scotland Gleneagles: Grin and Bear It

Jack Nicklaus and the Gleneagles resort have kissed and made up.

Gleneagles, you’ll remember, had hired David McLay Kidd -– the son of the resort’s former superintendent, Jimmy Kidd –- to make some changes to its Nicklaus-designed PGA Centenary course. Nicklaus was so ticked off that he threatened to remove his “signature” from the track, effectively disowning it.

But all that is now water under the bridge, as the famed resort in Perthshire has hired Nicklaus to oversee a $3 million “refinement” of the 6,815-yard course before it hosts the Ryder Cup matches in 2014. The work is scheduled to start in late 2010.

The overhaul’s initial focus will be on three holes -– #7, #10, and #18 -– and will attempt, the resort says, to “modernize the holes for today’s game and technology, as well as create some slight aesthetic changes and better flow for spectators.”

No doubt, the resort is also responding to the complaints of PGA pros who’ve griped that a few of the track’s holes are, according to a 2009 story in the Scotsman, “too easy and too dull.” In particular, some pros have criticized hole #7 -– one that Kidd changed significantly -– because it no longer holds their shots.

Also likely to change is the track’s 18th hole, which the Scotsman recently described as “probably” -– that’s the key word -– the “worst closing hole in Ryder Cup history.”

Gleneagles spreads across 850 acres and includes a 232-room hotel, a spa, and two other “championship” golf courses. It’s been the site of numerous high-profile golf events since the 1920s, and in 2005 it hosted the G-8 Summit of world economic leaders.

The property is owned by Diageo PLC, a liquor colossus that owns a parade of brands including Guinness, Smirnoff, Gordon’s, Tanqueray, Captain Morgan, Jose Cuervo, Bailey’s, Harp, Red Stripe, Johnny Walker, and J&B. But neither the spirits nor the resort business is doing well these days, and Diageo has been trying to sell Gleneagles for several years.

Incidentally, Nicklaus once called the site of the PGA Centenary course “the finest parcel of land in the world I have ever been given to work with.”

Gleneagles.com