By David Whyte
Royal Dornoch joined the golfing universe when a young Tom Watson announced it was “the most fun I’ve ever had on a golf course.” Until then, Dornoch had been a charming, coastal hamlet famous as the birthplace of Donald Ross and more surreptitiously, as having one of the finest links golf courses in the whole of the British Isles.
But it was a long way to go for a game of golf. It’s a four-hour drive from St. Andrews or a shuttle flight into Inverness, followed by another long and winding road. Nevertheless, you can’t keep a good links down, and American golfers persisted in their efforts to encounter Scotland’s golf Shangri-La.
That’s all about to change! Donald Trump is paving the way by opening a second course at Trump International near Aberdeen, and Cabot is adding a second track to the already fabulous Cabot Highlands (formerly Castle Stuart). To further gild the lily, in May this year, Dornoch Golf Club announced they’d acquired 50 acres of rippling linksland stretching down to the Dornoch Firth with plans to completely overhaul the existing Struie Course. A new clubhouse will open next year with an extensive practice facility and a par-3 course.
This adds up to a perfect golf adventure through Scotland’s most scenic region. And as if that’s not enough, Mike Keiser, the developer and owner of Bandon Dunes, is currently seeking approval to build yet another new course cheek-to-jowl with Dornoch – Coul Links.
Less than an hour from the center of Dublin and a half-hour from the international airport, two superb links courses stand on Ireland’s sandy “Velvet Strand.”
With only 3 miles separating the two, there’s long been confusion between the nearby internationally renowned Portmarnock Golf Club, one of Ireland’s top courses, and the Portmarnock resort course.
All the more reason to refurbish and rebrand the latter as Jameson Golf Links. The multi-million-euro renovation project brought in Irish architect Jeff Lynch to transform this authentic piece of linksland into a far more interesting encounter in line with many such projects that have occurred recently in both Ireland and Scotland.
To break up a monotonous out-and-back routing, Lynch created two entirely new par 3s, the ninth and 15th, giving changes in direction and allowing more appreciation of the seaside terrain. The 17th is another noticeable modification, a difficult par 3 transformed into a more interesting short par 4, incorporating extra ground to the back of the old green.
Together with excellent accommodations found at the Portmarnock Resort with its numerous dining outlets and historic Jameson Bar, the Portmarnock Resort & Jameson Golf Links makes the perfect coastal retreat with easy access to Dublin’s other links, including Portmarnock Golf Club, County Louth, Seapoint, and Royal Dublin.