David mclay kidd biography of albert
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Within a few short years, Gleneagles became the venue for the Scottish Open for eight straight years.
It opened in 2008 to mixed reviews. For almost 10 years David travelled the world assessing sites for golf, working with the Market Analyst’s, Master planners, Architects, Engineers, Ecological Consultants, Landuse and Planning Attorneys and every other consultant involved in the development process. Having been around some of the oldest and finest courses in the world, it was not surprising McLay-Kidd followed in his father's footsteps ...
He wears his kilt with pride and still talks with a Scottish brogue now softened from the many years now spent in his adoptive home in Bend, Oregon, USA where he lives with his wife Tara and daughter Ailsa.
As a child, David witnessed the passion his father, Jimmy Kidd had for the game and the courses it is played across.
Managing courses with ecological benefit and sustainability at the forefront of his mind, the courses he managed became the poster child for environmental sensitivity and enhanced ecological value. but as a course architect rather than a course superintendent.
Known initially for his minimalist 'retro' designs (in the style of "golf as it used to be"), McLay-Kidd established his credentials with the world famous Dunes course at Bandon Dunes.
There is no doubt the father heavily influenced the son.
As a teenager David was working on his father’s courses raking bunkers, mowing greens, helping with renovation works and listening to his father debate with his peers from St. Andrews, Carnoustie, Turnberry and others of the best practices to manage their courses.
Although the site is stunning, on a cliff top with views of the sea and St. Andrews, criticisms were leveled at the course's crazily undulating greens and numerous "hummocks" of long fescue that dotted nearly every fairway.
About
David McLay Kidd grew up in the golf business, surrounded by the history of Scottish golf -- and some of the world's greatest courses.
Shortly after Bandon Dunes opened to universal praise in 1999, McLay Kidd founded DMK Golf Design, which expanded relatively quickly into an all-inclusive, full-service golf course design and construction firm. Jimmy's boy had a front-row seat for all of it and decided early on that a life in the golf industry was to be his future. The modest projects he worked gave him a level of responsibility not possible with a larger firm and allowed him to develop his ideas both on design, but as importantly, the process of design and construction.
When David was born, his father, Jimmy Kidd, was the greenkeeper at Glasgow Golf Club. At some point the name McKlay was formally recognised as part of David's surname, hence the now hyphenated David McLay-Kidd.
Laucala Island
This ultra-exclusive resort’s largest hindrance is also its greatest asset—location.
In fact, by the mid-nineties, the group was offering its self for hire and that is where the Bandon Dunes story starts…
After Bandon Dunes, McLay Kidd's firm pulled a real plum assignment with the seventh course at St.
Andrews Links, the Castle Course. Due to the challenging logisitics and environmental concerns we not only designed, but built this course as well.
David McLay-Kidd
Born and raised in Scotland, son of a Golf Course Superintendent, David has been around golf his entire life and not just any golf but the oldest and finest courses in the world.
This insight gave David the last vital piece he needed for his education, what the development process looks like from the client’s perspective.
As well as acting as the Development Groups Golf Development expert, David was also the in-house Golf Designer and this role became more of a focus in the later years. Aside from Bandon Dunes, the most highly decorated McLay Kidd design may be Machrihanish Dunes in Argyll and Bute, Scotland, which some critics have called one of the best modern layouts in Scotland, on some of the last available linksland.
Still at the height of his career, David McLay Kidd has the rare opportunity to add his own chapter to the centuries of golf history that his father before him worked to preserve, and into which he was born.
McLay-Kidd has designed several renowned courses that feature on many golfers' "must play" lists.
His best known work includes, but is not limited to:
UNITED STATES:
Bandon Dunes, OR (1999, Dunes course) / Gamble Sands, WA (2014) / Nanea, HI (2003) / Rolling Hills CC, CA (2017) / Sand Valley, WI (2018, Mammoth Dunes course) / Tetherow, OR (2008) / TPC Stonebrae, CA (2004, originally called TPC San Francisco Bay) / Tributary, ID (2009, originally called Huntsman Springs).
BRITAIN & IRELAND:
Beaverbrook, Eng (2016, with Tom Watson) / Machrihanish Dunes, Scot (2009) / Powerscourt, Ire (2003, West course redesign) / Queenwood, Eng (2001) / St Andrews, Scot (2008, Castle course).
AND ALSO:
Fancourt, S Africa (2005, modifications to Montagu course) / Guacalito de la Isla, Nicaragua (2013) / Laucala Island, Fiji (2003).
Born and raised in Scotland, David McLay-Kidd grew up with golf in his bones.
David was offered a position within this development group to help with the golf development process.