The Daily Telegraph - Saturday - Travel
Bunkers, balls and beaches
With The Open under way at St Andrews, former champion Darren Clarke explains the charms and challenges of links courses and picks his favourites
Old Course, St Andrews
“It’s the obvious choice, I know, being the home of golf and all that, but it’s not just the history of St Andrews that makes the Old Course so special. It is just a marvellous links course, and I have come to appreciate it more and more the older I get. It looks so benign and straightforward when you first play it, but the lines into the green are very subtle. You’ve generally got to attack down the right, even though that’s where all the trouble is. If you play safe down the left, you’ll find it impossible to get your approach shot close. It’s the ultimate risk-andreward course.”
Royal Portrush, Co Antrim
“It’s my home course, so I don’t have to tell you how excited I am that The Open Championship is returning here, provisionally in 2019. I moved back to Portrush in the Noughties, after being based in England, and I am sure the amount of time I spent practising here was a contributory factor in my winning the 2011 Open. The course was designed by Harry Colt and it is one of the finest examples of his work, in its combination of simplicity and cunning. My favourite hole is the short 14th, played uphill over a huge ravine, and appropriately named Calamity.”
Old Course, Portmarnock, Co Dublin
“I love the whole ambience of Portmarnock, which is just north of Dublin. It’s a beautifully laid-out course in a beautiful setting with some first-class facilities – the perfect venue for a golf tournament. The whole course is superb, but I particularly love the par-three 15th, which has to be one of the best short holes in the world. It runs along beside the beach, and the green slopes off sharply to either side, so if you are not careful, you can end up putting off the green, and back, and off the green again – links golf at its most sadistic.” Royal Birkdale, Southport “This course reminds me a bit of Royal Portrush, in that it is very fair. The undulations on the fairway are less severe than on some other links, so you don’t get perfectly good tee shots shooting off sideways into the rough, which can be infuriating. But Royal Birkdale is a very testing course, particularly when the wind is blowing. When The Open is held there, the cream tends to rise to the top of the leaderboard.”
Royal St George’s, Sandwich, Kent
“Well, I couldn’t not include St George’s, could I? It was my lifelong ambition to win The Open, which I finally achieved here in 2011. I had four putts to win from the edge of the 18th green, so I was on easy street. But it can be a pretty tough course, particularly the closing holes, and there are plenty of tales of woe to go with the fairy stories. One of my Ryder Cup colleagues, Thomas Bjorn, missed out on the 2003 Open after taking three shots in a bunker at the short 16th.”
Muirfield, East Lothian
“Muirfield enjoys a very high reputation among professionals, and it is easy to see why. It is a very fair blend of challenges. There are a few blind shots, but not too many. You can play the ball along the ground if you need to, so there are several different ways to plot your course to the hole. But the one thing you must do at Muirfield is keep out of the bunkers, which are seriously penal. I have never won a tournament at Muirfield, but I always enjoy playing the course. It offers links golf at its incomparable best.”
Royal Lytham, Lytham St Annes, Lancashire
“Lytham is a slightly quirky layout, starting with a par three, but the course just gets better and better. It is one of the tightest courses on The Open roster, and you have to do your scoring on the front nine, because the back nine are very testing indeed. But I have extremely happy memories of Lytham. In the 2001 Open, when I finished third behind David Duval, I got a double bogey on the 17th, which was costly, but I probably played the best golf, tee to green, of my entire career.”
Nairn, County Nairn, Scotland
“I used to head north with friends the week after The Open Championship and play two of my favourite links courses – Royal Dornoch, which is glorious, and Nairn, which is even more glorious. It is physically spectacular – you can see the Moray Firth and the Black Isle from every hole – and there are umpteen places where a mis-hit shot can end up on the beach. I love combining visits to Nairn with a bit of salmon fishing on the Helmsdale – the perfect double.”
Ballyliffin, Co Donegal
“I often tell golfing friends visiting Northern Ireland to take a side trip to Donegal, which has some fabulous courses and scenery. The pick of the Donegal golf clubs is Ballyliffin, which has two courses, the Old Links and the Glashedy Links, designed by Pat Ruddy. He has done a fantastic job. The holes blend into each other perfectly, which gives a marvellous sense of flow. I regularly come here to play practice rounds because I know that every part of my game is going to be tested.”
Royal County Down, Co Down, Northern Ireland
“And back to Northern Ireland to finish! County Down is a tougher course than Portrush in some respects, and arguably represents a less pure form of links golf. There are a lot of shots which you have to play blind, over a marker post, which takes out of play the low shot played under the wind and running along the ground – the essence of links golf. But it is a beautiful course in a beautiful setting and, as a tournament venue, must rank alongside Portrush as the best in the Province.” Darren Clarke is an ambassador for Your Golf Travel (0800 0436644; yourgolftravel.com), which can arrange tours to all the above courses.