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2015 Overall Winner IAGTO Sustainability Awards

Dundonald Links

Dundonald Links honoured to win coveted Sustainability Award

GEO Certified™ Dundonald Links, Scotland, is delighted to announce it has been named overall winner in the 2015 International Association of Golf Tour Operators’ (IAGTO) Sustainability Awards due to exceptional management standards within golf’s sustainability issues – nature, water, energy, supply chain, pollution control and community.

The IAGTO report stated that Dundonald Links, near the legendary golfing town of Troon in Ayrshire, had demonstrated a deep, integrated commitment throughout all aspects of sustainability since opening in 2003 and is now recognised among the most progressive clubs in the world with its dedication to environmental and community initiatives.

IAGTO also highlighted the many activities embedded in the culture of Dundonald Links including Zero Waste, numerous and specific biodiversity projects, habitat improvements, ‘outdoor classrooms’ for local schools, campaigns and partnerships with a large variety of local and national organisations, and public nature trails with education boards.

The announcement was made at the 15th annual IAGTO Awards Ceremony held on 30th October at Villa Erba, Lake Como, Italy.

Earlier this year, Dundonald Links was awarded the title of UK Environmental Golf Course of the Year 2014, in addition to becoming GEO Certified™ – a symbol of great golf environments worldwide. In 2015 it will be proud host to The Aberdeen Asset Management Ladies Scottish Open presented by EventScotland and in 2016 will be host venue to the Ladies British Amateur Open.

Guy Redford, Director of Golf, Dundonald Links commented: Dundonald Links is honoured to receive this award and to be recognised for playing its part in protecting the natural world. Through our team’s passion and dedication to environmental sustainability, the Club has in return become more efficient and commercially viable. In addition, our partnerships with local and national organisations and, in particular, within the local community have been extremely rewarding, supporting education, building relationships and opening doors to new opportunities.

Source:  Dundonald Links

Golfmagic Plays Dundonald Links

One of the most interesting aspects of my round was that I found the fairways here the most lust of any links I have played in recent memory.

Feeling a tad nervous on the first, I was more than happy to pipe a drive down the fairway and past the hungry bunker down the left side. With a tricky approach into a raised, undulating green, I took my four and ran!

I then moved onto the dogleg second, which asked for a 3-wood and a mid-iron approach to a green nestled amongst the dunes, shortly before tackling the relatively simple par-5 third and 175-yard par-3 fourth.

After a little rest bite at the par-5 fifth, I was required to be back on my guard at the second of the par 3s at the sixth. Playing 157 yards to a raised green slanting from back to front, with a wee burn running up the left hand side of the green, there probably isn’t a more exciting hole on the course. Terrific short hole.

The par-4 seventh and eight holes offer reasonable birdie chances and you’ll likely need to convert them before heading into the ninth and its index 2 rating. A blind tee shot is negotiated to a rolling fairway and a second shot to a false fronted and semi-blind green. Tricky.

After my second bacon roll of the morning at the turn, another dogleg lurks at the 10th requiring a driver and long iron to a narrow entrance but with a back stop on offer two well thought out shots should result in a par.

The par-3 11th is everything a classic course should have – a par-3 under 150yards! At 120 yards this fitted my bill with a wedge to a shallow green that had a run off long in the Donald Ross mould. Find the bunker at the bottom of the run off and you can forget about making par.

The 12th continues to the Firth of Clyde with the back drop of the Island of Arran and an ample time for my solitary ‘wee birdie’ of the round at the shortest of the par fours.

From there on in, 13th has a fantastic double-tier green with a good four-foot step in it that allows for a reasonable birdie chance – that is if you have avoided both the railway track from the tee and make the right level of the green on your approach.

The railway track also hugs the right hand side of a roller coaster of a fairway at the 16th, played into a narrow, two-tier green. A good drive still requires a hybrid into the dancefloor.

And to close, you have to negotiate a very tricky par-5 18th, particularly when it comes to the second shot lay-up, which must negotiate cross bunkers aplenty. The approach isn’t that much easier, either, with another one of those wee burns located to the front left.

Golfmagic Verdict

Whilst a driver friendly course in the mould of Phillips’ other UK creations, the defining feature of Dundonald Links is its greens.

Generous in size and in some cases three clubs deep that requires you to both club well and focus on staying on the right side of the pin. Definitely worth taking a caddie if you can.

There are a variety of par-3s at Dundonald that would befit any of its neighbouring trophy courses and the par 5s require plenty of thought on the lay up shots which I was helped admirably on the day by my surprising fresh laddie of a caddie.

Having ‘Hammy’ on the bag that seemed like a joke for every lost ball added to what was an overall enriching golfing experience on this hallowed stretch of Ayrshire links.

Philips has used his vivid imagination and the light, sandy soil to build a traditional 7,100-yard masterpiece that lingers in the memory long after a visit is over.

Love Links Golf? Visit Dundonald Links

Source:  Golf Magic

Zero waste and so much more at Dundonald

Dundonald Golf Links

Dundonald Golf Links on the west coast of Scotland sits amongst some of the finest links in the country, including Royal Troon, Turnberry and Prestwick.    Not only does it provide great golf but it achieves this with a very low impact on the environment, having achieved zero waste to landfill status.  This means that all of their waste is either re-used or recycled and they do their utmost to reduce the amount of waste they produce in the first instance.  Local waste management contractors uplift the waste that cannot be dealt with on site for recycling, which includes ‘difficult’ waste such as tyres, batteries and oil.  This notable achievement, possibly unique in the golfing world, is far from the end of Dundonald’s effort to enrich the environment:

  • they have instigated energy efficiency measures in the clubhouse and greenkeeping facility
  • they carefully time course maintenance practices so as not to disturb wildlife, e.g. cutting rough outside the skylark breeding season
  • they enhance biodiversity through sensitive habitat creation, e.g. water features, open rough and wild flower areas for pollinators
  • they encourage wildlife by leaving wood piles for insects, building a soil wall for martins and installing bee hives.

Future evolution of this philosophy includes looking to self-sufficiency for the clubhouse in terms of its vegetable supply, with much of the rest of their menu being locally sourced.

Over the last 6 years, the driving force behind this incredible programme has been greenkeeper, Amanda Dorens.  “It wasn’t easy getting this off the ground, but once everyone agreed with the philosophy the actual practical work soon became second nature”, she explained and added “it really is a massive team effort!”

They do not work in isolation either.  Sitting next door is a Wildlife Reserve managed by the Scottish Wildlife Trust. Gill Smart, of the SWT, commented “Dundonald Links is a good neighbour to have next to our Gailes Marsh Wildlife Reserve.  It’s extensive out-of-play areas provide continuity of natural habitat across this increasingly fragmented landscape.  The butterflies, bees and other wild creatures that breed in either area have the opportunity to disperse into similar habitats on the other, making for more sustainable populations overall.  The Scottish Wildlife Trust is looking forward to exploring more ways of working in partnership with Dundonald Links to benefit the wildlife of the Ayrshire coast.”  Further collaboration has seen the development of a nature trail for use by groups of visiting children from local schools – a great way to learn about their natural environment.

All of this has taken investment, mostly in time but also with some financial pump priming, but Dundonald is beginning to see real payback in terms of cost savings across the board which are more than making up for the initial outlay.  Guy Redford, Dundonald’s Director of Golf, is committed to the sustainable business practices that have been established, “it is right for the environment, for our local community and it makes real business sense”, he concluded.

Source:  Randa.org

Scotland’s Dundonald: An exceptional new links layout

Golf International Inc.
By David Brice

Most new golf courses are like wine – they often require time to mature and develop. But also similar to wine, there are some new courses that can be experienced young and are filled with character and personality from the moment they are first opened. Read More…

Opens to Loch Lomond Golf Club Members

Links
By Malcolm Campbell

Medieval kings and horse-racing dukes once claimed this scenic plat on the Firth of Clyde. Today a deep-pocketed American developer has some calling it the seaside sensation of Scottish golf. Read More…

The New Kingbarns? Another Kyle Phillips Masterpiece Prepares to Welcomes Golfers

Golf World

This summer another extraordinary links course will be officially unveiled. Dundonald, formerly known as Southern Gailes, just a couple of miles up the coast from Royal Troon, where this year’s Open Championship is due to take place, is the latest in a line of links courses which have recently been uncovered. Read More…

Scotland’s Loch Lomond Golf Club Adds an Inspired New Links Course: Dundonald

Executive Golfer
By Edward F. Pazdur

“Kyle Phillips’ first course designed in Scotland, Kingsbarns Golf Links near St. Andrews earned him an unprecedented endorsement from The Royal and Ancient Golf Club in St. Andrews.”

Newly acquired, Dundonald makes an exceptionally worthy companion to Lyle Anderson’s Loch Lomond, a renowned international private club in Scotland with members from 42 countries, and 48 of America’s states. With the addition of Dundonald, Loch Lomond Golf Club, located just 30 minutes from Scotland’s Glasgow International airport, has surely become the world’s “mecca” of golf. Read More…

Dundonald Course Linking with Past and a Great Future

Scotland on Sunday
By Paul Forsyth

On a warm summer’s evening by the Ayrshire coast, as lengthening shadows are cast across the dunes and the hazy outline of the Isle of Arran shimmers in the distance, it seems almost sacrilegious to suggest that so spiritual a setting, a haven at one with nature, could be manufactured by hand. Read More…

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