Grand plans

As Royal Dornoch's new clubhouse opens, Jeremy Ellwood talks to general manager Neil Hampton about the club's ambitious future goals

- Neil Hampton

When I heard about Royal Dornoch's extensive (and expensive) plans for a new clubhouse two years ago, I wasn't surprised, as the existing one, though homely in a way, had exceeded its sell-by date for a club whose stock has risen markedly over the last half century.

Influential visitors like Ben Crenshaw and Tom Watson helped spread the word far and wide, particularly in America, about just how good this Highland links masterpiece in the home town of revered course designer, Donald Ross, really was.

But as the project neared completion in late 2025, you would have thought that would have been it for Royal Dornoch for the foreseeable future, especially as it came with a price tag just shy of £14 million. But nothing, it seems, could be further from the truth.

In May 2025, I received a press release detailing multi-million-pound plans for a third course to join the Championship links and Struie course, which grew to a full 18 in 1999, along with a par-3 course, driving range, short-game and putting facilities plus further modifications to the Struie. Given that Dornoch is still just a modest-sized, fairly remote Highland town, I decided to fly up and find out more from the club's friendly general manager, Neil Hampton...

How long is it since Royal Dornoch was just a small Highlands golf club?

Just the 1970s. It's always been a great course but we didn't get a lot of people coming. The three things that really made a big difference were, first, the transportation links with the three bridges on the A9 - the Kessock Bridge in Inverness, the Cromarty Bridge and Dornoch Firth Bridge. It used to be two-and-a-half hours from Dornoch to Inverness; now it's 50 minutes.