Royal Portrush Golf Club

Royal Portrush Golf Packages
7143 YARDS
PAR 72
Designer: Harry S. Colt

Over the last several years, Royal Portrush has been a mainstay of Ireland golf trips thanks in large part to its long-awaited return to The Open rota. After a 68-year absence, the Dunluce Links finally received its rightful place on the world stage, delivering a popular Champion Golfer before record crowds.

Of all the questions Royal Portrush faced ahead of The Open, the only one which remained in the end wasn’t if the tournament would return, but when. As it turns out, the answer was probably sooner than anyone expected. Less than three years after the Claret Jug’s successful return, Royal Portrush was named the host of the 2025 Open Championship.

After leaving his mark on the likes of Pine Valley, Muirfield, and Royal County Down, architect Harry Colt was summoned by the members of Royal Portrush in 1929 to begin work on a pair of new courses. The club was anxious to leave behind their original Old Tom Morris layout which lay further inland, in favor of the coastal sandhills along the Atlantic Ocean. The ever modest Colt once regarded his work at Swinley Forest outside of London as “the least bad golf course I have designed,” however after arriving in Portrush and laying eyes on the dunescape which stretched before him, he must have known that claim would have to be rescinded.

The beauty of Colt’s work at Royal Portrush centers around his marvelous routing of the course. The holes on Dunluce wander between the rumpled dunes in a manner that feels completely natural; the same way one might walk the links were it never a golf course. At times these corridors flanked by sandhills feel a bit narrow, with the notoriously thick Portrush rough looming all too close for comfort. But to have skipped these natural fairways in favor of something wider and more forgiving would have been a travesty for such a fine piece of golfing land.

On the Tee with H&B chats with Wilma Erskine, Secretary of Royal Portrush

The collection of par-4s at Royal Portrush is among the finest in all of golf, led by the famous 5th and its magnificent view of White Rocks beach. The approach to the 4th is another heart-stopper with a green tucked in the dunes; while the 12th seems rather innocent, that is until one finds the 10-foot deep crater guarding the green’s left side.

Although the par-4s are nothing short of brilliant, the main attraction at Royal Portrush is a notorious one-shotter. The 16th, one of the best par-3s in Ireland and affectionately known as “Calamity Corner,” has laid more than its fair share of scorecards to ruin in the chasm guarding the front of its elevated green. When the wind is up, it’s possible even the driver isn’t enough club.

Ahead of The Open’s arrival, the rather mundane 17th and 18th holes were recently abandoned in favor of a pair of new holes on more interesting land formerly part of the club’s underrated Valley course. The R&A provided a few other tweaks along the way – a new tee here, a couple of bunkers there – but just as it has for nearly 70 years, Royal Portrush proved in dramatic fashion that it was always worthy of The Open.


For more insight on planning your golf trip to Ireland, visit the links below, read our Ireland golf trip reviews, or have a look through our Yardage Book, where you’ll find answers to many of our most frequently asked questions.

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