Dubin Bay Links

Malahide is an ideal base for the golf courses in north Dublin and for access to Dublin Airport and the motorways to other courses. The Grand Hotel is within the many restaurants and bars in Malahide village while further south is the iconic Portmarnock Hotel, former home of the Jameson family.

When Captain Bligh built the North Bull Wall to protect the mouth of Dublin Harbour from silting, a natural sandbank was created that stretches for 5 km, the southern half of which has been occupied since 1889 by Royal Dublin golf links. Sequestered by the military during World War I, Harry Colt was commisioned to restore the links in 1920 and this routing is still in use today, having been upgraded to modern standards in 2006 by Martin Hawtree. Colt raised some tees to afford views over Dublin Bay, while routing the course though the naturally created dunes on which fescue grass thrives and which, together with the wind, provides the courses very adequate challenge to golfers of all abilities. The unique finishing hole is a hard dog-leg where anything but a huge drive requires the approach shot to carry an area of Out-of-Bounds known as 'The Garden' - most memorably where Ballesteros triumphed over Langer is a playoff for the 1985 Irish Open.

Portmarnock occupies a small peninsula and provides a splendid sense of isolation despite its proximity to Dublin and its suburbs. This is a course with an outstanding history and it has been played by all legends of the game. Portmarnock is simply an outstanding links. Although relatively flat, the low dunes separating the holes provide super definition and the course snakes its way in every direction - it is noted that no two holes at Portmarnock play in the same direction. Although not visible from many places on the links the sea and its breezes are pervasive. At the course's highest points the views across the Irish Sea are spectacular. The course demands accuracy and skill together with a high level of committment, nowhere more than the par-3 fifteenth, where a tee-shot should be aimed out over the beach to allow the wind to bring it back to the green. From first to last Portmarnock presents a true and fair links challenge.