August 2024 - Ireland Rolls Out the Green Carpet

The Open Championship returns to the Emerald Isle next year as one of golf's top destinations
This article appeared in the August 2024 edition of Chicago District Golfer.
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Royal Portrush is slated to host the Open Championship in 2025.

Playing in the windswept, rugged landscape of Ireland is one of the game’s greatest delights. The terrain and turf are made for the game, and the people and places you experience around the Emerald Isle are truly unforgettable. With the Open Championship returning to Northern Ireland’s Royal Portrush in 2025, and some fun new options on the island, there’s plenty of interest in teeing up a trip to Ireland.

Of course, Ireland is always a bucket list destination for several reasons beyond hosting the Open Championship. It offers true links golf, a number of distinct regions and a small enough footprint to see many areas in a single trip. If you’re thinking about heading across the pond, there are some important things to know.

First, and perhaps most important, is how booking timelines for golf trips have gotten longer during the current golf boom. It used to be possible to book trips less than a year out, or even run into some in-season specials for last-minute travel. Those opportunities are no more, say travel experts. Tee sheets and hotels are nearly full in some areas for 2025 – if you’re starting your Irish golf trip planning now, thinking about 2026 might be your best bet if you want your choice of destinations, tee times and accommodations.

Next July will see Royal Portrush in the spotlight for the second time in six years – the Open returned to the Emerald Isle in 2019 for the first time in 68 years, and the success of the event is bringing it back in short order.

“The reason why the Open Championship is such a success at Royal Portrush is the golf course,” says Northern Ireland’s Darren Clarke, himself a past Champion Golfer of the Year. “It’s an original Harry Colt, and like any authentic links, the challenge is there but it’s very fair. If you play well, you can score well. And it’s a great atmosphere. Like a lot of the old courses, it’s right there, it’s right in the town of Portrush, and it’s a great feeling to be there.”

Royal County Down

The popular Royal Portrush courses – Dunluce Links is the tournament course, with the on-site Valley Course a popular add-on to golf trips – will be in high demand for years following the Open, but experienced tour operators often have access to these courses, as well as those at surrounding northern courses such as Royal County Down, Portstewart Strand and Ballycastle. If you book a 2026 visit to the area, you can watch next year’s Open Championship and consider it a scouting mission.

There’s much more to Irish golf, of course, with more than 400 golf courses packed into an island landscape that’s only 300 miles from north to south. This does give golf travelers the chance to experience multiple areas of the country within the same trip. Ireland’s south, which features names such as Ballybunion, Old Head and Waterville, has traditionally been in high demand, and that continues to be the case.

Ireland’s southwestern corner will be in the spotlight in 2027 when the Ryder Cup is played at Adare Manor in Limerick. This will mark the second time the biennial team matches will be played in Ireland, following the 2006 Ryder Cup at the K Club, where the European side downed the U.S. team by a record margin.

Adare Manor

Perhaps the best-known destination among the many other world-class courses in the area is Ballybunion Golf Club in County Kerry, where the Old Course dates to 1892 – the year before the club itself was established. Further south are stalwarts such as Waterville Golf Another must-see showstopper along Ireland’s southern coast is Old Head Golf Links in County Cork. This one-of-a-kind course is on a unique peninsula that extends two miles into the Atlantic. The first settlers in the area date back more than 6,000 years, and it has been a strategic stronghold for the early Celts, invading Vikings and the Normans. Today, the Old Head Golf Links sit above remarkable sandstone cliffs on one of golf’s most amazing sites, surrounded by ocean – as if an island par-3 had been turned into an entire 18-hole affair.

The newest hotspot in Irish golf is the northwestern region, thanks to the Tom Doak-designed St. Patrick’s Links course at Rosapenna. Combined with the nearby Nairn & Portnoo Golf Club, which was recently redesigned by Gil Hanse, U.S. golfers are comfortable following these big-name architects to new locations.

There’s no wrong way to enjoy a golf getaway to Ireland. Take your time and plan it right, and Irish eyes won’t be the only ones smiling. lLinks, which is another century-old links carved out of native linksland on the Ring of Kerry, and the newer Hogs Head Golf Club, a fresh design on the property formerly known as Skellig Bay. Only 50 players a day are allowed on the course, giving it a feel of exclusivity – and making it important to claim a tee time in advance.