
Northern Ireland, United Kingdom
How many people have made a point of playing Royal Portrush Golf Club and never given a thought to playing the sadly underrated Valley course – something approaching 90%, perhaps even more?
Royal Portrush Golf Club (Valley)
How many people have made a point of playing Royal Portrush Golf Club and never given a thought to playing the sadly underrated Valley course – something approaching 90%, perhaps even more?
4.5
Royal Portrush can also boast a second course and a very fine one The Valley Links is too. The first tee is located around 700 yards from the main clubhouse (you can drive or walk down the old 18th fairway) where you will find a starters hut and buildings for the Ladies Branch of Royal Portrush Golf Club and the clubhouse for Rathmore Golf Club.
Following an innocuous, but perfectly acceptable start, the round really gets going at the 6th from where we enjoy a run of holes until the 10th which are quite excellent. The 6th, 7th and 8th in particular offer much shot-making opportunities - I simply loved the short par-four 7th ‘Cradle’ where you have a number options on how to find the putting surface with your approach and the 8th is a bamboozling long hole.
We must then find some big hitting for the up and down nature of the flatish 10th, 11th and 12th before a wonderful run for home which contains some full blooded links golf.
The Valley course, also originally designed by Colt, recently lost two holes (5 & 6) to the main Dunluce course but created some new ones towards the end of the round to compensate and tweaked a couple of others. The slightly altered 16th (now a par five) is the highlight from this rousing closing stretch which also contains a couple of very good short holes and a fun finisher over bumpy ground.
The course in its own right is a very fine links and one that makes a fine bedfellow for the Dunluce. It’s no pushover either at 6,346-yards, the par is 71.
Ed is the founder of Golf Empire – click the link to read his full review.
Ed Battye
The latest ranking of the Top 100 Golf Courses in the World serves as the ultimate global golf bucket list. Most members of our World Top 100 Panel are seasoned golfers, each playing 20-30 of these courses annually while travelling extensively over decades to form their opinions on others. We recognise that opinions vary—even among our panel members. Rankings are subjective, and there are undoubtedly 50 or more courses in the UK and USA alone that could easily fit onto this list. Links Golf Pilgrimages The rankings
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