While many parts of the world seem to have no issue with the development of new golf courses, the situation in Scotland has been brewing to a possible point of controversy after reports came out that developer Mike Keiser has been blocked by various levels of legislation and bureaucracy. The developer has accused the government of being overly restrictive to new developments in the country and has pointed to other examples unrelated to golf itself.
The Current Situation
According to Keiser, his initial development was coming along well but has recently become hindered by various bureaucratical issues, resulting in significant delays and deviations from the original plan. Keiser added that it was the Highland Council itself that initially approached him with a project proposal, pointing out the many possible benefits of a development like that. And while Keiser was on board with the decision, he has subsequently had to wait for more than three and a half years to go through the right channels and get permission to get the project underway.
Adopting Healthy Trends?
There has not been much coverage on the exact details of the project, leading to some speculation that Keiser could use a revision of his current construction approach. The market has seen various interesting developments in products like golf course sand, safety features, and long-term sustainability, and a lack of attention towards those aspects could be behind the slowdowns in the project. At this point though, this remains the subject of speculation, mostly in the camp opposing Keiser’s developments. It’s also worth pointing out that this camp appears to be primarily concentrated in Scotland itself, with a small number of commenters in external locations.
A Lengthy Process
In general, it’s no secret that building a golf course is a lengthy and complicated process, both on the legal side as well as in terms of costs, organizing the project, and more. There are different ways to streamline the process, depending on the jurisdiction, but in most cases, it’s up to the respective country to decide how fast the project can be completed. And Keiser’s situation is far from the only one that’s been reported to have gone through such serious slowdowns, not just in Scotland but in other parts of the world as well. Some have pointed out that a man of his experience should be aware of some of the implications behind the project.
At the same time, the fact that it was a request from the local authority in the first place has still managed to raise many eyebrows, with some commenters pointing out that the situation seems a bit ridiculous in many respects. There have been no major recent developments on that front, as Keiser has not reported anything new in his case. Hopefully, the project’s bottlenecks are going to get resolved soon enough because it looks like it’s entangling a lot of people and resources at the moment, and this cannot be healthy in the long term.