Golf In Westeros

Escape to Northern Ireland for pure golf, world famous hospitality and an unexpected game of thrones fix.

- Kent Gray

WHEN MOTHER NATURE AND FATHER TIME get together in a golf setting and are left thereafter largely to their own devices, the outcome is invariably a gift to the game.

For more than 135 years this faithful romance (with some thoughtful encouragement from mankind) has produced courses the length and breadth of Northern Ireland to rival even the most celebrated creations across the wild Irish Sea in golf’s spiritual homeland, Scotland. But never before has the game north of Ireland’s UK divide had it this good.

When the Open Championship returns to Royal Portrush for the first time in 68 years in 2019, a decade that seems to get better with every passing year will ensure Northern Ireland well and truly emerges from any lingering shadows cast by its famed golfing neighbours.

From the moment Graeme McDowell edged Frenchman Grégory Havret by a stroke to capture the 2010 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach, the game in Northern Ireland has savoured one intoxicating high after another. McDowell triggered an avalanche of six major championships for NIL inside four years with Darren Clarke (2011 Open) and Rory McIlroy (2011 U.S. Open, 2012 and 2014 PGA and 2014 Open) helping spawn a “Home of Legends” well, legend. It was the stuff of marketing dreams to go with the timeless and not undeserved “Made for Golf” moniker Tourism Northern Ireland proudly trumpets.