Trump International Links Aberdeen

The verdict

Strip away the politics and judge the ground, because the ground here is extraordinary. The Menie dunes at Balmedie, ten miles north of Aberdeen, rise to heights almost nothing else in British golf can match, and Hawtree threaded eighteen holes through them so that each one feels sealed off from the world. Tees climb to ridgelines with the North Sea filling the horizon, then the holes drop into green valleys of marram and sand where the wind swirls rather than blows straight.

Since opening in 2012 it has pushed its way into most rankings of Scotland's best modern courses, and a second 18, the MacLeod Course, opened on the estate in summer 2025 to make it a full golf destination. The catch is the price: at peak times this is one of the most expensive green fees in Scotland. For a buddies trip built on Royal Aberdeen, Cruden Bay and Murcar, it is the spectacular, big ticket round you add when the budget allows, not the everyday anchor.

The golf worth the trip

The scale is the thing nobody is prepared for. Photographs flatten the Menie dunes; standing on an elevated tee with sandhills towering on either side and the sea glittering beyond, you understand why Hawtree called this the finest links land he had ever worked with. The routing uses that land generously, running out along the coast and back through the interior valleys, so the wind that hammers this stretch of Aberdeenshire arrives from a different quarter on almost every hole.

At 7,428 yards off the tips it is a brute, but the back tees are for the deluded and the professional. From the sensible markers the course asks for placement rather than power: fairways are wider than they look from the tee, the trouble is the marram on the dune faces rather than water or trees, and the greens are large, contoured and quick. The par 3s are a particular strength, played across valleys to greens cut into the sand hills, where one club too little is a lost ball and one too many is a thirty yard putt.

It is manufactured in the sense that every modern course is manufactured, yet the holes feel as if they were found rather than built. Pair it with the older Aberdeenshire links and the contrast becomes the pleasure: Royal Aberdeen's classic front nine, Cruden Bay's eccentric genius and this, the newest and most theatrical of the three, all within forty minutes of each other.

Where to stay nearby

The estate itself offers boutique rooms at MacLeod House and lodge accommodation beside the links, which makes the 36 hole day painless. Most travelling groups base themselves in Aberdeen, 25 minutes south, where the hotel choice is wide and the granite city's restaurants and bars fill the evenings. Golfers heading on to Cruden Bay often stay a night up the coast to shorten the drives.

The smart Aberdeenshire trip plays this course alongside Royal Aberdeen, Murcar Links next door and Cruden Bay half an hour north, four genuinely different links inside one compact stretch of coast.

Looking for a base? See our recommended hotels and resorts near Aberdeen.