How Portrush prepared to create an Open legacy
visits Royal Portrush to see how Open Championship preparations are progressing.
For many golfers, Royal Portrush remains a mystical place of cascading dunes and golden grasses. The Dunluce links (and its sister Valley course alongside) was designed by the legendary Harry Colt in 1932 and this, too, gives this stretch of Co. Antrim coastline a touch of mysticism. Throw in views to Dunluce Castle and ocean rocks battered by relentless waves and it is easy to understand why this golf course is lauded around the world. It is firmly entrenched in the top echelon of world rankings just about everywhere and it isn’t hard to see why.
It has risen to number one in both the Irish Golfer and Golf World magazine rankings on the back of the recent upgrades by Mackenzie and Ebert, which include two sparkling new holes (7 & 8). These are modern masterpieces that have comfortably, almost seamlessly, slotted in to the overall rhythm of the course.
The two holes that have been lost are the old 17th and 18th which will now be used for the tented village during the Open. Yes, regrettably, the famous ‘Big Nellie’ bunker on 17 has been lost but Martin Ebert added his own version of the giant sand trap to the new seventh during the design stages.
Tickets for the four days of competition have sold out for the first time in the championship’s history and the buzz around Portrush and surrounding areas remains at fever pitch.
But what about the golf course and the club itself? How are things proceeding as the island’s biggest ever sporting event is now just one week away? The Irish Examiner visited the club recently and spoke to Head Professional, Gary McNeill.
It’s all changed dramatically and very quickly. A lot of gear arrived as the set up began. The grandstand building started at the beginning of April, with the first two grandstands being erected on the 18th and the 1st tee complex. That was incredible to see. It is a busy road alongside the course so people saw this happening right in front of them, on a daily basis. When the big old yellow scoreboards went up it really brought it home. The towers and hospitality tents followed. Everything has been ready for several weeks, now.
There is a lot of seating out on the golf course, too, and we’ve introduced a special feature at the 13th and 17th greens where there is a grandstand on either side of both greens. They run in parallel, on either side, which is something a little bit different.
There’s been quite a bit of work particularly to the right of the green. A lot of space was cleared for the grandstands to continue all the way around the green. Initially the grandstand was going to be L-shaped but now it continues the whole way around, like an amphitheatre. I think only Hoylake and maybe Turnberry have the same wrap-around stands.
It was a big decision to remove the 17th and 18th from the layout. There are members who were sorry to see them disappear as there are lots of memories there, and many great events have been contested and finished on those two holes. But we were very lucky to have the opportunity to add two spectacular new holes where we built them. And we also didn’t encounter anything major with environmental issues or endangered species, so that was key.
To the left of the new seventh the architects (Mackenzie & Ebert) created what’s called dune slack. It’s an exposed sand area (where the old Valley links fifth used to be), which will actually encourage wildlife. For example, the exposed sand encourages bees to burrow in. A lot of architects are now leaving such areas of exposed sand. They’ve done it at Royal Troon and a number of other Open venues.
Initially the biggest challenge here was convincing the members that this was the right thing to do, creating a legacy of hosting the Open Championship. When we held an EGM, 400 members attended and it was virtually a unanimous decision to proceed. That was a big hurdle to get over. Once we knew we had this backing it was all systems go.
The actual course construction happened incredibly quickly. When you’re working with sand and you’ve taken the sod away, you have all this natural drainage which makes such a difference to architects and the teams working alongside. There’s no rock to blast or boulder clay to move so things move fast.
On the retail front, we started to focus on the Open merchandise once the date was set. I linked in with other venue Head Pros and we’ve done a lot of homework here to deliver a nice range of products.
I think the main challenges ahead of hosting the Open lay with Graeme Beatt, our course manager, and his staff. They have done a lot of lovely work on the bunkers and the craftsmanship is there for all to see. When the R&A visited n February they were very impressed with the firmness of the fairways, the firmness of the approaches, the firmness of the greens… even in the middle of winter. I know that Martin Slumbers (R&A Chief) was talking about how you challenge these top players. You can’t stop them hitting it 400 yards but you can challenge them by having firm greens. It goes back to that ethos of playing the Open Championship on a links style golf course.
Golfers played off mats on the fairways. Between November and March we were closed to visitors, so only members and guests could play. In April and May we opened to visitors again. On 30th June we handed the golf course over to the R&A and it remains closed until the practice days.
The rough will be very fair. The R&A are keen to produce a fair golf course and they are taking control of the rough management. Remember Carnoustie in 1999, where the head greenkeeper was able to run riot with the rough and the next thing this stuff was everywhere. It made a bit of a mess of the tournament and they don’t want to do a US Open thing where there is so much rough.
Clive Brown, Chair of the Championship Committee, asked me what I thought might win. It all depends on the weather, but I reckon eight- to 12-under.
The Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council has held a lot of open forums here in Portrush, where people can voice their concerns or ask questions about certain things. Portrush is a busy place in July anyway and the Council is trying to make sure that everyone – spectators and other tourists alike – are looked after. The town has had £17 million spent on it, including new granite street pavements and the new railway station where they knocked down a horrible old wall so you can now see right over the West Bay, which is incredible. Even when you’re driving around Portrush you can see that lots has been done, which will be a lasting legacy after the Championship. Everybody’s benefiting from it.
Wilma Erskine, the club’s secretary manager, has been a huge player. She’s talking about retiring at the end of the year – I personally have worked with her for 20 years and she has been an incredible individual. She’s really driven us towards this Open Championship and made things happen. Peter Dawson had a lot to do with it at the beginning too. He’s stepped down now and Martin Slumbers has come in but I know Wilma gives Peter a lot of credit for what he did right at the outset.
And then of course there’s the First Minister, Arlene Foster, and the then First Minister, Martin McGuinness, who signed it off. Within the club, the chairman of the championship committee is John Bamber, and Phillip Tweedie is the deputy chief marshal so they are two key players who have been heavily involved over the last four to five years.
The tee shot on the new 590-yard par-five seventh. I think it’s amazing. Every time I stand on that tee box and have a look down the hole – it’s unbelievably inspiring. It just fits the eye so well. The tee shot on the next hole (the new 430-yard dogleg eighth), from the championship tee requires a carry across a sandy area (mentioned earlier). I don’t think anybody could have imagined that those two holes would have worked out as well as they have done. They’re in a really scenic part of the golf course and they’ve really got the wow factor with the sound of the ocean behind the big sand dune.
Royal Portrush is guaranteed to get the Open Championship another two times over the next 40 years. If 2019 proves a huge success, as everyone hopes it will, then it may be returning sooner than the usual eight to nine year cycle suggests. And with the infrastructure complete, both in the town and around the links itself, the R&A will find a course and region fully prepared and ready to host golf’s oldest and best major.
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