Portstewart Golf Club Strand Course

A front nine as good as any makes Portstewart Golf Club one of the best golf courses in Northern Ireland.

Golf is full of tedious cliches, but sometimes they carry truth. Take the suggestion that the front nine of Portstewart’s Strand is one of the most memorable in the world, for example.

Rest assured, the star names who competed in the Irish Open will have been chatting about this nine in the locker room after their first practice round because this outward half lacks little if anything compared to the links they played a fortnight later at Royal Birkdale in 2018.

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Founded in 1894, Portstewart was redesigned by Willie Park Jnr in the 1920s but it was not the work of the fabled Scotsman that turned its Strand course into the awesome links it is today – it was the efforts of local schoolteacher Des Giffin.

The terrain he was given – after the club purchased land known as ‘Thistly Hollow’ in 1981 – was patently rich with promise; the sort that if it was available today would arouse the interest of Doak, Coore & Crenshaw and Hanse.

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You wonder if the view from the elevated tee of the dog-leg opener is its highlight arriving early, but the front nine turns out to be consistently thrill-a-minute. Holes routinely wind between huge dunes that take the breath away as well as offer seclusion.

Imagine the best hole you have played through sand dunes and then multiply it by nine, and you have Portstewart’s outward half.

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If that quality was maintained on the back nine it could be a GB&I top-20 course but the back nine is much flatter land with the River Ban hemming it in as the Atlantic does to the front nine. Almost any nine would be a letdown after the outward half and as a result the Strand’s is probably judged a little harshly.

A new clubhouse and not one but two further 18-hole courses make this a very impressive all-round venue.

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• Course has: Bar
• Course has: Buggy Hire
• Course does not have: Driving Range
• Course does not have: Practice Green
• Course has: Pro Shop
• Course has: Restaurant
• Course has: Trolley Hire
• Course does not have: Dress Code
• Course has: Club Hire
• Course has: Handicap

• 4 out of 5 Brutal 11 January 2008

  By sixfive

  From the first hole with the amazing vistas across Donegal you know this ais going to be a testing day. When the wind blows the course becomes brutal and although the sand dunes offer some protective from the elements it is still a very tough course. As most Northern irish courses are you will be made very welcome on the course and in the clubhouse and links golf doesn't get much better. :)

• 4 out of 5 Brutal 11 January 2008

  By sixfive

  From the first hole with the amazing vistas across Donegal you know this ais going to be a testing day. When the wind blows the course becomes brutal and although the sand dunes offer some protective from the elements it is still a very tough course. As most Northern irish courses are you will be made very welcome on the course and in the clubhouse and links golf doesn't get much better. :)