It is one of golf’s enduring qualities that you can walk in the footsteps of the legends of the game and hit shots from the same places as them. Sometimes, we’ll replicate their efforts. Even if we don’t want to.
“Breakfast ball” bellowed Royal Portrush forecaddie Eamonn before my scruffy tee shot had even travelled 50 yards through the air. My ball half disappeared into the gloom, its wayward trajectory accentuated by the 30mph crosswind, and as I squinted into the distance, I glimpsed a white speck scuttle beyond the white posts marking the internal out of bounds down the left.
“That was a similar line to Rory,” chuckled Eamon, being kind to my hooked drive, as he referenced the Northern Irishman’s infamous opener at the 2019 Open Championship.
And so we were off on one of golf’s great adventures. For two glorious October days sunshine had saturated Northern Ireland. It was (for one hardy playing partner) t-shirt and shorts weather as we played Belfast’s Templepatrick and the coastal Castlerock in the most benign of autumnal conditions imaginable. But then, on the third day, the golfing Gods hit back. A three-club wind. Leaden skies. Driving rain. A brutal welcome to the host of the 153rd staging of golf’s oldest major.
The Open Championship is returning to this plot of land, perched above the Atlantic Ocean, in July 2025, just six years after it was last at this gem of a course. The fact that it is returning so soon is testament to the success of 2019’s Championship, which attracted 237,750 spectators, a then record crowd for an Open held outside of St Andrews and generated around £100m of economic benefit to the local area.
Around £18m had been ploughed into sprucing up Portrush before The Open visited, including improving infrastructure to ferry fans in and out of town, but Covid crippled capitalisation plans. This time around, the Causeway Coast is hoping for a better crack. A local tourism study had highlighted a shortage of four and five-star hotels in the area. The elegant Elephant Rock Hotel and luxurious Dunluce Lodge are among those redressing the balance and offering the more upmarket accommodation that some tourists crave.
Elephant Rock was my home for a couple of nights. Locally born award-winning entrepreneur Charlotte Dixon oversaw a £2.3m project, transforming a Victorian terrace building, formerly used by the British Legion, into a vibrant 18-room boutique hotel featuring individually furnished rooms, a sparkly cocktail bar, cosy dining room and simply magnificent views out across the ocean. Named after the iconic Elephant Rock off the coast of nearby Ballintoy, the hotel is just a five-minute stroll from the lively bars and restaurants of Portrush, while a 20-minute walk in the opposite direction will deliver you to the first tee of the links that has helped boost tourism in this small seaside town on the Antrim coast.
And that is exactly where I was headed. My own morning tardiness meant I didn’t leave enough time for Elephant Rock’s sumptuous breakfast but a tasty takeaway treat was speedily arranged, locally-sourced sausage and bacon combining to create the perfect breakfast bap to precede my breakfast ball. We found Eamon sensibly sheltering in the starter’s hut as we scurried across from the clubhouse to the 1st tee. A former scratch golfer, he’s been carrying bags and pointing the way round the Dunluce Links for 30 years.
He caddied at the 2019 Open and will again be paired with a player when the show comes back to town in 2025. Eamon has his hood pulled up tight over a woolly hat. It was that kind of morning, with raindrops stinging ruddy cheeks. My long game briefly shone through the gloom. Two lusty blows with a helping wind dismantled the par-5 second and similarly good strikes seemed to have done likewise on the treacherous par-4 fourth, until I found my ball had strayed a couple of yards into gnarly rough, short of the green.
It doesn’t pay to be cute at Royal Portrush. I left my first effort in the cabbage. The next was overhit. The ball scudded through to the back of the green into three-putt territory. A triple-bogey out of nowhere. At least the rain had ceased. Away to my right, just beyond the boundary of the course, construction work was going on apace. Dunluce Lodge, the region’s only five-star offering, promises to deliver on the luxury that was lacking.
Opening in February 2025, the 35 suites have already been snapped up for Open week. Our guide was badgered to confirm rumours that a local superstar golfer has booked out The Stookan – an exclusive eight-suite annexe – but a sheepish shrug and coy smile was the only return. It was still a building site when we visited but an infinity green was taking shape, while the spa facilities, restaurant and bar will need to match the photos to justify the high-season price tag of around £1,000 a night. Like the course it overlooks, the lodge has taken its name from the nearby Dunluce Castle ruins that perch atop the cliffs that are battered by the Atlantic Ocean as storms whip in.
Coastal erosion is a huge threat to links golf. And Royal Portrush is not immune. Earlier this year, the club invested £165,000 in strengthening its defences to guard against “catastrophic” damage to the back of the 5th green and 6th tee. “This modest increase to the existing defences will provide a more robust defence from winter storms and allow us all to breathe easier,” said Royal Portrush’s general manager.
While the downhill dogleg 5th, with its iconic green backing on to a 50-foot drop to the East Strand beach, is the ‘Instagrammable’ hole of the front nine, the 6th, a 190-yard par-3 is arguably the toughest. A Harry Colt classic huge plateau green with steep run-offs. Accuracy rewarded. Errors punished. A (still) 30mph crosswind. A squally rain shower passing through. Anything remotely right sailed off into waist high marram grass, never to be seen again.
There was zero point in getting frustrated though. Average golfers get away with average shots on average courses. This is a top 10 in the world course. It’s one of the sternest tests on the planet and we’re playing in a gale. “I caddied for one fella in similar conditions and he walked in after a few holes,” smiled Eamon. “He was too focused on his score and got beaten up by the course and weather. His playing partner got it though and was determined to just enjoy the experience and he finished the round.”
The new 7th and 8th holes – created for the 2019 Open on land from the neighbouring Valley Course by the R&A’s favoured architect Martin Ebert – are not universally loved by locals but the by-product is a stronger closing stretch. What is not up for argument is that the par-5 seventh is visually spectacular, with the cavernous Nellie’s Bunker, recreated from the old 17th, in the driving zone and towering sand dunes dominating the right side.
The original layout was down to famed architect Colt, who also left his mark, among many other notable courses, on Northern Ireland’s other top ranked track, Royal County Down. Armed only with horse-drawn machinery in the early part of the 20th Century, Colt’s preference where possible for natural punishment over man-made penalties is evidenced on the stretch from nine to 12 where greenside bunkers are non-existent. But then those principles disappeared on a fine run of holes.
A sea of sand surrounds the putting surface on the short 13th; the 14th demanded an accurate second to avoid the deepest of traps, while the 15th, named Skerries after the rocky islands in the distance, featured greenside bunkers with double their footprint as Sirens-like slopes coax balls to their doom. And then we hit 16. Calamity Corner. Has a hole ever been so aptly named? Off the forward tees it was “playing 240 yards into this wind” said Eamon with his usual cheery delivery. We were 40 yards in front of the championship tee.
A huge chasm dominates the right side of the hole. Left is deep rough. The only bail out is Bobby Locke’s hollow, front left of the green, where the South African famously hit his ball each round during The Open’s only other visit in 1951. Predictably my swing quickened and I dumped a ball into the abyss. Nobody came close to finding the green on a hole that used to be the 14th but now feels in a more pivotal part of the round. The 16th hole in 1951 is now the 18th. Back then, eventual champion Max Faulkner hit ‘the best shot you’ve never seen’ in round three, squeezing his ball through a barbed wire fence, over the out of bounds and curling it back on to the green.
For me, the memory of Irishman Shane Lowry, Portrush’s third Champion Golfer of the Year, striding down the last to wild scenes, knowing the Claret Jug was his, is fresh as I clatter my final long-iron to the back of the green and acknowledge the imaginary ovation. And then, suddenly, it’s all over. I’m tired, wet and wind-beaten, but all I want to do is peg it up and go again.
*Peter Scrivener was a guest at Elephant Rock and of Royal Portrush Golf Club
ROYAL PORTRUSH SCORECARD
ROYAL PORTRUSH COURSE MAP
ROYAL PORTRUSH GOLF CLUB: KEY FACTS
Website: RoyalPortrushGolfClub.com
Address: Dunluce Road, Portrush, County Antrim, BT56 8JQ, Northern Ireland
Royal Portrush Golf Club Phone Numbers:
General Office/Tee Times: +44 28 7082 2311
Pro Shop: +44 28 7082 3335
Email Contacts:
General Enquiries: [email protected]
Tee Time Enquiries: [email protected]
Caddy Enquiries: [email protected]
Royal Portrush is a world-renowned links, notable for hosting The Open Championship in 2019 and again in 2025. It offers two courses: the Dunluce Links and the Valley Links
