News
DP World Tour finalizing deal with President Trump's Scottish links to host Euro event
Bloomberg
Golf Digest has learned the DP World Tour is finalizing a deal to bring a tournament to one of President Donald Trump’s Scotland golf courses, beginning this summer.
The agreement would place a European circuit event at Trump International Golf Links Aberdeen. The DP World Tour’s 2025 schedule has an unnamed “European Event” listed for August 7. Historically this has been the week for the Czech Masters; however, the tournament has been canceled for this season after tournament officials weren’t able to find a venue. Sources have told Golf Digest the Trump tournament would be slotted in this void.
In a request for comment, a spokesperson for the DP World Tour said, “Any updates to our 2025 global schedule will be announced in due course.”
The development comes as Trump has taken an active role in the negotiations between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf’s financial backer, Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund. The discussions are currently at an impasse after a White House meeting between the parties last month, with the idea of a team element being assimilated into a future PGA Tour calendar being one of the holdups.
Trump has a personal and professional interest in a possible agreement; three of Trump’s golf properties have been used for LIV Golf competitions—including this week at Trump Doral. Additionally, Trump is hoping several of his golf courses could be re-assimilated into the professional golf landscape, both with the PGA Tour and the governing bodies that run the major championships. One of those possibilities is Trump Turnberry return to the Open Championship rota, with several outlets reporting that Trump wants help from the U.K. government to guide the claret jug to his resort on the western coast of Scotland. However, in an interview with the Telegraph’s James Corrigan, new R&A chief Mark Darbon said his organization will not be swayed by such requests, citing commercial and logistical issues with the venue.
The move to Trump Aberdeen will coincide with the resort opening its second links this summer. Initially opened in 2011, Trump Aberdeen boasts some of the best views of the coastal dunes in Scotland, and ranks No. 34 on Golf Digest’s World’s 100 Greatest Courses list.
Golf Digest senior writer Joel Beall’s debut book, Playing Dirty: Rediscovering Golf's Soul in Scotland in an Age of Sportswashing and Civil War, is on sale now at BackNinePress and all major bookstores.