honour lost airmen was erected on the hill overlooking the ninth hole of Ailsa, which is still standing. The cycle was repeated for World War II. The hotel was commissioned as a hospital, and the golf courses were seconded for air training for the Royal Air Force (RAF); it is thought that as many as 200 died at the base. The hotel and golf course was served by its own dedicated railway station. Turnberry railway station opened in 1906 and operated until 1942, when the Maidens and Dunure Light Railway line was partially closed. Following the war, the course was in need of refurbishment and the hotel was in a dilapidated state. Frank Hole, chairman of British Transport Hotels, convinced the Government that golf courses should be rebuilt and restored. The architect Mackenzie Ross rebuilt the course, removing the wartime runways and covering the land with sand and topsoil. Ross is credited with restoring the courses to their high quality, and the Ailsa course was re-opened in 1951, a seaside links with views of Ailsa Craig and the Isle of Arran. Starwood acquired the hotel in 1997, and until 2008, was operated under the Westin Hotels & Resorts brand. In 2008, Leisurecorp, Dubai World's sport and leisure subsidiary purchased the resort, with Starwood continuing to manage operations under The Luxury Collection brand. Trump ownership Donald Trump purchased the hotel and golf courses from Leisurecorp in 2014 for $60 million, and the resort was renamed Trump Turnberry. Trump resigned his directorship of the companies which own Trump Turnberry in 2017, just before he was inaugurated as President of the United States, and passed control to his sons Donald Jr and Eric. The Trump Organization claims to have spent about two hundred million dollars on renovating the course; $18m were accounted for in 2016. Donald Trump remains the owner of Golf Recreation Scotland, which in turn owns SLC Turnberry. Financing for Trump's golf courses came under scrutiny in the Special Counsel investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections. Glenn Simpson testified before Congress that "enormous amounts of capital [was] flowing into these projects from unknown sources and – or at least on paper it says it’s from the Trump Organisation, but it’s hundreds of millions of dollars. And these golf courses are just, you know, they’re sinks. They don’t actually make any money." In September 2019, it was reported