From bucket-list links to local faves, Dublin is the perfect gateway to an Irish golf adventure

Many consider Royal County Down the best golf course on the planet. The club drips with history, and the routing is sublime, a rolling, gorse-lined links framed by Dundrum Bay and the Mountains of Mourne. Rory McIlroy recently put the Northern Ireland masterpiece on his Mount Rushmore of favorite tracks.

That makes it all the more surprising when you step off the 9th green in the misty morning light and discover … a food truck serving Transfusions. It’s a welcome sight but also a bit jarring, like walking into St. Peter’s Basilica and finding a Taco Bell. For a moment you wonder if the Instagramification of the ancient game has gone too far. Is one of the world’s most hallowed clubs chasing social media hits?

Far from it. The club debuted the food truck this spring to speed up play. Golfers making the turn can now refill without a trip into the clubhouse, shaving 15 minutes off each round. On a course that welcomes roughly 9,000 visitors yearly, that’s a big deal.

These are heady days for Irish golf. McIlroy has solidified his status as an all-time great; Shane Lowry is a major winner and worldwide fan favorite; and the post-Covid golf boom is driving more visitors to Ireland than ever before. It’s estimated that more than 220,000 golfers travel to the country every year, generating over a half billion dollars in revenue. Close to 80 percent of those players are American, and the numbers keep growing.

To keep those visitors happy, clubs all over Ireland are making their own versions of the food truck move — building halfway houses, offering a sea of new merch for the logomaxxers. The game has entered a new era, and the Irish are embracing it.

All of which makes that County Down food truck the perfect metaphor for the current state of Irish golf — deeply rooted in the game’s past, with a keen eye trained on its future. And the best way to experience this version of the game is a trip based in Ireland’s dynamic capital. Three decades of economic growth have sparked extraordinary change in and around Dublin. What was once one of Europe’s drabber capitals now teems with art, music, cultural events and great restaurants. But the best things about Dublin haven’t changed — the people are wonderful, and there’s still a pub you want to duck into every three feet. But most American golfers spend next to no time in the city. The typical itinerary begins and ends at the airport, with the bulk of the trip devoted to driving maniacally around the island playing at a breakneck pace. Then everyone flies home exhausted, having barely experienced one of the world’s great cities. A Dublin-based golf trip will fix all that. Within 15 miles of the city center you’ll find every kind of course, from top-ranked bucket listers to beloved local faves and undiscovered treasures. That means significantly less driving, which leaves more time for sightseeing, drinking, dining and then even more drinking.

How great and accessible is the golf? After clearing customs, you can be on the grounds of a likely future Open Championship venue in less than 30 minutes.

SITTING ON A SANDY PENINSULA just seven miles from Dublin Airport is Portmarnock Golf Club, the city’s highest rated course and one of the world’s best links. The club has hosted over a dozen Irish Opens, the Amateur Championship and Women’s Amateur Championship, but the R&A’s marquee event — the Open Championship — has yet to be played on Irish soil. That may soon change. In April, R&A Chief Executive Mark Darbon said he’s “cautiously optimistic” about hosting the game’s oldest major at Portmarnock. Rumors swirl that this could happen as early as 2030, and anticipation colors every interaction at the club. “There’s feasibility work going on and discussion between the R&A and the government,” says General Manager Kyle Cannon. “And we’re sitting and waiting for all of this to pan out.” Should the Open come to Portmarnock, it will be played on a banger of a course, a winding layout with water on three sides and greens that run fast and true. Portmarnock is a relatively flat affair, without the towering dunes Americans associate with Irish seaside golf. That means fewer odd bounces, making the subtle beauty as equitable a links as there is.

Bernard Darwin once declared that there is “no greater finish in the world than that of the last five holes at Portmarnock.” That run still astonishes, and in a nod to the times, the old-school club has installed cameras on holes 1 and 15. Portmarnock emails visitors videos of those tee shots, a great way to remember how the breeze kissed your cheek as your slice drifted into the sea.

NEXT TO PORTMARNOCK SITS another stellar links with even deeper ties to Ireland’s golfing past. In 1847, John Jameson III, the grandson of the namesake distillery’s founder, bought 600 acres of land on Portmarnock Peninsula and built a family estate. In the 1850s, he laid out nine holes in the dunes, one of the first golf courses in Ireland.

That course eventually fell into disrepair, but in 1995 an early Bernhard Langer design opened on the site as part of the new Portmarnock Resort. That routing went through a significant renovation in 2023 and is now known as Jameson Golf Links.

The resort course abuts Portmarnock, but its terrain is much more dramatic, with taller dunes and more elevated tee shots. The layout is less penal than its famous neighbor but hardly a pushover. The resort saves tee times for last-minute play, making it the perfect track for golfers who need a keep-me-awake round after a red-eye arrival or an 18 to settle bets before heading home.

Throughout the property, there are nods to the area’s rich history. The first fairway runs along the old Jameson family cemetery, meaning a wayward shot could end up beside the patriarch’s grave. A nearby sign warns golfers not to enter, so the burial ground will be your Titleist’s final resting place. The links’ eastern boundary is a gorgeous three-mile stretch of beach known locally as the Velvet Strand. Its smooth sand is packed so hard that in 1930 the first east-to-west transatlantic flight took off from there.

“We try to position ourselves as a great host destination to base yourself for an Irish golf trip,” says the resort’s director of golf, Paul McCanny. “You could stay in Dublin for three weeks and play a different course every day without getting bored.”

Whether or not your liver would survive is another matter.

ON THE PORTMARNOCK PENINSULA, a storm so harsh that even the locals think golf is a bad idea turns my late round into an early dinner at Malahide Golf Club, a challenging 27-hole parkland course five minutes from the Portmarnock Resort. In the boisterous dining room, two lads with ties to golf in the area hold forth on the state of the Irish game. Shane O’Neill is a PGA Trainee Professional at the club. Eoin Sweeney is a Malahide member and golf entrepreneur who moonlights as a looper at Jameson. This could be a post-round hang at a club anywhere in the world, but the Irish version feels different, with a little more volume and a lot more local pride.

Asked about the Dublin golf scene, both men agree that visItors who chase bucket listers all over Ireland miss the point. Great courses with marquee names are easy enough to find — Druid’s Glen, The K Club and County Louth are all within an hour of Dublin. But ask the locals where else to play and the names fly off their tongues: Donabate, Balcarrick, Howth, Beaverstown, Seapoint, Corballis.

Some of these are crowd-pleasers, some are more distinct tastes. Sweeney calls the quirky, par-66 Corballis a “Marmite course — people either love it or hate it.” The club shares the same towering dunes and perfect links turf with its more famous neighbor, the Island, and with green fees that start at about $35, it might be the greatest deal in Irish golf.Then the pounding rain reminds Sweeney to share his advice for Americans who struggle with links golf in tough conditions: “Stop grinding and play a four ball! There’s no fun writing a snowman on your card six times on the way around.”

As the Guinness flows, the conversation quickens. The lads touch on just about every topic in golf, from the reason Shane Lowry struggles on Sundays (fitness) to what’s wrong with the U.S. Ryder Cup teams (too many boring robots) to why the game is simply better in Éire. (The pubs in Lahinch have outdoor slots for golf bags.) Hours later, the night ends as most do in Malahide — over pints at Gibney’s, a rambunctious pub so popular that you wonder why it ever closes. In Ireland, you can have a great golf day without ever reaching the first tee.

“I DON’T KNOW WHY I HAVEN’T played here more often.” That was Shane Lowry’s reaction the last time he played the Island Golf Club, yet another brilliant links less than half an hour from Dublin Airport. Just about every other visitor who sets foot on the course feels the same way.

Carved into wild and woolly dunes just north of Portmarnock, the Island regularly ranks in the top 12 courses in Ireland. How good is it? Lowry once brought Dustin Johnson and Harold Varner III there to tune up before the Open Championship.

Despite all the acclaim, the course often flies under visitor radar, but it may be winning the popularity contest. Many locals say it’s their favorite course to play.

The Island was founded in 1890 and was so named because the only way to reach it was by boat. Word is players would conveniently miss the last ferry home, forcing them to overnight at the club. That led to more golf and revelry and, inevitably, an earful from their wives the next morning. A local access road was built in 1973, making it much easier to visit the club and saving countless marriages.

The front nine is terrific, and the back is even better, with a stretch of holes from 13 to 16 that is one of the tastiest in Ireland. Remnants of the club’s old pier are still visible by the 14th tee, a par 4 with a fairway roughly 10 yards wide. That’s not a typo.

The turf at the Island is so firm that the smart play is usually to forget the lob wedge and putt, even from 50 yards out. Visitors can take an entire round to learn that lesson, but members take the resulting slow play in stride.

“I don’t mind getting stuck behind Americans,” says one, “because you usually end up finding six new Titleists.”

FIVE MILES EAST OF THE CITY CENTER, a rickety wooden bridge takes visitors across Dublin Bay to another storied links deeply connected to the game’s history. The drive feels like a trip back in time and ends at one of the great clubhouses in golf.

The Royal Dublin Golf Club dates to 1885. Its current course was laid out by the legendary Harry Colt in 1920 and received a full refresh from links specialist Martin Hawtree in the early 2000s. The classic out-and-back routing has hosted the Irish Amateur Open Championship a record 29 times, and Seve Ballesteros won two Irish Opens there.

On a weekday afternoon, Royal Dublin’s stylish bar is bursting with energy. When the conversation turns to the differences between golf in Ireland and Scotland, you might wish you brought earplugs. The Dubliners concede that the top courses in both countries are equally great, then grudgingly acknowledge Scotland has better second-tier courses. But, in the end, everyone insists the Irish game wins out because it excels at the sport’s most important element — the après-golf scene.

The argument is simple: The great Irish courses are all in towns that are much more charming than their Scottish counterparts. “I played Carnoustie,” one member roars. “The course is fantastic, but after your round, there’s nothing to do!”

Shade always sounds better when thrown with an Irish accent.

GIVEN THE EXPLODING DEMAND for tee times, Royal County Down could be excused for keeping itself encased in amber. But even that Northern Ireland all-timer — 90 minutes by car from the Dublin Airport — is changing with the times.

The club’s subtle efforts to improve guest services pop up everywhere, from the hoodies for sale in the pro shop to a new focus on how employees interact with visitors. “The staff here are all passionate but were sometimes reserved,” says General Manager Bill Donald. “Now we’re trying to project that passion forward.”

That passion extends to the caddies, who are as gifted with the needle as they are at reading the course’s slick greens. After finally puring a shot eight holes into your round, don’t be surprised if your cheerful looper chirps, “I was starting to think I wasn’t going to hear that sound today.” For a moment you wish he wasn’t projecting their passion quite so strongly, then you laugh your a– off all the way to the green.

If Royal County Down’s food truck captures where the game is right now, the question remains — Where is this all going? One answer sits on the shores of the Irish Sea 40 miles south of Dublin, where Ireland’s golfing past is being transformed into its future.

When the European Club opened in 1992, the course didn’t have a clubhouse, and the green fee was £10. But it wasn’t long before the modern links brought new attention to Irish golf. Some critics called it too penal, a tricked-up ball gobbler. But it regularly made World Top 100 lists, and Padraig Harrington won the 2008 Irish PGA Championship there.

Last year Irish businessman Raymond Conlan and his family bought the European Club for a reported $39 million. Now the Conlans are redeveloping the land into what they hope will become the next must-play destination on the Irish rota. The family renamed the club Brittas Bay and hired architect Kyle Phillips, best known as the visionary behind Kingsbarns. Phillips is hard at work shaping the breathtaking 180-acre site into a new course with wide, rugged fairways and water views from every hole. The layout will provide plenty of drama, but Phillips also wants it to be a fun, playable walk. “Hopefully it feels traditional in style but with the scale of a modern course,” he says. Brittas Bay is scheduled to open in summer 2027 and should be yet another reason to bucket list a trip to Dublin.

Golf tourism in Ireland has never been bigger, but given how many booms and busts the sport has seen over the years, is co-owner Nicky Conlan nervous about making such a large investment at what could be a market peak? “We actually felt this was less risky than a lot of other ventures,” he says with the passion of a man on a mission. “No matter what happens in the world, there’s going to be a ball on the
ground and a club in someone’s hand.”