Young Scot to design
public course at St Andrews

TravelGolf.com Staff Report

ST ANDREWS (Dec. 3, 2002) -- St Andrews Links Trust has selected a young Scot, David McLay Kidd, to design its additional public golf course at St Andrews, which is being created to meet rising demand.

Kidd, 34, is an up-and-coming golf course architect whose recent projects include the highly acclaimed Bandon Dunes in Oregon, USA, recently chosen to host the 2007 U.S. Mid-Amateur, and the new heathland course, Queenwood, in Surrey.

"The working party interviewed six extremely good contenders, and David was selected for a number of reasons. He has the right experience and knowledge, and his achievements in his career so far are very impressive," said Alan McGregor, general manager of St Andrews Links Trust, which is responsible for the six public courses on the Links.

"We are looking forward to working with him on this truly exciting new project, which will create a whole new dimension to golf at St Andrews as well as meeting the rising demand from our various customers."

Kidd, who was born and raised in Scotland, said: "I have always dreamed of being given the opportunity to design a course in my homeland, the birthplace of the game. However I could not have imagined it would be at St Andrews itself. The site selected by the Links Trust has exceptional potential, a mile or so of water frontage, gentle rolling topography and, fittingly, a breathtaking view across the bay to the 'Auld Grey Toon' of St Andrews itself."

Kidd has designed courses in Hawaii, Ireland, Mallorca and Nepal and remodelled two holes on the PGA course at Gleneagles in 1999.

"I spent my childhood on and around the classic courses in Scotland, my career has allowed me to travel and play many of the best courses elsewhere in the world. Together these experiences have allowed me to develop a style of design which I believe to be fundamentally classical but with modern influences, and certainly driven by modern design and construction techniques," he added.

"I will be putting every effort into making this a world-class golf course worthy of association with the proud name of St Andrews Links and all that it means to the history and tradition of golf."