A new golf resort, designed as a memorial to Donald Ross, is set to open in 2008 as the centrepiece of Scotland's Heartlands environmental regeneration project.

PGA Design Consulting is designing the 36- hole Memorial Golf Club, which will offer practice facilities including a state-of-the-art floodlit driving range that will be the basis for a proposed Golf Academy.

The architects worked closely with the Donald Ross Society in America in order to study Ross and interpret his designs according to today's needs.

PGADC designers have produced a plan to create a memorial to Ross's unique style that also suits the landscape of the site and its market – offering a fair challenge to golfers of any standard while leaving them wanting to return.

The West Course will be open to the elements to test the tour professional, and it is hoped that tour events will be attracted to the course. Both courses are over 7,000 yards long, with tee complexes designed to allow a range of lengths and strategies for all golfers. The East Course will feature forestry to make it more of a parkland course.

This article first appeared in issue 4 of Golf Course Architecture, published in April 2006.