V iewers accustomed to watching the Open Championship contested at the same venerable eight or nine courses each summer, not to men- tion the players competing on them, became smitten with Royal Portrush in Northern Ireland when the competition travelled there in 2019. It was the first time the major had been held outside of England or Scotland since 1951, when it also visited Portrush. We’re still getting to know Royal Por- trush, but we like what we see. That first flush of feeling will be rekindled when the club’s Dunluce Links course hosts the Open again July 17-20. With
berry for visual drama. The holes memorably wind through some of the choppiest dunes among Open Championship courses, many strung through valleys like Royal Birk- dale and others cresting over ridges like Royal St Georges, working in tandem with elevation changes that have no peer. Portrush’s fairway bunkers, resid- ing mainly within rather than on the edges of fairways, control lines and strat- egy as effectively as Muirfield’s. The greens of links courses, particu- larly older courses, are generally not known for electric contour. Many sit low to the ground as extensions of wavy fairway and surrounding grades, ready
all due respect to those who might have been on hand 74 years ago for the initial foray into
ON THE EDGE: Portrush’s fifth green teeters on the cliffs of the North Atlantic.
Northern Ireland, won by Max Faulkner, the 2019 event was the real coming-out party for Portrush, wowing players and spectators with its beauty, formidability and fresh energy. Royal Portrush’s perennially saturated shades of emerald and ochre stand in contrast to the more washed-out, off- greens and tans recognisable at venues like Hoylake and Lytham & St Anne’s. The setting along sheer bluffs overlook- ing the North Atlantic matches Turn-
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