08-05-2025
American golf design firm King Collins Dormer lands dream job at famed Scottish club
American golf design firm King Collins Dormer lands dream job at famed Scottish club
The American-based firm of King Collins Dormer Golf Course Design has signed on for it describes as the 'opportunity of a lifetime' to create a masterplan for the expansion of Royal Dornoch in Scotland and build a new course at the famed facility.
Royal Dornoch's Championship Course, originally laid out by Old Tom Morris in 1877, ranks No. 4 on Golfweek's Best list of top international courses – this author will swear this pure links course would be even higher if Golfweek's Best ran a pure exhilaration ranking. Royal Dornoch also has the adjacent Struie Course. The club will open a new $18.5 million (£13.9 million) clubhouse next year.
The club has acquired 50 acres adjacent to the Struie Course, and King Collins Dormer have signed on to create a masterplan and build a new 18-hole course as well as several new holes for the Struie Course. Plans also include a new practice range, a par-3 course and new short-game and putting areas.
This will be the first job in the United Kingdom for King Collins Dormer, which was formed last year when longtime architect and shaper Trev Dormer joined forces with Tad King and Rob Collins. King and Collins are the architects of the much-heralded Sweetens Cove, which ranks as the No. 1 public-access course in Tennessee, and Landmand, which ranks No. 1 among public-access courses in Nebraska, as well as several other projects in recent years. The firm is also building a second course at 7 Mile Beach in Tasmania.
Dormer is fresh off projects with the legendary design team of Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw, including Dormer's work at the stellar Cabot Saint Lucia, which ranks as the new No. 1 course in the Caribbean and Mexico.
'Tad, Trevor and I, along with our COO, Mark Allen, are deeply honored to have received this commission,' Collins said in a media release announcing the work. 'Our team at KCD is thrilled with the prospect of spending many seasons in Dornoch, helping our shared vision with the club come to life.'
In a follow-up text, Collins said, 'We are over the moon happy! It's a rare opportunity. And what a wonderful place!'
Dornoch is far north on the coast in the Scottish Highlands, about an hour's drive north of Inverness. The small town of Dornoch was the birth place of legendary golf architect Donald Ross in 1872, and Ross went on to design many of the best courses in the United States, including Pinehurst No. 2 in North Carolina.
Mike Keiser, the developer and owner of the wildly popular Bandon Dunes Golf Resort in Oregon, has cited Royal Dornoch as an inspiration to start building golf courses. Keiser has worked for years to receive government approval to build a new course, Coul Links, near Dornoch.
'Usually, the opening of a new clubhouse, which has been mooted for 30 years or more, would mark the end of the journey for any golf club, but for Royal Dornoch it is about what the next step is going to be,' the club's general manager, Neil Hampton, said in the media release. 'The investment being made will pave the way for even greater economic and employment benefits for the wider community and, hopefully, there will be more good news to come as and when the Coul Links project gets the green light from the Scottish Government.
'Golf has long been the key economic driver in this part of the country and additional, high-quality, eco-friendly championship courses created by highly regarded designers can only enhance our reputation as a golfing destination and encourage visitors to extend their stay in the Highlands.'
Hampton said the club's selection committee was unanimous in choosing King Collins Dormer to create the masterplan and build the new course.
'We were very impressed with all the golf course architects who pitched to us, and we are lucky that so many highly respected players in the industry were eager to be involved with Royal Dornoch,' he said. 'But the KCD team's imaginative concept and passion for Royal Dornoch and using the land at our disposal in a different way, captured our imagination. They will be very much hands-on from start to finish, taking the project from the drawing board to the construction phase and completion. ...
'Now we can look confidently towards leaving an even more impressive legacy that will be embraced by future generations golfing at Royal Dornoch.'
