No room for Luce shots on this beast

IT is easy to get blown away by beautiful Royal Portrush – but, for a high handicapper, you hope not to be.

Like all links courses, the north Antrim track’s best protection is the wind from the sea.

I have played the Dunluce Links twice – and I would recommend teeing up there on a still day when the North Atlantic looked like a millpond on my debut.

Then I registered 34 Stableford points and was among the prize winners.

Going back in March – when correspondents were invited by the R&A to play the course – was a different story.

It has been revamped and lengthened by 130 yards to 7,137 yards since being awarded the Open. And new holes at No.7 and No.8 toughen up the track, with the tee shot off the seventh a particular challenge.

Yet the big difference between my two rounds was the weather – and, more specifically, the wind. The locals called gusts of up to 25mph a breeze. But, on a course where finding the fairway is essential, it was enough to make my 18 holes a real slog.

The highlight was a par on the stunning dogleg No.5, called White Rocks, without touching the fairway.

After pitching up to six feet on the green, I rolled in the putt before a Tiger-style fist pump.

At the signature 16th hole – the 236-yard par 3 Calamity Corner – I scrambled a bogey and I had to make a vertical chip from the bank before two-putting and staggering home.

My score has been forgotten.

But it would be good for the top players to face Royal Portrush at its testing best.