Qualla: Royal Portrush Golf Club

Royal Portrush Golf Club: Introduction

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Lindy Buckley from Nanjing, China, CC BY 2.0. The Dunluce Links lives inside a triangle of sand hills with views in three directions: to the west, the hills of Inishowen across in County Donegal; to the north, the Isle of Islay and the southern Hebrides; to the east, the Giant's Causeway and the Skerries. Over the third side of the triangle, the inland side, the ruin of Dunluce Castle stands on its sea stack - a thirteenth-century castle whose name the course took. It is one of the few golf courses in the world whose setting is, if anything, more famous than the course. Then you play it. Then you understand why Golf Digest has called it, for two different decades, one of the four best courses outside the United States.

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Image: Lindy Buckley from Nanjing, China | CC BY 2.0

Royal Portrush Golf Club: From County Club to Royal Portrush

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit David A. Victor at English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0. The club was founded in 1888 as The County Club. Four years later it became The Royal County Club, under the patronage of the Duke of York. In 1895 it took its present name under the patronage of the Prince of Wales - the same Prince of Wales who became Edward VII. Royal status i...

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Image: David A. Victor at English Wikipedia | CC BY-SA 3.0

Royal Portrush Golf Club: The 1951 Open

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Eroica, CC0. In 1947, the Rathmore member Fred Daly became the first Irishman to win the Open Championship. Four years later, in 1951, his home club hosted the championship itself - the first time the Open was held in Northern Ireland, and the first time it had ever been played outside Great ...

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Image: Eroica | CC0

Royal Portrush Golf Club: Rebuilding for 2019

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Nilfanion, CC BY-SA 3.0. A number of changes were made for the 2019 Open. The old seventeenth and eighteenth holes of the Dunluce were removed, with that land going to the tented village. Two new holes - the current seventh and eighth - were built on ground taken from the Valley Links. Holes seven to six...

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Image: Nilfanion | CC BY-SA 3.0

Royal Portrush Golf Club: The Best Course Outside America

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Alexrk2, CC BY-SA 3.0. Golf rankings are a kind of opinion poll for a particular kind of expert, but the verdicts on the Dunluce Links agree more than they usually do. Golf World ranked it fourth among the hundred greatest courses in the British Isles in November 1996. Golf Magazine ranked it sixteenth...

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Image: Alexrk2 | CC BY-SA 3.0

Royal Portrush Golf Club: The Irish Open Visits, Too

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Average Golfer, CC BY 3.0. The Dunluce hosted the Irish Open in 2012 - the first time a European Tour event had been played in Northern Ireland, and the first time the Irish Open had been held in Northern Ireland since 1953. The last time the Irish Open had been at Royal Portrush itself was 1947, the year ...

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Image: Average Golfer | CC BY 3.0