Author: Sam Fried

The ball rocketed off the face of the driver, easily my best shot that day.  It landed on the center of the rock-hard fairway, bounced high and sped down the short grass.  Unexpectedly, it careened left and was swallowed, engulfed, inhaled by a cavernous pot bunker.  The bunker was so deep and steep-faced that getting out of it was going to be next to impossible.  Hell, at my age, just getting into the bunker was a challenge.  So why was I smiling?  

I was playing the Dunluce Links at Royal Portrush Golf Club in Northern Island.  Portrush is easily one of the finest, if not the finest links or any other kind of course in the world.  Every hole is a perfect test of golf, yet remains playable, even for the likes of this writer.  There is much elevation change and extremely tight fairways that wind through the coastal dunes, back and forth to the ocean.  I found it quite hard to focus on the golf because the course was so beautiful.  If just the act of teeing it up on this hallowed golfing ground is insufficient to bring a Cheshire cat-like grin to a golfer’s face, that player must be unconscious.  Howling wind, torrential rain, brilliant sunshine, deep fescue rough, crazy bounces, pot bunkers and greens like concrete are all part of the magic of Irish links golf.  

I had the pleasure of playing with Gary McNeil, long-time head pro at Portrush, who showed me how golf should be played here. My caddie, Chris Reid, knew the course like his backyard and kept me moving forward despite my sometime wildly errant shots.  Although he usually found my ball, hidden in deep rough, I cracked up when he said, “If that ball was wrapped in bacon, Lassie couldn’t find it.”  Score didn’t matter, only the craic, the fun of the game.  

I planned this golfing journey to Ireland, my fourth, to be fourteen days, playing seven courses, six of them on my first journey to Northern Ireland.  Golf began at The Island, an excellent pure seaside links course just 15 minutes from the Dublin airport.  Weary after a sleepless overnight flight, the seaside air and the sight of an ancient course in the dunes along the Irish Sea was better than black coffee to get my golfing juices flowing.  By keeping my driver in the bag, I was mostly able to keep the ball on the very narrow fairways despite the 20mph blow coming off the water and thoroughly enjoyed the round.

We stayed in the village of Portrush for the proximity to its eponymous course, and two other great nearby links.  The Strand Course at Portstewart had a fantastic front nine, routed through beautiful dunes with great elevation changes. The back nine, which has recently been renovated, is excellent but less interesting, although the views and holes along the River Bann are exquisite.

The Mussenden Course at Castlerock Golf Club, just down the road from Portrush, was next on the itinerary.  Castlerock, a solid seaside links, meets my two primary requirements for a great course – was it fun? And would I like to play it many times?  The course is very playable yet quite challenging to score well. If I lived in the area I would be a member here.

A wee bit off the beaten path, we next had the great pleasure of playing little known Kirkistown Castle Golf Club, on the seaside of the Ards Peninsula.  The course was designed by James Braid in 1934, his only links course in Ireland.  This is an incredibly unique course that appears simple at first encounter. Braid used the steep hills on otherwise flat ground to place FIVE hilltop perches for greens and three precipicial tee boxes. All overlook magnificent scenery, are topped by an ancient Irish Round Tower ruin, with views of ancient Kirkistown Castle. Nasty pot bunkers litter the the fairways and surround the greens. This is definitely an overlooked true “hidden gem” not far from many more well known courses and very inexpensive as well.  

Ardglass Golf Club presents the most amazing first two holes and front nine I have ever had the pleasure to play!  The first tee is an elevated stone box providing a perfect view of the ocean canyon that must be crossed to find the fairway, leaving a second uphill shot to a small green nestled high among the dunes.  The second, a 167-yard par 3 called “Hoads Hole”, also requires a precise tee shot over a rocky seaside chasm.  The remaining seven holes hug the rocky shoreline along Coney Island Bay and no hole on the course is out of sight of the sea.  On a sunny, windless day, this was pure fun!  I’ve never played Pebble Beach, but from all the times I’ve seen it on TV, Ardglass might out-Pebble Pebble!  Dinner was at the historic clubhouse, which dates from 1405, among the oldest in the world, followed by watching the fog roll in.  The course disappeared in the mist, but it will ever live on in my memory.  

We finished the trip at Royal County Down, at the top of many lists as the number one course in the world.  I was so nervous about playing it I barely slept the night before.  I teed off as a solo, first out at 7:20 AM on another sunny day and had ? , the Caddiemaster, as my guide.  I must say I was disappointed.  RCD is an excellent course that beautifully winds through the seaside dunes on the front nine and mainly through heathland on the back.  It is challenging and difficult to navigate, with many blind shots.  I acknowledge that I did not play from the tips and that changes ones’s perspective on a course, but I believe there are many superb courses in Ireland and Scotland, not to mention the rest of the world, that are surely RCD’s equivalent.  

I left a lot of golf balls in Northern Ireland, none of them willfully.  I brought dozens with me for that expected, eventual, inevitable result.  I can’t imagine a lovelier place to play golf and lose balls than the Emerald Isle.

Note: It is interesting that 80% of golfers who play Ireland’s premier courses are American, driving up prices to very expensive levels.  At Portrush, head pro Gary McNeil told me that the course was already sold out for 2027!  Portmarnock Golf Club, where I attempted to make reservations for this trip early in 2026, was already fully booked for the year.  My advice: plan your trip VERY early to get your desired tee times.as already fully booked for the year. My advice: plan your trip VERY early to get your desired tee times.