Dan Brown claimed his first DP World Tour victory in style in his 20th start as he held his nerve for a five-shot win at the ISPS Handa World Invitational at Galgorm Castle.

The Englishman had been top of the leaderboard since carding an opening 64 and entered the final day with a six-shot lead, although he did not have it all his own way at Galgorm Castle.

He saw his advantage trimmed to two on the back nine but closed out victory with a 69 that saw him finish at 15-under ahead of Alex Fitzpatrick, who carded a finishing 68.

It has been a long road to the winner’s circle for Brown, who played his first DP World Tour event at the 2015 KLM Open but had to wait seven years and two months for his second appearance.

In between he played on the EuroPro Tour and European Challenge Tour, playing no Ranking events in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic, before earning his full playing privileges on the Challenge Tour for 2022 thanks to his third runner-up finish of the 2021 EuroPro Tour campaign at the season-ending Matchroom Tour Championship.

He finished 30th on last season’s Road to Mallorca before graduating from the Qualifying School and after making 16 of 19 cuts this season — including his first 13 — and securing three top 10s, he can now put a first professional victory on his CV at the age of 28.

.@danbrown212 wins his first DP World Tour title in his rookie season ?#WorldInvitational pic.twitter.com/rJgZbWvH5L

— DP World Tour (@DPWorldTour) August 20, 2023

“It feels amazing,” said Brown, who moves to 35th on the Race to Dubai Rankings after 12 consecutive sub-70 rounds.

“I could never have dreamt this up in the past however many years and months.

“I didn’t really putt great yesterday, it was a bit nervy, I was struggling to get the pace and it was kind of similar again today. Once we got down the closing stretch… I was just trying to make sure it was a decent holeable pace.”

Brown secured a tie for seventh at the Barbasol Championship last time out to move into the top 70 in the Race to Dubai and revealed the knowledge he would have a card for next season allowed him to change his mindset this week.

“America was a bit of a turning point,” he said. “That gave me a lot of confidence that I can do it and I sewed my card up there pretty much, so this week and the rest of the year I’m just trying to enjoy it a bit more and freewheel.”

A two-shot swing on the first quickly cut Brown’s advantage to four as the leader three-putted and Fitzpatrick holed a 12-foot right-to-lefter from the fringe.

Wilco Nienaber — who also started the day six back — got in trouble around the green to record a double-bogey and with the players in third seven shots back, a two-horse race was already developing as Fitzpatrick birdied the second from 11 feet to get within three.

The leading duo both dropped shots at the third after coming up short of the green and Fitzpatrick made it back-to-back bogeys when he found a nasty greenside lie with his second at the fourth.

Brown had missed a good birdie chance at the fourth as he looked to steady the ship but he made no mistake after putting his tee-shot to six feet at the par-three fifth and a stunning approach to tap-in range at the next meant he was back where he started and six ahead.

Brown and Fitzpatrick both made two-putt birdies on the par-five tenth but there was the second two-shot swing of the day on the next as Fitzpatrick holed from 16 feet and Brown three-putted.

A failure to get up and down after missing the green on the 12th was followed by a poor tee-shot from Brown on the next and when he once again failed to save par after finding sand with his second, the lead was down to two.

But Brown holed from 25 feet on the 14th and 26 feet on the 15th for back-to-back birdies – with Fitzpatrick making a gain of his own on the latter – before a two-shot swing went his way as he put an approach to five feet at the 17th and Fitzpatrick failed to get up and down from the sand.

England’s Eddie Pepperell had his best result of the season as he finished third at seven under after a third consecutive round of 68 achieved with a set of clubs he had built on-site on Wednesday.

South African Nienaber, Dane Marcus Helligkilde, Spaniard Adrian Otaegui, England’s John Parry and Scot Connor Syme finished at five-under, one clear of English pair Matthew Baldwin and Matthew Southgate.

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Leona Maguire is anticipating a tricky challenge over the first two days of the ISPS Handa World Invitational  in Northern Ireland this week.

The event — co-sanctioned with the DP World Tour — sees two separate 72-hole stroke play tournaments for the men and women with two separate prize funds of $1.5 million.

Over the first two rounds, the players will face two different courses as they tee it up on the parklands course at Galgorm Castle and on the links at Castlerock Golf Club.

And having to play both set-ups back to back, Maguire knows she will have to adapt to each course and the conditions.

“It’s two very different tests this week,” said the two-time LPGA Tour winner. “Obviously, one being links, one being parkland. Castlerock is a pure links golf course.

“The conditions will very much be dependent on weather. There are semi-blind tee shots and like on any golf course, you need to stay out of those pot bunkers that can be pretty penal.

“Galgorm is playing lush and soft, a little bit more target golf I think, and you have to stay out of the rough. It will definitely be a premium on hitting fairways around Galgorm.

“In links in particular, with the winds, there are some shots that you can hit four different clubs and there’s not really a right or a wrong club. It’s whatever you think at that moment in time.

“Whereas over here on this side at Galgorm it’s more target golf and you’re just going to hit it straight at the pin. It’s an adjustment in mindset, but I think that’s the fun of it. It’s nice when you have to be a little bit more creative and use your imagination a little bit, and it’s not just stand up and hit it wherever you want.

“That’s the beauty of links golf. We played Castlerock pretty calm yesterday in one wind, and then it can be you hit driver, wedge one day and it could be driver, 3-wood the next day, so it depends, and you have to judge it when you get there and take each one as it comes.”

It’s go time at Galgorm ?#RaiseOurGame | #WorldInvitational pic.twitter.com/HIa3PFzL4u

— Ladies European Tour (@LETgolf) August 17, 2023

Maguire, who is No. 14 in the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings, will begin her competition at Castlerock alongside American Mina Hariage and Anne van Dam of the Netherlands.

While the Irishwoman also hopes the crowd will be able to appreciate the golf game of the men and women teeing it up this week.

“We’ll probably have quite different strategies in terms of how we play the holes,” she explained. “We’ll probably be going driver a lot out here, whereas they’re probably taking 2-irons and things off tees.

“It’s fun to see a few of the guys I played junior golf with. I was up here on Monday afternoon and two of the first guys I saw were Matteo Manassero and Adrian Otaegui, who I played the Junior Ryder Cup with in 2008.

“I haven’t really seen them since, so nice to catch up with them and see how far we’ve all come. We’ve all won on Tour now, and nice to see the journey.

“It’ll be fun for the fans as well to see those alternating groups and see the difference, and hopefully people don’t try to compare too much. I think that you can enjoy the skill of both the ladies and the men without having to sort of compare and contrast them. There are great things to see and learn from both sides.”

The 28-year-old who hails from Cavan, Ireland will have plenty of support on the ground this week with family and friends in attendance.

And after solid weeks in the final two majors of the year with T42 at The Amundi Evian Championship and T30 at the AIG Women’s Open, Maguire is not putting too much pressure on herself and is focusing on enjoying the game.

She added: “My mum and dad are here, my sister Lisa is on the bag, and I have lots of friends coming. A lot of friends from junior golf that we haven’t seen in quite a while. It’s nice to see some of those familiar faces, and anytime they are rooting you on, it’s extra special.

“All the pieces are there. It’s just getting them to click at the right time. Hopefully, that can sort of happen in the next few weeks again. The way the year has gone, getting the win and everything, everything that happens for the second half of the season is kind of a bonus.

“I’m not really putting too much pressure on myself. I just want to enjoy these few weeks of golf and the last of the European stretch and then we’ll finish the season off.”

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By Kent Paisley
At the ISPS Handa World Invitational in Northern Ireland, the three-way tie for the lead at 13 under of Pajaree Anannarukarn, Jennifer Kupcho, and Emma Talley sets up a chance for the fifth first-time winner to emerge on the LPGA Tour in 2021.

“It’s going to be a dream come true [if I win tomorrow], obviously,” Anannarukarn said.

The 22-year-old Thai native is playing the best golf of her LPGA career over the last three weeks heading into the final round at Galgorm Castle Golf Club. Anannarukarn teamed up with Aditi Ashok for a career-best T-3 finish at the Dow Great Lakes Bay Invitational and closed the Evian Championship last week at T-10. She played alongside winner Minjee Lee in the next-to-last group.

Anannarukarn continued her strong play with a seven-under 66 Saturday, including an eagle and five consecutive birdies on Nos. 9 through 14 to surge into the final group. Anannarukarn applied the patience she said she observed of Lee’s march in France toward her first major championship.

“It’s just when you’re at that point [in contention],” Anannarukarn explained, “In that position, where you’re giving yourself good contention into that, she’s [Lee] really playing really solid and patient, really focused and concentrate on her shot, every shot. I think that’s what I learned because sometimes I wasn’t really fully focused and not really fully committed.”

Kupcho, 24, has the most experience in contention of the trio at the top. Ranked 27th in world, she has finished second three times in her two-year LPGA career, most recently in March at the LPGA Drive On Championship. Kupcho was in the final pairing that week with winner Austin Ernst, but shot 74 and ended up losing by five.

“I think to just stay in it and focus on my own game,” Kupcho, who scored 70 on Saturday, said of how to handle the final round. “Come out with the score that I want to shoot instead of playing against someone else. I can’t control what everyone else is doing, so just go out and play my own game.”

Talley’s strong play this week also came from working on her approach in contention with her sports psychologist, Paul Dewland. They processed how she felt during her T-4 performance at the Volunteers of America Classic in early July. She took a share of the lead after the first round and finished with a career-low 63 to close her best result of 2021.

This week, Talley played the first two rounds at 13 under, holding a three-stroke advantage for the first 36-hole lead of her four-year LPGA career. Playing from the top of the leader board on the weekend was an adjustment for the 27-year-old, who shot even-par 73.

“Today honestly threw me off,” Talley said. “I was also very nervous. I haven’t been in this position in a long time, and the fact that I kind of came back after the double [bogey] on 9, I kind of got mad again and used that energy to make a few birdies in a row.”

Talley made four birdies, including three in a row from Nos. 11 through 13. Even though she lost her three-shot lead, Talley’s father gave her encouraging words after play, “My dad said, ‘Who wants to go in six ahead,’” Tally said. “’You want to come from behind or at least level with everybody.’”

The chasers have been in contention recently as well. Atthaya Thitikul, who lost by a shot to Ariya Jutanugarn at the Honda LPGA Thailand, sits three back at 10 under. Chella Choi, a shot behind the leaders at 12 under, could play spoiler for her second career LPGA victory. It’d be her first title since the 2015 Marathon Classic. The 30-year-old succinctly put the goal of all of the frontrunners on their opportunity for a breakthrough LPGA victory.

“Win,” Choi explained. “I really want to make a lot of great shots and make putts and try to enjoy it tomorrow.”

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By Christopher Powers
Over the last three years, Shane Lowry’s life has changed significantly. In March of 2017, he and his wife Wendy welcomed their first child, Iris. Just over two years later, the Irishman won the Open Championship, his first major title, at Royal Portrush in Northern Ireland. Making the victory all the more sweet was the fact that Wendy and Iris were on hand, yielding one of the most indelible images of the 2019 golf season.

It’s now been over a year since his breakthrough at Portrush, and life has changed significantly for everybody during the coronavirus pandemic. Some have lost family members, others have been separated from family members for extended periods of time, and the phrase “new normal” has gotten a ton of play in the news cycle.

Like many European Tour pros, Lowry had to make a difficult decision post-quarantine: hop on a long plane ride to stay in America for the remainder of the PGA Tour season or stay put. England’s Lee Westwood, who last played on the PGA Tour at Bay Hill, chose to stay put, electing to skip the PGA Championship due to coronavirus concerns. Lowry, on the other hand, has played in all but two events since the restart.

That means Lowry has been away from his family for all of this time, travelling from event to event. He’ll be away from them for at least 10 weeks, and potentially longer if he can crack the top 125 of the FedEx Cup standings (Lowry is currently 130th). He was asked about how difficult it has been, and how difficult it was to say goodbye to his wife and three-year-old Iris before coming back to work. Naturally, he had a very honest answer.

“Yeah, well, it was very difficult, but like I said to them, I’m not going off to war,” said Lowry. “Like I’m going to play golf. It’s not the end of the world. It’s strange times in our life, and it’s something that I have to do.”

RELATED: PGA Championship 2020 – Jason Day reflects on lone major five years ago

It’s certainly not war, but it’s a ton of golf packed into a short span. Thirteen events, one major, a WGC and potentially three playoff events. “Grind” is the operative golf word. As Lowry points out, it could be far worse.

“You know, it’s not easy, but it’s fine. Like I’m not going to stand here and want everyone to feel sorry for me because a lot of people have to do it in much more difficult circumstances. That’s kind of the way I’m looking at it.”

The perspective is a refreshing one from Lowry, and one he’s not alone in sharing. NBA big man Steven Adams, who plays for the Oklahoma City Thunder, had a similar exchange with a reporter who asked him about the difficulties of life in the bubble, as many players were complaining about the food and living conditions in Disney World. “It’s all good mate,” said the 7-foot New Zealander. “Let’s be clear mate: This is not Syria, mate. You know what I mean? It’s not that hard. It’s not that difficult. We’re living in a bloody resort.”

Drawing comparisons between Shane Lowry and Steven Adams. Major weeks tend to get weird, folks.

Even if Lowry doesn’t make the FedEx Cup playoffs, he’ll still be away from Iris and Wendy for another month or so.

“As it stands, I’m probably out here until after the U.S. Open because even if I don’t get in the FedEx, when I have to go home to Ireland I have to quarantine for two weeks so that doesn’t really make much sense. So yeah, I’m here until after the U.S. Open.

“Hopefully I can play some good golf and make it all worthwhile.”

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By John Huggan
This month, what America—and many other places, too—routinely refers to as the “British” Open is not being played in Britain at all, Great or otherwise. Take my word for that. But where then, is it being played?

In Northern Ireland, at Royal Portrush in County Antrim, for only the second time in the championship’s 159-year history and for the first time since 1951.

So what is Northern Ireland?

Depending on whom you talk to, it is either a region, a province or a country. But what it is not is “Ulster.” That term refers to a collection of nine counties within Ireland, six in Northern Ireland (Antrim, Down, Armagh, Derry, Fermanagh and Tyrone) and three in the Republic of Ireland (Cavan, Monaghan and Donegal).

Still, what is for sure is that the land of Rory McIlroy’s birth—and that of Graeme McDowell and Darren Clarke—is one of the four constituent parts of the United Kingdom, along with Scotland, England and Wales. I know this to be true because, on the front of my passport (I am from Scotland), it says “United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.”

So, by that logic, we now know that “Great Britain” is made up of three parts: Scotland, England and Wales. (Which is why a British Open played in Northern Ireland isn’t really a “British” Open.)

Hang on though.

Northern Ireland—which came into being as part of the U.K. in 1922—does, along with the Republic of Ireland, make up the island that is Ireland. There is no hard border between the two (at least until the mess that is the U.K.’s exit from the European Union, or “Brexit,” is sorted out). But the two are separate politically and use different currencies.

In Northern Ireland, the British pound is legal; in the Republic, the Euro is valid. And, while the citizens of Northern Ireland vote for members of parliament who attend the House of Commons at Westminster (the British Parliament) in London, those down south in the Republic elect members to the Irish Parliament—the Dail Eireann, which translates into “Assembly of Ireland.”

Then there’s the expression, “British Isles.” Just to add to any confusion, that collective term refers to all five countries: Scotland, England, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.

Oleg Chepurin

And there’s one last thing.

Because Ireland plays as one nation in golf (and rugby, but not soccer), drawing players from both Northern Ireland and the Republic, the likes of McIlroy, Clarke and McDowell, and anyone else born north of the border is eligible to represent either Ireland or the United Kingdom in the Olympics. Hence the controversy over McIlroy’s participation (and eventual non-participation) in Rio de Janeiro in 2016, although he has already announced that he will represent the Republic of Ireland in Tokyo next year.

Got all that? I hope so. But, as someone once said, “as soon as we solve the Irish question, they change the question.”

The post The Open 2019: Why this Open is not a British Open appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

At Abu Dhabi Golf Club’s 177-yard par 3 15th hole, all three pros found the putting surface, with McIlroy’s being the closest. Despite the immense pressure for Murphy, a six-handicapper, he pulled out a 3 wood and striped it:

Playing with your hero, @McIlroyRory –

Taking down the World Number One –

Today is a day 13 year old Oscar Murphy will never forget. pic.twitter.com/yGLLUrreQc

— DP World Tour (@DPWorldTour) January 18, 2018

Another thing the European Tour does well? Commentating. “What a crackerjack, like a young Rory.” So perfect.

Murphy’s ball settled 25 feet from the pin, good enough to be inside Fleetwood and Johnson, the No. 1 player in the world. Not too shabby. And even though McIlroy just beat him out, he and Fleetwood were both in awe when talking about Murphy’s shot after the round.

“The pin was tucked on the right and he hit this three wood, just faded in to the pin,” said Fleetwood.“An unbelievable shot and me and Rory both said ‘we don’t have that in our locker’.”

McIlroy added:“Oscar lives here. He’s from Northern Ireland so he’s been following me since the 2011 PGA Championship in Atlanta.

“Every round I play here I feel like he’s my little mascot. I wasn’t expecting to see him on the tee there – I was a little bit surprised to see him inside the ropes but he hit a great shot.”

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There are few better places on the planet to play golf than Northern Ireland. Home to breathtaking links courses and countryside made famous by ‘Game of Thrones’, the weather may be changeable but the welcome is always first class here
By Robbie Greenfield

[divider] [/divider]

’m generally o.k. when it comes to first tee jitters, but on a bright, chilly morning at Royal Portrush Golf Club in early June, mild panic had officially set in. The bigger the golf course, the more desperately you want to get that first shot safely away, and when it comes to links courses, few come bigger than Portrush.

For my impending first drive, the devil was in the details. Portrush’s first hole is not tight by any means, but somewhat uncharitably, it has ominous white out-of-bounds posts lining not one but both of its perimeters, in sweat-inducing symmetry. Reluctantly, I drew a mental line through ‘cowardly bail-out’ as one of my possible opening shot selections.

Furthermore, my playing partner was head professional Gary McNeill, a mighty fine player who used to tussle with the likes of Darren Clarke, Padraig Harrington and Paul McGinley in his youth as one of Ireland’s top amateurs. Gary had given me a typically warm Northern Irish welcome, but I still didn’t fancy embarrassing myself in front of him.

Then there was the crowd of onlookers and fellow golfers shuffling around in my peripheral vision. This happens a lot on famous links courses. Starters, caddies and overly eager players congregate on the first tee well ahead of their designated slot to take in the atmosphere and pick the brains of the locals. On this particular morning, a small army of players had assembled to play a practice round for the famous Causeway Coast golf tournament. Most of them were watching me go about my pre-shot routine like rubberneckers at the scene of an accident.

As I took the club back, I realised I was no longer in control of my own body. I just had to hope the golfing gods took pity on me, because this ball was heading wherever they decided it should go. With an enormous surge of relief, I watched it scamper down the fairway. The shot was thinner than a professional marathon runner, but the dreaded first tee reload had been avoided. “Nice shot,” said Gary, very generously, before ripping his own piercing drive down the left side of the hole.  As if sensing that I hadn’t drawn a breath in almost a minute, he added: “Don’t worry, we’ll take plenty of mulligans.”

And so began one of the most enjoyable and exhilarating rounds of golf I’ve ever played.

Welcome to Northern Ireland, where you’ll make more friends on a golf trip (and probably bogeys) than anywhere else. Later that afternoon, I joined a threeball at nearby Castlerock Golf Club who were competing in the Causeway Coast event. Consisting of an Irishman, an Englishman and a Canadian, it was fitting that this sounds like the set-up to an old gag because all they did was laugh and joke the entire way around. The Irishman, Mick, who was approaching 70 but had clearly been a great player in his younger days, told me: “I play twice as much golf as I used to, but with only half the number of hips.” If his swing had begun to desert him, his sense of humour was going nowhere.

This was my second visit to Northern Ireland, having played some links golf here in 2008 and after falling in love with it back then, I returned to find a country that is riding the crest of a wave. Timing is everything of course, and having put The Troubles that plagued the nation for the best part of 40 years up to the turn of the century well behind them, Northern Ireland is booming. And so is its golf.

Welcome to Northern Ireland, where you’ll make more friends on a golf trip (and probably bogeys) than anywhere else in the world.

My first port of call was to head to the Dubai Duty Free Irish Open at Royal County Down, my favourite golf course on the planet and surely the most spectacular piece of linksland you will ever set eyes on. The Irish Open had been in peril as recently as five years ago, with the downturn in the economy threatening to force it off the European Tour schedule, but it’s now hard to think of a tournament on the global circuit in ruder health. Hosted by World No.1 Rory McIlroy and his Rory Foundation, attracting a superb field that included Players Champion Rickie Fowler and former World No.1s Ernie Els, Luke Donald and Martin Kaymer, and welcoming a new headline sponsor in Dubai Duty Free, the fact that it was staged on one of the best (and most difficult) courses in the world was the icing on the cake.

The greatest defence of any links course is the weather and in this respect, County Down was armed to the teeth. Three weeks short of the summer solstice and this exposed stretch of land beneath the Mourne Mountains was doing a good impression of mid-February. Pro golfers waddled the fairways in several layers of clothing and full-body rain suits, like logoed Michelin men.

The wind tends to whip across County Down, making its numerous blind tee shots and approaches into greens like upturned saucers even more challenging. The best players in the world were having to aim balls over the rough to ensure they landed on fairway or green, often misjudging this horribly. No putt outside two feet looked routine, even for these brilliant putters.

As I watched Soren Kjeldsen, Bernd Wiesberger and Tommy Fleetwood battle their way into a playoff that was eventually won in thrilling style by the determined Dane, I couldn’t help thinking: If these guys are making hard work of this, how on earth are the rest of us going to fare? The very next day I got my answer.

After enjoying a typically hearty cooked Irish breakfast and checking out of the magnificent Slieve Donard hotel early in the morning, I was headed for the north Antrim coast and a date with the links at Portstewart, stopping off at some of Northern Ireland’s world famous attractions along the way. The countryside here is breathtaking, and it has found extra fame as one of the main filming locations in HBO’s fantasy drama Game of Thrones. Ever the entrepreneurs, it hasn’t taken the locals long to cater to the show’s army of diehard fans.

You can now book the full ‘Game of Thrones experience’ through a number of tour operators, which takes visitors to the heart of Winterfell and then up into the Iron Islands. Tourism Northern Ireland’s Lucia King assured me that no one had yet been ambushed by an army of Lannisters, or chased by a dire wolf.

The countryside here is breathtakingly beautiful, and it has found extra fame as one of the filming locations for Game of Thrones.

As you circumnavigate the grand city of Belfast, you pass a sign at the start of the Antrim coast road that informs drivers they are entering an ‘area of outstanding natural beauty’. This would be an understatement. After winding along a road that skirts right up against the rugged coastline, you pass over a high moor and arrive at the star attractions on this stretch of coast, the Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge and the jaw-droppingly stunning Giant’s Causeway. This rock feature was formed when molten lava thrust up through the earth’s crust and was cooled by the (freezing) waters of the sea, or as the result of a disagreement between two mythical giants, Finn McCool and Benandonner (depending on who you listen to).

By the time I left the visitors centre it had started to rain, and when I pulled into the carpark at Portstewart, the film Noah was springing to mind. A 40mph wind was delivering pelting rain horizontally into my face as golfers from all corners of the course were beating a hasty retreat.

They don’t shy away from a bit of weather in this part of the world, but even the lady in the pro shop regarded me with sympathy. “You’re welcome to give it a try,” she offered tentatively. Despite the lure of a Guinness and a steak and kidney pie in the clubhouse, I ventured to the first tee, bent double against the howling wind and attracting double-takes from a large group of Americans who had finished their round.

Portstewart is a spectacular golf course, with sweeping holes that bisect the towering dunes on either side, but sadly this was no day to enjoy the views. My first shot squirted into the thick rough, and eight lost balls later (I was only on the fourth tee) I decided to admit defeat.

They say Northen Ireland gets four seasons in a day, and by the time I drove back to the Bushmills Inn – a gorgeous boutique hotel that is geared towards the needs of golfers – a gentle evening sun was casting long shadows across the crumpled landscape.

A famous topic in these parts demands that golfers elect a preference either for County Down or the Dunluce course at Portrush. I have always been a County Down man, but Portrush – home to Darren Clarke and Graeme McDowell and the site of Rory McIlroy’s course record 61, is closing the gap fast. The major news is that The Open is heading back here to Northen Ireland, for the first time since Portrush last hosted the championship in 1951.

The announcement was made by the R&A last year following a long and tireless campaign led by the likes of Clarke to bring The Open back to his home course, with a likely year set either for 2019 or 2020. And what a venue this grand old course will be. It is a stunning links, let down only slightly by a closing pair of holes out of character with the rest of the layout. But that is the first item on the Open Championship agenda, Gary explained.

“We’re incorporating the far corner of the Valley course and adding two brand new holes there, which will be in the seventh and eighth during The Open. So the current sixteenth, which is a cracking dogleg par 4, will become the finishing hole,” he explains. Further tweaks and changes are planned to elevate Portrush to an even greater level of perfection, with the ‘Big Nellie’ bunker currently on 17 scheduled to be recreated on the new seventh. Additional bunkers and new tee placements will make Portrush an exacting test when it hosts the game’s oldest and grandest tournament.

But for now, I was left to admire a true links player in action, as Gary peppered one flagstick after another with a succession of precision iron shots. This is golf at its most challenging, where bogeys can feel like pars and one crooked bounce can be the difference between fairway and knee-high rough. But it is also golf at its most artistic and exhilirating. You will attempt shots you never knew you had in you. You will envisage lines and angles you’ve never thought of before.

On the windswept links of Northern Ireland, your scorecard is secondary to the thrill of battling the elements. This is golf in its purest form and for this thriving little country, it promises to get even better still.

www.discovernorthernireland.com

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