Portrush resident Darren Clarke used his pre-Irish Open press conference to slam the National Trust of Northern Ireland for blocking plans to build the new Bushmills Dunes Golf Course project.

Bushmill Dunes will be first golf links course to be built in Northern Ireland for almost one hundred years.

Plans for the £100m Bushmills Dunes Golf Resort & Spa which will create approximately 360 direct jobs and an estimated further 300 ancillary jobs through suppliers and construction were approved today.

An 18-hole championship golf course will be designed by Scotsman David McLay Kidd, who designed Brandon Dunes in Oregon, the Castle Course at St. Andrews and Macrihanish Dunes also in Scotland.

A golf academy and a unique eco sensitive club house with full restaurant and bar will also be provided, together with conference facilities catering for up to 400 delegates.

David McLay Kidd is famed for his designs which include The Castle Course at St Andrew’s, Bandon Dunes Golf Resort in Oregon, the TPC in San Francisco Bay and Macrihanish Dunes across the Irish Sea in Scotland.

But while the Stormont Assembly (Northern Ireland parliament) is providing funds to the National Trust, the National Trust is blocking the Bushmills development.

“The project has been in the planning for 12 yuear and there’s 100  million quid (Pounds Sterling) involved and the National Trust have jumped in and blocked it again after everybody else approved it,” said Clarke.

“They have got a huge backing from the Northern Ireland government to the tune of nine million quid and they’re using that to block the new course, which can only enhance the whole area.

“So hopefully it will be resolved and hopefully they can come to their senses and approve it.

“In general terms, it’s not just the area, but all of Northern Ireland.”

Clarke will play the opening Irish Open two round in the company of Spain’s Rafa Cabrera-Bello and Italy’s Francesco Molinari and teeing off at 12.40pm local time Thursday.