Mark Alexander
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Royal Portrush Golf Club: Dunluce
Portrush, Northern Ireland • Private
Overview
Portrush is still the only Irish course to host The Open. The Old Tom Morris design, made what it is today by H.S. Colt in the 1930s, was the Open site back in 1951. It was revived as a rota course for the 2019 Open, won by Irishman Shane Lowry, and so popular were the links it only had to wait six years for a return performance, when Scottie Scheffler won the third leg of his career Grand Slam. In preparation for the 2019 event, architect Martin Ebert added new seventh and eighth holes, fashioned from land on the club's Valley Course, to replace its weak 17th and 18th holes. That means the notorious Calamity Hole, an uphill 210-yard par 3, is now the 16th instead of the 14th, and the old dogleg-right par-4 16th is the closing hole, with a new back tee. Ebert retained most of Colt's greens, considered one of the best set of putting surfaces in the world, but remodeled others such as at the par-4 10th that were built after Colt left, better working them into the contours of the surrounding dunes.
