The Ego May Not Have Landed But Has Spoken

Such is the self-belief of the Donald that he thinks that his golf is more important than just about anything and everything. Yesterday he threatened that “"If we were to be refused permission to develop on the southern end of the SSSI, I would withdraw from this development because it would not and could not fulfill my vision of doing something outstanding. I have always believed that if you cannot do it well you should not do it at all. I am at a point in my career that if it is not going to be the best, I would not want to build it."

Now wouldn’t we all at times like to do what we want to do, but life and the planning process are just not like that. However, his threats are clearly being made to get the planning process pointing in his direction. It’s the back nine of the golf course that is scheduled to be built on the SSSI area of sand dunes. Trumps view is that his course is close to perfection and any changes will ruin it. Clearly there are others that believe just the opposite.

Most telling of all is the fact that the Donald says, “Such will be the quality and reputation of the course and the associated resort it will benefit Scotland as whole.“ This is where you begin to question him and you certainly see the pressure that’s placed on the enquiry. It’s all about how good it is for Scotland and this is what has driven this thing from the outset. Somehow our politicians are psyched into believing that if we say no then Scotland will somehow start going backwards and inward investment will cease. It beggars belief that anyone can take seriously the fact that his course will be so much better than all of our existing golf courses, eclipsing them and somehow transform Scotland’s reputation for great golf courses. How many more people will come to Scotland to play golf because of Trump’s course than come already? I doubt it will be very many.

It’s debatable that Trump’s course will develop the reputation as the best golf course in Scotland and one of the best in the world in his lifetime – is it likely to host the Open Championship in the next thirty years? However, the associated housing development will have made the Donald huge amounts of money and that is what’s behind this whole affair.