Trump’s Scottish greens in the red
Company says losses from 2 golf courses doubled in 2016
BALMEDIE, Scotland — David Milne loves the view of the North Sea from his home high above the roiling surf, but he finds his eye often falling on the golf course next door and the tiny figures below him.
He counts the people arriving off the buses in the parking lot and the people swinging at the first tee and the 10th tee, and he counts the people walking the fairways. And after all this counting, the man who has tussled with the course’s owner becomes convinced of something: There aren’t many people on Donald Trump’s property.
“The carpark is rarely even half full,” said Milne, 53, looking out again on Friday under clear blue skies. “For what was supposedly the best golf course in the world, I don’t really think this is a resounding success.”
A few hours after Milne spoke, a financial report that Trump’s company filed with the U.K. government was released, showing he has lost millions of dollars at the resort, called the Trump International Golf Links, as well as at a second one on the other side of Scotland overlooking the Irish Sea.
The report from the U.K.’s Companies House, released late Friday, showed that losses last year more than doubled to $23 million. It was the third consecutive year of losses. Revenue also
fell sharply.
Trump’s company has faced several setbacks since it ventured into Scotland a dozen years ago.
The company has angered Milne and other neighbors who accuse it of using bullying tactics to get them to sell land.
An area fisherman garnered praise when he, like Milne, refused to sell to Trump, despite a $690,000 offer.
Then the company got some unwelcome publicity.
Two documentaries about the fights with residents were shot, Tripping Up Trump and You’ve Been Trumped, the latter shown on the BBC despite threats from one of Trump’s lawyers to sue the broadcaster.
Troubles have only mounted since then.
A few months before Trump clinched the Republican
nomination for president last year, he lost a court fight to stop an offshore windmill farm near the North Sea resort.
He has been repeatedly stymied in his plans to build a luxury hotel and a second course there because of objections from environmental regulators who say his plans will threaten the sand dunes for which the area is famous.
Whether these setbacks have hurt Trump’s business is unclear, however. Other factors appear to have played a big role in the latest financial results.
In the report released Friday, Trump’s company noted it had to shut down its Turnberry resort on the Irish Sea for half the year while building a new course there and fixing up an old one.
It also blamed losses on a hit from fluctuations in the value of the British pound.
The report and Milne’s math aside, some residents say Trump’s resorts are attracting plenty of golfers and
doing just fine.
He has only 16 rooms for overnight guests at his North Sea resort, leaving other hotels to host the golfers.
“I’ve gone from doing an average of 400 room nights for golfers per year to 1,400 room nights in six months,” said Stewart Spence, 70, owner of the Marcliffe Hotel and Spa in nearby Aberdeen.
“There can hardly be a golfer in the world who doesn’t know about this area because of what Trump has done.”
Rival courses have seen a bump in business, too.
“We’ve gone from about 4,000 golfers per annum to almost 5,500 a year,” said Les Durno, 54, general manager at the Cruden Bay Golf Club about 20 miles from Trump’s course.
Then there is the sheer spectacle itself, a chance to gawk at a U.S. president’s property and maybe spend $26.07 for a cap embroidered with Trump’s family crest.
“When we drive past Trump International, I often get people, Americans mostly, asking to stop so they can go into the golf shop and buy something,” said a bus driver waiting in the parking lot Friday who didn’t want to give his name.
“They don’t play golf, but they want a Trump Scotland souvenir.”
Or as Hector Emslie, 58, the golf project manager for the local tourism organization, Visit-Aberdeenshire, put it: It’s like having the “Disney World for golfers” on his doorstep.
In the Friday report, Eric Trump, the president’s son and a director of the British subsidiary that owns the two resorts, included a letter expressing confidence that the resorts will attract plenty of golfers.
Amanda Miller, a spokesman for the Trump Organization, declined to comment.
She also said that Eric Trump was not available to talk.