The Up and Downs of a Life in the Sky: Playing a Regal Run in the Land of Emerald Thrones

The contrast between the two courses is stark, but they are both endearing in different ways. The towering dune avenues at Royal Birkdale are grand and beautiful, truly a feast for the eyes and the camera lens. Hoylake is a subtle temptress however, more flat and bleak on first viewing, meaning the strategy and lines off the tees are much less easily defined. These two links courses are at opposite ends of the spectrum in terms of the land they inhabit, but both prove how brilliant links golf is in its many varied forms. My admiration for both courses was plentiful, and I spent the drive home as all of us golfing obsessives do, replaying all the holes in my mind and working out my favoured eclectic collection of holes between the two courses.

Photo credit: Kevin Murray

A special word on Mackenzie & Ebert’s ongoing impact across the two courses. At Birkdale, the team have recently broken ground on a bold set of course changes designed to significantly enhance the course in time for the 2026 Open Championship. This includes the designing and re-designing of a number of new holes in the middle of each nine, including a complete re-design of the 5th, which I think will certainly improve the offering here immeasurably, as this has long been regarded as one of the weaker holes on the Open rota.

I’m sure you will be aware of ‘Little Eye’, the infamous par 3 at Hoylake created by Mackenzie & Ebert for the 2023 Open Championship. Having played it just a couple of months after the tournament, my summary would be that the TV cameras don’t do this hole justice. Clearly everyone can play a good shot that nullifies the danger, but it is the scale of the challenge if you don’t hit a good shot that is terrifying for the average golfer. Of course it is penal and many won’t like that, although you can’t deny that it is an exciting and dramatic test to tackle so late in a round of tournament play. My other two observations would be that the hole might be so much easier on the eye if the tee were raised in elevation just a few feet, to make best of the wonderful views of the Dee estuary beyond the green. Secondly, the walk back from the green to the next tee is awkward in a routing sense, not so much of an issue in an Open Championship when the walk to the back tee is shorter, but more onerous for day to day golfers making the hike to the next set of tees of the day.

Anyway, the trip to the north west was a special one, but it was my travels later in the month to the northern coast of Ireland that I had been eagerly anticipating. Many of you will have travelled to play golf in Ireland, and will recognise that palpable rising level of excitement as a trip to the Emerald Isle approaches. It was my first ever flight across the Irish Sea with Loganair, who delivered me right to the heart of my itinerary with minimal disruption. The convenience of the flight from London Heathrow to Londonderry meant that only a few hours after setting off from home, we were cradling our first pints of Guinness in the grand and perfectly located Bushmills Inn, working our way hole by hole through the Dunluce Links, that would welcome us bright and early the following morning. At last orders, the barman persuaded us to take a couple of Bushmills whisky miniatures away to the course the next morning, an intervention I was very grateful for as the links wind began to bite on the back nine.

Photo credit: Larry Lambrecht

Royal Portrush is set on a dramatic stretch of cragged coastline, the backdrop to Game of Thrones and the home of the Giant’s Causeway. The golf courses on this coast match the glamour of those box office attractions and the Dunluce Links at Royal Portrush is the lead character in the show. Some golf courses grow on you and other instantly make their mark. As we wandered across the higher ground on the first few holes, I was already moving some big names in my ‘best courses played’ list aside to make way for this quite magnificent golf course. It is that good, and it isn’t a slow reveal, it is a great big panoramic smack in the face from the get go, with the expanse of the course and coastline on full display on those opening holes. The 5th and 16th (the par 3 named Calamity Corner) are the show stopping headline grabbers, but there is a consistent strength to the offering that is infectious and all consuming. On the current Open rotation, I have yet to fully decide, but I do feel the Dunluce may be my favourite of all.

As with all golfing itineraries, you never get long enough to take it all in, and after our post round tour of the clubhouse and raid of the pro shop, we were on our way along the winding roads (only a few miles as the crow flies but a couple of hours on four wheels) bound for Rosepenna Resort, where we would play the new Tom Doak designed St Patrick’s links the following morning.

St Patrick’s is a triumphant demonstration of architectural restraint. The historical back story of the land here is well documented, but it is what Tom Doak has chosen to do with this abundance of blockbusting links ground that is the real story of the piece. Enough space here for 36 holes, but utilising the best bits of the land to make an utterly magical 18 is a master stroke. What is even more brilliant, is that he has resisted the temptation to stretch the golf course into a modern monster, instead offering a varied strategically thought provoking and playable par 71, engaging for all standards. The course measures a little less than 7000 yards from the tips and crucially, is routed airily, so as to maximise the feeling of grandeur. It achieves that grandness in spades and although I have only played one of the three links at Rosapenna, I can’t imagine anything could be better than this triumph.

Photo credit: Clyde Johnson

Our stay again was fleeting, and although the winds buffeted us throughout our round at St Patrick’s, it would be nothing compared to the rage Storm Babet would throw at us at Ballyliffin the following morning. Coming from a 36 hole golf club at Saunton in England, I was interested to see how one of the finest Irish equivalents compared. The answer was extremely favourably on this initial visit. This northern coast of the Emerald Isle is cementing itself as a real destination for golf, and Ballyliffin is a key component of the attraction. Golf has been played at Ballyliffin for many years, but the Old course is in fact relatively young, having only been opened some 50 years ago, a juvenile in links terms. The club is located on one of the northernmost tips of Ireland, jutting out into the North Atlantic, leaving it exposed to the elements which have crafted a magnificent dunescape that the Old and Glashedy links benefit from. The Old inhabits the slightly less dramatic and more rolling ground, making it feel more classic in character, and it most definitely has an authenticity that belies its relatively young age. You’ll excuse my slightly less architecturally detailed review, such was the persistence of the downpour we experienced on our visit. The dampness reached its peak at the turn, and although all but one of my playing partners (we were a group of 8) decided they had reached their saturation limit, I was curiously compelled to play on, inspired by what I was seeing. I was rewarded for my insanity/persistence with a fine and memorable back nine set of links holes less hampered by the deluge. It really would have been a shame to miss it.

The drive back to Londonderry airport as always, was bittersweet. A trip to Ireland always leaves you wanting more. One more course, one more putt, one more pint of Guinness. However, I used the time on the trip home to craft my next Irish itinerary, one that will hopefully come into being sometime in 2024. Anyway, I hope that has whetted the appetite and sparked thoughts of planning an Irish jaunt of your own, and in the mean time, wherever you are reading this and whatever your November has in store, I wish you many well flighted wedges, friendly bounces and most importantly, plentiful happy rounds.