Portmarnock - Ireland's No.1 Golf Course

In this month's Irish Golfer Magazine, there's a review of the magazine's top ranked course... and that course is Portmarnock.

With the north Dublin club set to host the Amateur Open Championship in 2019 - a massive honour by any standards, never mind it being an Irish venue - there have been considerable efforts to push the course to even higher levels.

My Portmarnock review focuses on how the course and the club are evolving but one
thing stands out for me... and it is the result of being fortunate enough to play the course half a dozen times over the last six years. This is a course that grows on you, where the more you play it the more you feel its greatness and the more it embraces you. It's a slow burner because it is so different to the big-dune courses that Ireland is famous for.

If you have a copy of Hooked to hand, take a look at my review. I'm not now going to say that Portmarnock is my favourite course - I tackle that issue in the Irish Golfer article - but there are few courses that can grow on you in the way that Portmarnock does.

The par three 7th at Portmarnock.

One of the things I didn't get to address in the article is the matter of trees. Removing pine trees planted by members some 50 years ago has become an important part of improving the course. The needles of the pine trees and the roots have been damaging the dunes and the grasses ever since they were planted. Removing them is essential. The club was awarded a tree-felling licence 18 months ago and the trees that were so striking on the course have dwindled… with more to be removed over the next few months. Some might question what trees are doing on a links anyway while others may be disappointed at seeing them vanish from the course. If you weren't sure why... now you know.

Follow Portmarnock on Twitter, here.