Trump Turnberry (King Robert the Bruce) - Ayrshire & Arran - Scotland

Overshadowed by its illustrious parent course the Ailsa, the KRTB is a very fine course in its own right. The first few holes are good strong traditional links holes with gorse and bunkering in abundance, then as you weave your way to the top of the course your greeted by a run of 5 holes that are truly magnificent and would be worthy of note on any course. The final stretch returns to tight gorse lined hole after hole and in a stiff breeze it most certainly was a challenge.

A must play if ever your are around the Ayrshire coast do not overlook this place.

It was a pleasure to return to play the new King Robert The Bruce course in July 2021. Since my last visit in 2017 when the second course here was called the Kintyre much has changed.

The majority of the course has been given a facelift with new fairway and greenside bunkers as well as a couple of water hazards removed. Some trees have also gone and a wetlands area created. And the middle section of the course (holes 8 to 11) have been completely redesigned. It now means the course plays to a 7,203 yardage from the rarely used black tees and is a par 72.

I'm pleased to report that the changes are for the better and elevates this fine links to well within the top 50 in Scotland.

Previously holes 8 to 10 were played in an anticlockwise direction and featured a notorious hole with a green set deep in a rocky cove. That has all changed as we now play this loop on the cliff tops in a clockwise direction and they start with a fine par five with an infinity green and a glorious backdrop of the famous lighthouse and Ailsa Craig.

The next is probably going to become a decisive hole and is a real risk-rewarder. The drive is straightforward but then you must decide if you've got enough ammunition to fire over rocky cliffs to a green perched perilously close to the edge. There is an alternative route around although it is likely you will need to play over the large hollow (where the old 8th green site used to sit) at some point.

This trio of holes on the high ground is completed with a more traditional short hole and is a fine looking par-three. The old 11th has now been extended to a par five before the round completes over familiar ground.

It's not easy for any course to shine when you have something like the Ailsa hogging the limelight but the King Robert The Bruce is a very good golf course in its own right. Some of the holes on the lower ground may feel a little repetitive with the gorse lined fairways but it still ranks highly in my book and the changes have no doubt improved what was already a very good golf course.

Ed is the founder of Golf Empire – click the link to read his full review.

Decent golf course but some way off the Ailsa in terms of topography and visuals ( understandably ) so very much a second course. The part of the course where you could see the Ailsa (holes 8 to 10), happened to be the most memorable holes, particularly the par 4th 9th which features a ravine short left of the green and the par 3, 10th which is beautifully presented with a green complex that has brilliant bunkering on the slope in front of the green. A couple of general comments - 1/. Liked the sandy waste areas so wish there were more of them ( it adds some visual impetus and variety from the thick gorse that borders many of the holes ), and 2/. right to left dog legs dominated the orientation ( 7 of the 13 par 4s and 5s), contrasted with 2 that were fade biased. Just an observation, the holes were still good however. Having spent 5 hours playing the Ailsa, the 3 hours around the RTB was a welcome treat.

Trump Turnberry King Robert The Bruce is a very fine course. Personally a few of the holes here are exceptional and I could see those fitting in with the Ailsa to create a combined super course. The conditioning is immaculate. The green complexes are very good. The staff is very welcoming. It's a pure pleasure to be here.

The Robert the Bruce course is a good sister course to the more prestigious and well known Ailsa. The course is set on beautiful picturesque seaside links with views of the lighthouse and Irish sea on many of the holes.

Golfers hoping for a nice easy warm up round before tackling the Ailsa be warned! the course is brutally tough and demands your best golf.

On most holes the layout is flat and at times a touch repetitive. You also forget that you’re playing a links course so close to the sea in the early holes, however don’t think it is easy. We found the rough to be so harsh that unless you ran into the fringe you were very unlikely to find your ball. Not only was the rough harsh the course was so tight especially in the weather conditions we faced that it almost became impossible to score even for two single figure handicapper in our group.

Holes 1-7 were on mainly flat ground and all had challenging bunkers and required fairway drives. Not overly memorable but solid golf club holes.

Holes 8-11 are where you get the 5star experience. The 8th a lovely par 5 birdie chance that whets the appetite for the signature 9th. The 9th hole is a testing drive required to leave you with a mid to long iron over sandy wasteland to the green. There are stunning views of the Irish sea to your left and the hole was certainly one of the top 5 holes even including those on the Ailsa course. A sheer stunning hole. The 10th is a good par 3 hole with nice views from the tee. This hole feels and looks very new and needs a bit or growth and bedding in, but is still a good par 3. The 11th another gettable par 5 requiring a good drive had the lighthouse pretty much as the backdrop for all three shots. My second favourite hole on the course and another stunner.

The closing holes i thought were slightly better than the opening ones however even after only a week has passed i’m struggling to remember each one individually.

I think that sums up the course. The 3/4 holes in the middle are world class and the rest are good if a little flat and repetitive. The condition of the course was immaculate, bunkers fluffy and the greens quick. I couldn’t rate the course higher in this respect, perfect in all aspects.

As a side note the rough was impossible and did take a little of the fun out of the game. We had poor weather and i dread to think what id score on a very bad day. I’m not sure i’ve ever been so worried about playing the main course the next day. The course really chewed us up and spat us out.

To summarise it’s definitely worth a round if playing alongside the Ailsa or if your local but not sure id come and stay just for the Robert the Bruce course. It was by a margin the most difficult course i’ve ever played, which was highly unexpected and not really needed. However with plenty of golf balls and your A game it would be impossible not to enjoy the Robert the Bruce layout.

This is a very good second course at the Turnberry resort. The first 7 holes and 12-18 are laid out in fairly flat links land that is a little bit further away from the sea compared to most links courses. These holes are, in the most part, very good but not many jump out as being worthy of mention. It is holes 8-11 on the hill that really make this course worth playing. They are stunning!

However, I don’t want to do a disservice to the other holes on the course. There are some good holes here that flow very well and, like the Ailsa, the conditioning here and the green complexes are brilliant.

The first 6 holes play amongst the gorse and are all quite similar in feel. I like the 4th - which doglegs slightly to the left with a fairway that is littered with punishing bunkers. The 5th is a tough hole into the wind with OB all the way down the right and a marshy waste area on the left - you need to be straight here.

7 is a pretty hole that bends slightly to the left alongside the bottom of a steep hill with some pine trees around the green.

8 though is where the run really starts. A great par 5 played along the top of the hill with steep fall aways either side. The infinity green is stunning with the famous lighthouse in the distance behind it.

9 plays back along the coast and has some similarities to the 10th on the Ailsa with a terrific green nestled by the sea amongst the rocks. 10 is a par 3 that plays back away from the sea across a huge bunker and 11 is another par 5 that plays parallel to 8 but on a lower level. 11 and 12 feel a little less links-like before you head back into the gorse-land.

The rest of the holes are good and remind me a bit of the holes 13-15 on the Ailsa.

17 is a good hole that opens up a bit away from the gorse - this plays parallel to the 16th on the Ailsa and then 18 is a strong finishing hole that doglegs to the left to a green that sits underneath the clubhouse. This hole would be nicer if the view wasn’t spoilt by the driving range but there’s not much they can do to fix that!

Overall, definitely play this course if you travel here to play the Ailsa. Holes 8-11 alone make this course worth playing and the other holes are well-designed and play across some fine linksland.

The ruins of Turnberry Castle surround the iconic lighthouse that identifies Turnberry instantly. The lighthouse was built by the family of author Robert Louis Stevenson. Turnberry Castle is renowned as the birthplace of King Robert The Bruce who led Scotland to independence in 1314, so Robert The Bruce seemed an appropriate name for the new course.

The original course at Turnberry as we know it was built by Royal Troon prefessional Willie Fernie and opened in 1906 (although it was generally thought that The Marquis of Ailsa had laid out a links himself in the area previously)

By 1909 a ladies 9 hole courses was added, and over the years this evolved to become the 18 hole Arran course.

Turnberry was badly treated by both world wars, with areas of the courses flattened to make aircraft landing strips in World War 2. But thanks to the work of Philip MacKenzie Ross both courses were restored and the Ailsa course went on to host the Open Championship in 1977 (and 3 times since)

The Arran course was renamed The Kintyre course. When Donald Trump bought Turnberry Resort he commissioned architects MacKenzie Ebert to rework the Ailsa course, and in my opinion that effort has propelled the Ailsa course to one of the best 10 courses on the planet!

Mackenzie Ebert were then asked back to build a new sister course to the Ailsa.

Robert The Bruce was completed in 2016 basically in the footprint of the former Arran/Kintyre courses- but it is a much improved course.

There are two parts to the course- most of the course (hole 1-7, and 12-18) is set in predominantly flattish farmland, and here Ebert and team have reworked the green structures adding a little more movement and introducing some impresseive sand face bunkering.These holes look good and are strategically strong. However it is holes 8-11 that you will remember!

After hole 7 the course heads up onto a higher dunes surrounded by coastline. This part of the course is certainly picturesque, but also offers some exhilarating golf. There are stunning views of Turnberry's coastline, the famous lighthouse, castle ruins, Ailsa course & Ailsa Crag..

Notable holes include: hole 8- a long par 4 which heads directly toward the shore, with Ailsa Crag and Turnberry lighthouse as outstanding backdrops

hole 9- a shorter par 4 right along the cliff tops with a spectacular but difficult green setting on a cliff top promontory. hole 10- a lovely par 3 with elevated tees on the cliffs. hole 11- a long par 5 running in parallel with hole 8, sharing the same wonderful backdrops.

Robert the Bruce is a quality design, and a pleasure to play- with a few moments of sheer exhilaration along the way…

Peter Wood is the founder of The Travelling Golfer – click the link to read his full review.

Played this Spring as part of a very reasonable deal, and really enjoyed the changes to what was already an excellent course. The holes around the turn are completely different, and the new 9th is possibly the most exhilarating hole on both courses - a brilliant job, with a good drive setting up a real death or glory long iron approach shot from a cambered fairway with cove and gorse threatening left. Much closer in quality to the Ailsa than previously, but still a few too many similar flat gorse-lined gentle doglegs. Possibly the best stay and play 36 hole destination.

Played here in a cold breezy day, after a night of heavy rain, the course is good, maybe a 6 out of 10, however the new holes will need a few seasons for the fairways to improve , very wet in places and a little bare in places. I would put it in the second level of links site courses in Scotland, However the summer green-fee of £120 is way off the mark, having played many courses of a similar level for around the £50 to £60 mark.

I attended the opening of the new King Robert the Bruce course a couple of days ago, when Eric Trump paid tribute to architect Martin Ebert for his efforts over the previous three years – during which time he made no fewer than 85 site visits to Turnberry – in helping to transform the fortunes of a golf venue that wasn’t quite in the best of shape when it was purchased.

Millions have been invested in the hotel and the golfing infrastructure to raise the resort’s profile to its current all-time high and the arrival of the revamped King Robert the Bruce course is just the latest piece of the jigsaw puzzle to be put into place by its new owners. The old Kintyre course was a decent links layout but it’s now a far better one following a substantial makeover.

A lot of the gorse has been removed to reveal sandy waste areas, especially the large patch between holes 5 and 13, where I understand a lot of sand was mined for use around the property during recent course redevelopment work. The course’s eco credentials will certainly now be boosted by this section being designated as a wetland area that will attract a variety of wildlife as it matures.

The bunkering is exceptional throughout, mirroring the composition of the bunkers that were recently brought into play on the Ailsa, with ragged-edged marram grass “eyebrow” versions in the fairways and sharper, revetted traps set close to the greens. Fairway turf is firm and fast and the greens are a pleasure to putt on, even if they were running a little slower than some might have expected the other day.

The opening seven holes are all solid links holes, played out on relatively flat terrain located furthest inland from the coast. Removing the old burn that crossed the 1st fairway is a big improvement. The new holes on top of Bain’s Hill then really up the ante quite a bit and if they don’t get your pulse racing here then nothing will!

A lot of earth must have been shifted to grade the fairway on the new 8th as it heads downhill towards the lighthouse and the green. Because It looks so totally natural, you really have to doff your hat to the architect, the contractor and the green keeping staff for producing such an eye-catching hole that looks like it’s been there for ever.

It’s followed by the new 9th, doubling back along the hill to a green that clings onto a rocky promontory, beyond the cove where the old 8th green was located. The fairway narrows considerably before the approach shot has to fly the little bay, across what is now just a sandy wasteland, so it’s rightly rated stroke index 2, even though the prevailing wind is normally behind from tee to green.

The new par three 10th then calls for another all-or-nothing shot to the flag, where the tee shot must carry over another large sandy void on its way to finding an elevated green protected by bunkers to the front right and front left of the putting surface. If you manage to card a net “5-4-3” for holes 8 to 10 then you’ve done rather well in my book as it’s a testing little sequence of holes.

The extended 11th is now a par five hole and it takes the course routing elegantly back downhill to where the closing seven holes are situated – again, these are all sound links holes, finishing up with the newly lowered green of the left doglegged 18th set in front of the clubhouse.

The King Robert the Bruce course, under its old guise of the Kintyre, is currently ranked outside the Scottish Top 50 but don’t be at all surprised to see it make a significant upward move when the national rankings are updated in a couple of months as the spruced up and revitalized version of the old layout is way superior to the one that debuted in 2001.

Jim McCann