Royal Portrush Golf Club waited 68-years for The Open Championship to return to the spectacular Dunluce Links. This time, the wait will be much shorter.
The R&A has announced that The Open will return to Royal Portrush Golf Club in 2025.
The event will mark the second time in just six years that Royal Portrush has hosted The Open Championship. With the exception of The Old Course at St. Andrews, you have to go all the way back to 1992 to find when the R&A returned to one of its Open Championship venues in a shorter span.
Credit: Getty / Royal Portrush Golf Club
The honor is of little surprise to anyone who is familiar with the story of The Open’s long-awaited return in 2019. In advance of that championship, Royal Portrush deployed a variety of updates to its infrastructure and golf course, which would provide the model for all Open Championship venues to follow.
The club laid miles of fiber optic cable beneath the golf course and set additional groundwork in place for grandstands, scoreboards, and other infrastructure required for The Open. All of which eases the burden of preparing for the championship and helps to make The Open almost a “plug and play” event.
That is, when it’s held at Royal Portrush.
In addition to the permanent infrastructure put in place for The Open, Royal Portrush also made a variety of changes to the Dunluce Links. The most notable of these changes are the new 7th and 8th holes. The duo filled the void left by the former 17th and 18th holes, which were abandoned to make space for The Open Championship tented village and other temporary infrastructure.
The updates to the Dunluce Links were carried out by the design firm of Mackenzie & Ebert. As anyone who has visited Royal Portrush since the new holes debuted will attest, they blend seamlessly into the historic and spectacular landscape.
Of course, the return of The Open to Royal Portrush in 2025 is as much a testament to the people involved as it is the course. Perhaps the most instrumental person in the entire process was long-time Club Secretary, Wilma Erskine. Although Wilma has since gone on to a well-deserved retirement, Royal Portrush’s place on The Open rota is due, at least in part, to her determination and leadership.
Before the 2019 Open, Wilma joined us to discuss in detail all of the changes and preparations taking place at Royal Portrush. The interview is an insightful listen for anyone looking forward to the 2025 Open or planning a golf trip to Royal Portrush.
The Dunluce Links at Royal Portrush is listed among the best golf courses in the world, and rightfully so. Although that’s usually a given for the golf courses on The Open rota, at Royal Portrush the distinction is well-deserved. In fact, some might even say that the Dunluce Links is the best of them all.
But regardless of where it falls on the list of Top 100 golf courses in Scotland and Ireland, The Open’s return to Royal Portrush in 2025 is sure to inspire thousands of golf travelers to see it for themselves first-hand.
As you might imagine, it’s a popular ticket.
Royal Portrush tee times, along with those for nearby Royal County Down, are among the first to sell out every year. The Open’s pending return will only enhance this phenomenon.
If you’re among the golfers hoping to play Royal Portrush before the 2025 Open Championship, our advice is pretty simple…
Start planning early.
You can begin that process by reading our complete guide to Royal Portrush. The guide provides just a small preview of what our Expedition Planning Managers can craft for your time in Portrush and the rest of your golf trip to Ireland.
When The Open arrives at Royal Portrush in 2025, you’ll then be able to say that you’ve been there, done that, and got the bag tag.
You’ll also understand from experience why the R&A saw fit to return so quickly.
For more insight on planning your golf trip to Ireland, visit the pages 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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