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'A bit unusual for links golf': Royal Portrush a different Open test

You hear it every year: When playing links golf, experience is crucial. It’s why Americans are usually discounted when they head across the pond those first few times for The Open.

The firm turf.

The unpredictable elements.

The demand for creativity, flighted shots, the ground game.

If you were raised in it, you certainly have an advantage over someone who, for example, cut their teeth hitting sky-high balls around soft, parkland designs in the States.

But links isn’t some uniform test.

In fact, as the best players in the world prepare for this 153rd Open Championship at Royal Portrush, it’s important to note just how different Irish golf – and particularly this Harry Colt layout, nestled in the dunes on the northern tip of Northern Ireland – is from those classic Scottish or English rota courses such as St. Andrews, Royal Troon and Royal Liverpool.

“It just seems they use the contours in different ways,” Jon Rahm said. “All the courses seem to be in a way where there’s a few more dunes. If you take here, Portstewart, Ballyliffin, Lahinch, all those courses, it’s a lot more – even Ballybunion – it’s framed around the dunes and using the elevation a little bit better. … When you’re playing Troon, flat as can be. Birkdale, flat. So, I’m not used to seeing those changes. If you’re playing Lahinch as well, you do have those up and downs, and you’re going into plateaus. There are dunes in the way. You have a par-3, but you can’t see the green.”

The undulating terrain of the Portrush’s Dunluce Links spans from tee to green, presenting a variety of lies for approach shots and producing arguably the most challenging and interesting green complexes in Open golf.

The requirement of hitting it low and using the ground? Players can get away with ignoring that edict some this week.

“You have to play a lot more shots into the air,” Scottie Scheffler said. “This golf course has a few false fronts on the greens, which I would say is a bit unusual for links golf. A lot of times people talk about running it up, but a lot of times, it’s difficult to run it up with a false front on the green, especially playing here into the wind.”

Rahm cites the 502-yard, par-4 fourth hole as an example. If the pin is left and the hole is playing downwind, the ball won’t just not stop on the green if it’s flying close to the turf, it will hit a giant mound that blocks out that side of the green.

“You definitely need the height to be able to stop it properly,” Rahm said.

A hole-by-hole look at Royal Portrush Golf Club, site of the 153rd Open Championship to be played July 17-20.

There are significantly fewer bunkers at Portrush than, say, Royal Lytham, which has over 200 of them. Portrush boasts just 59 bunkers.

“The pot bunkering here is also very different,” Scheffler said. “I think it’s going to be quite rare for you to see guys with one foot out of the bunker with their knee up on the side. … I think some of the links courses I’ve played, it was kind of hit or miss when you went into a bunker what kind of lie you were going to get. Sometimes you’re going to be putting the ball into the middle of the bunker just to have another shot, whereas these there’s a lot more slope into the bunkers [Portrush] where the ball kind of funnels into the middle.

“I would argue that might be a little bit more fair than two guys hitting a similar shot and one guy has to putt it back into the bunker and the other guy has a clean lie.”

Scheffler added that everything appears greener here. Scottish native Bob MacIntyre can attest. He shared a story on Tuesday about he switched equipment at the start of last year, but it wasn’t until last week’s Genesis Scottish Open at Renaissance Club, just east of Edinburgh in North Berwick, that he’d hit them off truly hard surfaces.

“It was brick hard, and the club wouldn’t go in the ground,” MacIntyre said. “… This week it’s not going to happen. We’ve had some rain. It’s greener already on the range. I’m seeing the strike off the face. I’m seeing the ball flight up in the sky. So, a completely different week this week.”

And yet, despite the noticeable differences, this is still The Open.

“Every hole,” MacIntyre added, “there’s an opportunity to make a bogey or make a disaster.”