David McLay Kidd
Scottish golf course designer
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
David McLay Kidd is a Scottish golf course architect. He has 1 course, Bandon Dunes, ranked among the top 100 in the world according to the "Top 100 Courses in the World"[1] November 2025 list compiled by Golf Magazine. Other notable designs include Gamble Sands, Mammoth Dunes, and Tetherow. He lives in Bend, Oregon.[2]
Early life and education
Career
In 1994 he was hired by Mike Keiser to design the first course at Bandon Dunes Golf Resort.[4] Kidd wrote that "My task was to create the first genuine Scottish-style links course in America, and I believe there are few places outside the sand dunes along the Oregon coast where this would be possible."[5] The course opened in May 1999.[6]
In the following years, in some of Kidd's designs, the "whole resistance to scoring, and defense of par, and all of this kind of stuff starts to play into the mix."[7] Among such designs were the St Andrews Links Castle Course,[8] and Tetherow in Oregon.
In 2025, Loralama represented Kidd's attempt to bring Links golf to Texas.[9]