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David McLay Kidd is a golf course architect. He has 1 course, Bandon Dunes, ranked among the top 100 in the world according to the "Top 100 Courses in the World" [1] November 2025 list compiled by Golf Magazine. Other notable designs include Gamble Sands, Mammoth Dunes, and Tetherow.
McLay Kidd was born in Johnstone, Renfrewshire, in Scotland in 1967. His father, Jimmy Kidd, was a greenkeeper. [2] He lives in Bend, Oregon. [3]
Kidd attended Writtle College, obtaining a HND in Horticulture.
Kidd worked at Swan Golf Designs and as Director of Design at Gleneagles Golf Developments.
In 1994 he was hired by Mike Keiser to design the first course at Bandon Dunes Golf Resort. [4] Kidd wrote that "My task was to create the first genuine Scottish-style links course in America, and I believe there are few places outside the sand dunes along the Oregon coast where this would be possible." [5] The course opened in May 1999. [6]
In the following years, in some of Kidd's designs, the "whole resistance to scoring, and defense of par, and all of this kind of stuff starts to play into the mix." [7] Among such designs were the St Andrews Links Castle Course, [8] and Tetherow in Oregon. Kidd engaged in an examination of what worked at Bandon Dunes, and in his subsequent work he shifted toward playability and fun for the average golfer. Courses such as Mammoth Dunes and Gamble Sands, with wide fairways, large greens, and fewer opportunities to lose golf balls, reflect this change. "Playability and challenge are not the scales of justice," Kidd says. "They are not connected. You can create an extremely playable golf course that is still very challenging."
Kidd has done designs in unusual locations, including Fiji, Nepal, and Nicaragua.
In 2025, Loralama represented Kidd's attempt to bring Links golf to Texas. [9]
Kidd leads the firm DMK Golf Design.
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