Generation Next: Course Designer David McLay Kidd
David McLay Kidd is the rare all- wasn’t an all-star competitor. Instead, he grew up the son of a Scottish greenskeeper. “Golf has been in my blood my whole life,” he says.
Kidd began earning his A-list reputation by landing the gig of designing Oregon’s famed Bandon Dunes at the age of 26. These days, his work still follows the ethos he implemented there: He’s built more than 30 courses around the globe that work harmoniously with their unique settings. Bandon Dunes, forexample, retains the coastal Oregon location’s otherworldly windswept dunes so successfully that the courses still function as habitat for rare and threatened species. Six of the seven courses have achieved Certified Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary status from Audubon International.
Kidd is designing a pair of courses at Moonlight Basin: “I’m intrigued to work on a project that marries golf and skiing, and to make that really fun for the members,” says Kidd. He plans on “stealing some skiing attributes like starting at the head of the slope and winding softly down to the lower elevation.” Just as important for the mountain setting, though, is building in ecological harmony with the site. Sustainability is key. “We can’t build a course that winters will demolish, and which will be a shadow of itself in five years’ time,” he says.
That sustainability is his calling card. After Bandon Dunes, Kidd went on to build renowned courses in Fiji, South Africa, Nicaragua, and Nepal. In addition to being complementary elements of the landscape and habitat, each of those courses are known for being imaginative and fun. “I want people to think of it like a fairground ride,” he says. “I want people to stand on a tee and think ‘what the hell?’ In a fun way.”
In the future, what all of Moonlight’s courses will share, though, says Kidd, is the, “unbelievably compelling setting. Turn your head in any direction and you will see something dramatic. As my mentor Mike Keiser says, any good golf course in a compelling landscape can’t fail to succeed.”
To view the article in Big Sky Life click here
