Everyone was delighted to learn that one of the biggest sporting events to arrive in Northern Ireland will take place in 2019. The British Open Golf Portrush 2019 Championship will take place at the Royal Portrush course and is set to be the most prestigious event to be held in our area. Northern Ireland will be at the centre of the global sporting spotlight from 18-21 July 2019 as The Open is staged outside of Scotland and England for only the second time in the Championship’s more than 150-year history with sports fans from throughout Ireland and around the world expected to descend upon the town of Portrush.
Rory McIlroy, who lifted the Claret Jug at Royal Liverpool in 2014, added, “Royal Portrush is one of my favourite golf courses in the world. I think it will be a fantastic Open venue. They are going to add a couple of new holes to the golf course and I think that will be a great addition and will make the course even stronger. I’m really looking forward to it.”
Course preparations for The British Open Golf Portrush and the work to create the two new holes on the renowned Dunluce Links are well underway. The new 7th and 8th holes will utilise land from the adjacent Valley Course to develop a new par 5 hole, playing down into the valley encompassing that course’s 6th hole, and then a par four, playing back over its 5th hole into some beautiful duneland. Both holes will have an immediate air of maturity using some of the most stunning land at Royal Portrush. The new holes will replace the current 17th and 18th holes on the Dunluce Links, freeing up that land to be used to accommodate the Spectator Village and Championship infrastructure.
Earlier this year the proposals were approved by the Royal Portrush membership and the work is being overseen by Martin Ebert of Mackenzie & Ebert the Club’s golf course architects. As well as creating two new holes, a series of other changes are being made to the course to enhance the challenge that will face the world’s top golfers while remaining true to the ethos of Harry Colt’s original design.
The most significant changes will be to move the 2nd green to lengthen the par five hole by around 40 yards and on the current 10th hole, which will be the 12th at The Open, to alter the line of the hole and extend it by 50 yards. Elsewhere, the existing 8th green (the 10th at The Open), which was not designed by Colt, will be reshaped and several new back tees will be created.
The overall length of the course for the British open Golf Portrush will increase by just under 200 yards to 7,337 yards and the number of bunkers will be increased by three to 62 in total, still leaving Royal Portrush with the fewest bunkers of any of the courses which host The Open.
The work on the Dunluce Links is due to be complete by the middle of 2016 with the two new holes being given time to grow-in ahead of the following season.https://www.theopen.com/News/News/2015/10/Royal-Portrush-to-host-The-148th-Open-in-2019
Watch this space for further news of this fabulous event. And if you are starting to think of booking accomodation in advance for the event we are now taking bookings for 2019 in our Self-catering apartments in Ballygally Larne so you can take advantage of all the Antrim and Causeway Coast has to offer whilst attending.