HOTSPOT’S WORTHASHOT
Royal Portush – the setting for this year’s Open – is a golfer’s dream. But the stunning Causeway Coast has much more than fantastic courses to offer
FIRST, the bad news. If you are hoping to go to the Open championship at Royal Portrush this summer, then forget it. The event has been sold out for ages.
The good news for golfers is that Royal Portrush and the rest of the Causeway Coast will be around before and long after the tournament.
The quest for the Claret Jug returns to Northern Ireland this July for the first time since Max Faulkner’s triumph in 1951 and it’s going to be phenomenal.
The course itself is sensational. The recently reworked Dunluce links is one of the finest 18 holes of golf on the planet and the best players in the world are in for a treat.
But there is so much more to the area than Royal Portrush. The hard part is packing it all in.
Northern Ireland is a hot spot for Game of Thrones fans who love to visit locations from the blockbuster TV show. But it’s easier to cram in an entire series of plots than fit everything into a trip to these parts.
The Giants Causeway is the must-see attraction but our jaunt across the Irish Sea was to tread on equally sacred ground.
Golfers are a funny lot. The market is so jammed for breaks, it has driven up standards and created a fussy audience.
Only the best will do for the chaps in the plus fours. Fortunately, Northern Ireland is up there with the very best.
Portrush is the stand-out course but it’s also the toughest. Luckily, our hosts realised it was perhaps best to work up to playing the Open track.
We started around the coast at Castlerock Golf Club, hugging the edge of a beautiful village where the River Bann meets the Atlantic.
Actor Michael Douglas apparently fell in love with this place and it’s easy to see why.
The layout meanders around sand dunes, with blind tee shots giving way to stunning views. In the interests of research, I took the scenic route a few times, discovering parts of the course few golfers have gone before.
It might have been the duck hooks, though.
Either way, Castlerock was a delight, even if I needed sat nav to find a fairway. The rest of my group were impressed with the conventional route round.
The par three fourth hole – named Leg o’ Mutton – is a great opportunity to stop for a selfie, while the closing hole is a spectacular end to a stunning, windswept round.
A delicious meal at the atmospheric Bushmills Inn where we were staying was the perfect end to day one.
And a dram or two of the local whiskey was the best possible
way to rebuild the shattered confidence on the links.
Likewise, the Bushmills Inn Ulster Fry was a breakfast of champions and a cracking way to warm up for the next challenge – Portstewart.
Located 15 minutes away from Portrush, Portstewart is famous in its own right, having hosted European Tour events in recent years.
It’s easy to see why. For starters, the opening tee shot must be one of the most memorable in the world.
Perched high up in the dunes, there are views across the Atlantic mouth of Lough Foyle, down to the narrow fairway miles down below.
The tee shot is breathtaking in every sense, especially in the age it takes for the ball to reconnect with the earth again, hopefully on the fairway. No such luck for this duffer.
Despite the swing issues, you’ll struggle to find a better opening nine holes than the outward half among the dunes at Portstewart.
The back nine gets a raw deal, purely for not being the front nine, but it’s harsh.
The second half of the course is a different, but equally impressive, test. It was there that I remembered how to play golf. Well, kind of.
Dinner at the Galgorn Resort and Spa down in Ballymena was that bit sweeter after a return to form, although the tasting session at the Gin Bar might have helped.
I was ready for Royal Portrush. Unlike Portstewart, the opening hole is only good, rather than great. Everything after that is incredible, rather than great.
The stunning stretch on the front is like Disneyland for golfers. The sun was shining and we could see Islay and the Paps of Jura from the third tee and we were blown away by the sensational S-shaped fifth.
There isn’t a single hole that only merits a shrug.
Then you get to the 16th. Calamity, they call it – for a reason. Scary doesn’t even come close, with a 200-odd yard carry over the side of a cliff to the Atlantic.
The ball was sent skywards. Up, up, away, it’s going to reach the green...
It didn’t. The tee shot fell short but Northern Ireland and the Causeway Coast certainly didn’t.