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It would be fair to say that the highly anticipated Dumbarnie Links has lived up to its expectation throughout its first year in business.

The Clive Clark-designed beauty has been inundated with rave reviews from local golfers and pros alike, and in general from anyone who has had the opportunity to play the stunning links.

The Fife course, which blends naturally into the surrounding landscape despite featuring almost 600 manmade dunes, officially opened for play in May 2020 – the course celebrating its first Birthday this year.

By December of the same year of opening, Dumbarnie Links had already recorded in excess of 10,000 total rounds played, despite ongoing COVID-19 restrictions, showing the appetite from the golf world to discover the newest addition to Scotland’s golf portfolio.

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With the course now enjoying its first full calendar year in business, the course’s success shows no signs of slowing down, with over 20,000 rounds being played and the opening of its new state-of-the-art clubhouse. Dumbarnie Links’ general manager, David Scott, couldn’t be happier with the venue’s direction of travel.

“We have been delighted with the feedback from our guests, with many returning as they had such a fun and memorable time with us,” Scott told bunkered.co.uk. “Considering we were working from a stretch tent and had a BBQ running all of last season, we were very pleased to get into our new clubhouse this year, when we opened in March.

“From a customer service standpoint, we hand-picked our team and focused our decisions on employing members who had a positive mindset and wanted to enjoy serving the public.

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“On our links, Grahame Taylor and his agronomy team worked tirelessly to present the course in fine order. The comments about the attention to detail and conditioning was mentioned often, and also by some European Tour players which was terrific. As tough as it was, we heard we did a lot of things right and so great to hear and augurs well for repeat visits from our guests and for our reputation.”

The meteoric rise in reputation of the course has ensured that it has already secured its first major televised event, with the Women’s Scottish Open to be hosted at Dumbarnie Links from August 12-15.

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“Capturing an individual professional championship of the magnitude of the Women’s Scottish Open was tremendous,” added David Scott. “We anticipate our links being in very good order and playing firm and linksy, the scoring could be very low if the wind doesn’t get up. It’s such a beautiful property with wonderful views over the Firth of Forth and so should look great on the TV.

“I think it’s fair to say, we were hoping to have a televised championship on our links within five years. To be chosen inside a year of opening was most surreal and fantastic for everyone involved with Dumbarnie Links.”