Dundonald Links

Originally named Southern Gailes and planned as a residential resort community in the early 2000s, the current Dundonald Links didn’t become reality until opening in 2005. It was purchased as a links course in 2003 for Loch Lomond Golf Club (LLGC) members. Kyle Phillips was commissioned by LLGC to finish the course and brought his expertise into making it an immediate success and championship worthy.

The course has held multiple Scottish Women’s Opens, the 2017 Scottish Open and will be an Open Qualifier Course from 2023-2026.

The location was blessed by being situated on a triangle of great linksland. It is separated from Western Gailes by the railway on the western side and it is almost across the street from Gailes Golf Club to the north.

Phillips achieved his goal of utilizing the best of this linksland and adding to it by creating grander and more dramatic landforms on the remainder of the site. Dundonald golf course sits slightly inland and there are also trees, unusual for most links courses, that create visual backdrops of greens complexes and line some fairways.

There was an earlier course on part of the routing called Dundonald Castle Course that was in existence from 1911 to WWII. At 6,700 yards and built for the new longer distance Haskell Ball, it was one of the longest courses in Britain at the time. After WWII when the course was used by the military for among other things as a place where D-Day landings were practiced, the course was abandoned as it was virtually destroyed.