DESTINATION
BUSHMILLS, NORTHERN IRELAND | Being first off any course is a treat, and so it is this sunny morn at the Castlerock Golf Club. I sling my golf bag over my shoulder and head out, following the first fairway up into the dunes. A couple of holes later, I am playing along a rail line before hiking back into the hillocks. There are burns and bumps. Blind shots, too, and a bit of wind, just to keep things interesting. I hear – and smell – cows from a neighboring farm and listen to cock pheasants call from the marram grass. Every now and then, hares the size of small dogs scamper across the turf.
The front is fun, and it finishes on a par-3 that is dubbed Quarry and playing some 220 yards this day. But the back is even better, with an especially engaging sequence from Nos. 14 to 17 of a par-3, a par-5 and then another 3- and 5-par. I might have hit every club in my bag on those four holes alone. And I know I tarried on the 17th tee, taking in the views from the highest point on the course.
As for the course, which I had not played in 20 years, I love parring the par-3 13th, the same hole on which Shane Lowry made his steely up-and-down on the way to his Open win in 2019.
From Castlerock, I head immediately to Royal Portrush, for a game on the Dunluce Course with the club’s head professional, Gary McNeill, and his regular caddie, Rocket. Rain was threatening by the time we teed off, and I chuckled each time we walked by one of those sod shelters built into the dunes, for the days when it really pours. Those refuges looked strong enough to survive nuclear attacks, and I hoped that we never would have to retreat to one.
As for the course, which I had not played in 20 years, I love parring the par-3 13th, the same hole on which Shane Lowry made his steely up-and-down on the way to his Open win in 2019. I also enjoyed how well the new holes constructed for that championship, Nos. 7 and 8, fit within the overall design – and how brilliantly the old 15th and 16th worked as finishers. Clearly, Calamity Corner had lost none of its bite, as the double-bogey 5 on my scorecard for that par-3 beast indicated.
After that game, my wife, Cynthia, and I headed to the ruins of the castle after which the Dunluce was named. Historians believe the structure, which is set on rocky cliffs overlooking the North Atlantic and only a short drive from the golf club, was established by the MacQuillan clan in 1500. Years later, a town sprung up behind it, with cobblestone streets, a court and jailhouse, lodges for visitors, stables and a brew house.
As an archaeology major, Cynthia relished the visit, and wondered how we could come across so many heritage sites on a golf trip. As a lover of archaeology, I simply was happy that we did.
Fortunately, our immersion in Irish history didn’t end when we returned to our very comfortable quarters at the Bushmills Inn. That is because portions of that hotel originally were built in the early 1600s as a coaching inn, around the time that the nearby Old Bushmills distillery was granted the world’s first license to make whisky.
We went right to the Gas Bar (so called for the gas lights that still illuminate the place) to enjoy a whisky tasting, settling on a classic Bushmills flight and toasting what had most certainly been a perfect day.
John Steinbreder
