The Full Irish: Royal Portrush (Valley)
We play the first "second" course on property of our tour
If you’ve been following along and thinking about just how insane this trip is, understand that it was originally going to be much, much crazier. Because our round at the Valley course at Portrush was not on the original itinerary. My main partner-in-crime in the original idea here is AC, who was with me in Scotland five years ago. Tackling Scotland is not something you can do in a three week trip so we came back with a long list of courses we missed and wanted to get to at a future date.
(Wait…why is he talking about SCOTLAND? This is the Full Irish, right?)
Well, yes. But the easiest way to get to one part of Scotland is actually from Northern Ireland via the Kintyre Express ferry. From Scotland itself, it’s a LOT of driving and potentially a ferry as well, but the Kintyre is about an hour each way, so we thought this morning we’d ferry over, and play Machrihanish and hopefully Machrihanish Dunes, then ferry back the following day.
But, as we were planning this during the earliest parts of our COVID lockdowns in 2020, the Kintyre ceased operating. And while I’m happy to report it’s back and running, we couldn’t depend on that. And perhaps, just slightly, we realized the madness of this plan. (Also, as we later learned, you can’t arrive in time to play 36, and you can’t depart late enough from there to play 18 in the morning. We’ll have to delve into that madness later.)
I looked into playing Castlerock nearby, but it wasn’t available so instead we decided to play the Valley course at Portrush. Like many clubs, Royal Portrush has two courses, with the Dunluce the one everyone thinks about. But the Valley course is no throw-in. In fact, when not taking blood money from the Saudis, Graeme McDowell considers this his home course. (Or, at least, where he grew up playing.)
Founded: 1935
Designer: Â Harry Colt
Ratings:
Top100GolfCourses : 6 (Northern Ireland)
Golf.com: Not Rated
The Irish Golfer: 42 (Ireland)
I find these rankings interesting, and I’m glad The Irish Golfer is around because when Top100 doesn’t have it ranked, it had me wondering if this was even worth it.
Fun fact, this is played in an area called the War Hollow, because apparently a battle was fought here centuries ago. I love this stuff. It's also about a quarter of the price as its more famous sibling on property, and doesn’t require a downpayment in advance. (Note: Several folks noted the course is actively working on improvements to the Valley course which will be accompanied by a price hike, as soon as next year.)
In the morning, AC and I headed to the Giants Causeway, to get in some sightseeing before our round.
It’s a natural formation of rocks that presumably were built by the giant Finn McCool (instantly and immediately, the next pseudonym I’ll be using) to get to Scotland. It’s … wild.
We are hoping to get a longer peek at Dunluce Castle, but in the meantime, we had golf to play at the Valley course.
The Valley course is so underplayed that we didn’t even need to pay until we showed up, a notable distinction from almost every other course we pre-paid for. And it’s … lovely.
I had a local named Matthew (great name) join me and Rob, while AC, Thunder and David played ahead of us. Rob and I were closing out our matches as this was his last round of the trip.
Rob’s driver got a bit unwieldly, and I managed to close him out on the 17th hole by making a putt from maybe 40 feet below the hole. I didn’t see it go in, but I heard it, and then I saw Rob collapse to the ground in misery. All good fun. And the guy found yet another bench to enjoy.
It’s perhaps unfair to note that of the six courses we’ve played, the Valley is probably 6-of-6. We’re comparing it to literally some of the best courses in the country, let alone the world. On its own, if it was in the Bay Area, we’d play it as much as humanly possible. It was, of course, great to play with Matthew who absolutely demolishes the ball and is a complete joy (and optimist in terms of predicting if we could find our golf balls). Another great day on the course. Some of us actually spotted former Open winner and Irish legend Darren Clarke in the clubhouse
For dinner, we went to the Harbour Bar in Portrush, recommended by all. The food was, frankly, incredible. Steaks, shrimp, and a few Guinnesses all went down way too easy. The bar itself is supposed to be THE place to go but much like the bars in Portstewart we have likely been there too early in the day and too early in the week to truly see the craic, so that will have to wait until later in the trip.
The following day was mostly a travel day, mixed with a sprinkle of golf and sightseeing. Rob and family would go straight away to Derry to see the city, do a bit of Derry Girls related tours as well as the history of the city, while the rest of us would play a quick nine hole at Castlerock before Thunder heads to Dublin, and the rest of us go on to Derry. In Derry, we hoped to sightsee things like the Troubles Museum and the Bloody Sunday Monument. We weren’t able to spend any time in Belfast, so Derry will be one of the few places to check out some of the real history of the Troubles. This is, first and foremost, a golf trip but part of any good trip is learning more about the place you’re visiting, so I’m looking forward to that quite a bit.
As Rob and Thunder peel off the trip, Dean will be joining the fray and meeting up with us in the evening. The madness continues!