Royal Portrush Golf Club is located on the north cost of Northern Ireland in County Antrim. It's home to 36 holes of golf, the Valley Course and the famous Dunluce Links. The club was founded as the railway expanded up the coast of the United Kingdom in 1888, but much of its present-day links layout of the Dunluce was a result of H.S. Colt's work in 1929. The course, which gets its name from the cliffside Dunluce castle ruins to the east that can be seen from the 5th green, hosted the Open Championship in 1951 and not again until 2019, when the R&A determined the country was finally safe enough following several decades of political turbulence. The Dunluce hosted the 2012 Irish Open on the European Tour which was received exceptionally well and the Open was awarded soon after. Prior to the 2019 event, two new holes were created by Martin Ebert, removing the old 17th & 18th holes and installing a new 7th and 8th hole using land from the Valley Course. The famous "Big Nellie" bunker at the 17th hole was lost in the new routing but recreated on the right side of the 7th hole. Perhaps the most famous hole here is "Calamity Corner," a long par 3 featuring a steep dropoff short and right of the green. Spectacularly bunkered with narrow fairways and doglegs, Portrush is a supreme test of ball-striking, in particular when the wind is blowing off the northern coast.
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