are unquestionably a good thing." he revealed. "Anything that allows us to promote our game and get column inches around the world has to be a good thing. Wilkinson is also confident that potential visitors will sit up and take notice of the new layouts. "For some people, St Andrews is Scottish golf," he admits."But that's not true for everyone. In fact, I expect the new courses to be very popular with Continental Europeans.