David McLay Kidd

David McLay Kidd’s father, Jimmy, worked as a greenkeeper at Glasgow Killermont Golf Club before becoming the director of the three courses at the famed Gleneagles Hotel. Kidd grew up a lover of golf and its history and went on to study horticulture and landscape design at Writtle University College in Chelmsford, graduating in 1989.

After serving stints as an apprentice for the construction firm Southern Golf, and as an associate for Swan Golf Designs, he became the Director of Design for Gleneagles Golf Developments in 1991. In this role, he traveled the world examining sites for potential high-end resort development. Nothing much materialized from this job, but in 1994, he was asked by Mike Keiser to examine a site in the dunes just north of Bandon, Oregon. Keiser, in a bold move, hired the relatively inexperienced Kidd to design the first course at Bandon Dunes Golf Resort, and Kidd soon moved to nearby Coos Bay to complete the job. Bandon Dunes opened in 1999 to glowing reviews, putting Kidd, Keiser, and the notion of “Dream Golf” on the map. 

A number of commissions awaited Kidd in the wake of his success at Bandon, including new builds for exclusive clubs at Queenwood Golf Club (2001) and Nanea Golf Club (2003). His next wave of courses had increasingly bold, difficult features, such as those at TPC Stonebrae (2007), St. Andrews Links Castle (2008), Tetherow (2008), and Tributary (2010). McLay Kidd also built a sister course to Machrihanish Golf Club, Machrihanish Dunes, in 2008, on a wild piece of Scottish duneland. In the early 2010s, Kidd decided to change his design philosophy. He eased up significantly on the difficulty of his courses, keeping his bold, visually striking features but attempting to maximize playability. His subsequent work at Gamble Sands (2014) and Sand Valley’s Mammoth Dunes (2017) received widespread praise. 

One constant of Kidd’s career has been his willingness to design in unusual locations. Gokarna Forest Resort, in Kathmandu, Nepal, opened in 1999, the same year as Bandon Dunes. Laucala Island Resort debuted 11 years later, commissioned by Red Bull owner Diedrich Mateschitz on a small archipelago east of the mainland Fiji. Guacalito de la Isla followed in 2013, on the Pacific coast of Nicaragua.

In recent years, Kidd’s firm, DMK Golf Design, has completed a number of renovations, often in collaboration with associate Nick Schaan. These include Rolling Hills Country Club in California (2018), Sand Point Country Club in Washington (2020), Rancho Santa Fe Golf Club (2023), and Entrada at Snow Canyon (2023). Kidd has continued his solo design work, with recent projects in the Portuguese dunes at Terras de Comporta (2022), and in the Nebraska Sandhills at Graybull Club (2024). Kidd travels the world, piloting his own plane, from his home base in Bend, Oregon.