David McLay Kidd was given a dream first-up assignment by Mike Keiser, who employed the young Scotsman to design his first course at the Bandon Dunes Resort. Although the subsequent courses at Bandon Dunes taught us that Kidd wasn’t yet in the same league as Tom Doak and Coore/Crenshaw, he nevertheless did a reasonable job and the success of Bandon has allowed Kidd to become one of golf’s hottest modern architects.

Over the past few years Kidd has been busy with projects on both sides of the Atlantic, his most notable creations being the Castle Course in St Andrews, the ultra-private Nanea course in Hawaii, Tetherow in Oregon and Machrihanish Dunes in Scotland. He also built a high-end resort course in Fiji for the founder of the Red Bull energy drink, and redesigned the Montague Course at the Fancourt Resort in South Africa. Sadly across the Kidd portfolio is a worrying trend, of green complexes that reject rather than accept approach shots and often need to be significantly re-worked shortly after opening. This has happened on numerous projects post-Bandon Dunes.

Despite disappointments with his growing portfolio, David McLay Kidd and DMK Golf Design would certainly be an appropriate design choice for some golf development projects. For an independent assessment of his suitability for your project, please email darius@planetgolf.com.au or contact Global Golf Group.