David McLay Kidd has a deep affinity for this hallowed ground. He says, "My earliest childhood memories were of running on the broad sandy beach and hiding in the steep dunes at Machrihanish. As I grew, I caddied for my father or grandfather across 'Old Tom's' original masterpiece or fished the river through the course for Salmon. I am about to embark on a personal dream to create a second course on Machrihanish Bay, a dream I have mused over my entire career. The genesis of golf came from such landscapes, we will be doing almost nothing to these precious and fragile dunes, right now you can all but putt out. To historians of the game Machrihanish Dunes may give us an insight into how golf look and felt to my Scottish forebears centuries ago as our intention is to create a course as 'Old Tom' would have done in centuries past."

David McLay Kidd’s reputation as a master links craftsman comes from his very first creation after the launch of his company DMK Golf Design in 1999. His internationally acclaimed Bandon Dunes links course in Oregon, was immediately hailed a masterpiece and he remains the only Scotsman alive to have built a links course ranked in the Top 40 courses in the world.

Machrihanish Dunes is a course that mirrors David McLay Kidd’s love of the land and his ability to take the fullest reward from its potential. David may have described his efforts at Machrihanish Dunes best when he said "We followed the lie of the land and unlike most courses around the world, we did not lay out the course and make the land change with it, we designed each hole around the natural terrain. For maintenance we will do a little mowing, but will mostly rely on the wandering sheep to keep the fescue in check - just like the old courses used to do. We are returning golf to how it should be played; no longer is it a gentle walk in a garden, it will be a full-fledged mountaineering expedition at this course."