Tourists visit Giant’s Causeway on a beautiful summers day.
Links of the North
By Andrew & Paul Marshall
From some of the world’s best links, legendary Irish hospitality,
the Giant’s Causeway and a Bushmills whiskey by a roaring
peat fire, the north of Ireland is a great destination for a golf trip.
Golfing brothers ANDREW & PAUL MARSHALL take a journey.
Ah...the joys, frustrations and vagaries of links golf, where a
well-executed shot can get an unfortunate kick and end up in
a bunker, or a mishit shot may get a lucky bounce and finish
on the green. Links courses with their unique characteristics
retain their allure as the game’s original and purest form and
they come in no greater dramatic abundance than in the north
of Ireland. Created by nature and dotted like gems around the
coastline, these courses by the sea have all the quintessential
ingredients - stunning ocean views, towering marram grass
dunes, rumpled fairways, fast undulating greens, deep pot
bunkers and ever-present winds. Not golf for the fainthearted,
to-be-sure, to-be -sure, to-be-sure.
Some layouts such as the Dunluce course at Royal Portrush
are timeless classics where golf has been played since the
late 1800s, whilst others such as Rosapenna’s Sandy Hills and
Ballyliffin’s Glashedy Links are comparatively recent creations
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that still look as though they have been part of the scenery
since then. Finding your way to these links is all part of the
experience - driving through wild landscapes of brooding
mountains and eerie peat moors, past boulder-strewn rivers
and ancient castles perched on windswept headlands. The
roads, sometimes twisting and narrow, can take longer than
expected to navigate. You may make a few wrong turns along
the way or get stuck behind a tractor, but it’s time well spent in
anticipation.
Adding to the golfing experience are the locals you meet at
the courses, who have a tremendous gift of making you feel
welcome. And let’s not forget the wonderful clubhouse bars
to enjoy some hearty soup and sandwiches, or sink a Guinness
or two while discussing the ups and downs of the day’s round.
What follows is our week-long golf journey that begins at
Dublin airport where we drive up the northeastern coast into
Northern Ireland, head west along the Causeway Coast to
the rugged Inishowen Peninsula and County Donegal back in
Ireland, to play six top-drawer links...