More love for Portrush, but it's rough...

[Brian_Gracely]

One of the great challenges at Portrush is that it requires precision off the tee.  Missing the fairways can lead to a lie like one of the follow:

Against the grain:


With the grain:


Growing straight up & down:


And sometimes it's not just a matter of punching it out, as my brother finds here at the Par5 9th.  Colt does a great job at Portrush of not only putting bunkers into the hills, but allowing them to retain the nature slope of the land:



The 8th is a short Par4 dogleg right.  The play is a long iron off the tee and then an accurate approach with a short-iron.  Accuracy is key on #8:


I love how Colt built the green right into the edge of the dune, rewarding accuracy with a short shot into the green, and severely punishing the miss:



I'll be Darren K. friendly and post the back 9 pictures in a separate thread.

[jeebert]

 Brian,
Thanks for the wonderful pics.  One of my favorite courses in the British Isles!!

I know Calamity gets a lot of print and rightly so but one of my favorites is #4.  Sometimes I believe it plays as a par 5 and other times a par 4.  Correct me if I'm wrong.

How on earth did you ever find your ball?
You know there is a 5 minute rule don't you?  

[Brian_Gracely]

I know Calamity gets a lot of print and rightly so but one of my favorites is #4.  Sometimes I believe it plays as a par 5 and other times a par 4.  Correct me if I'm wrong.

How on earth did you ever find your ball?
You know there is a 5 minute rule don't you?  

I'm not sure if #4 plays as a Par4 or Par5, but it's definitely as least a Par 4.5.  The other thing I remember about #4 was the little stand along the bushes on the right side.  I can't remember what they were selling, but I recall it being a little oasis after that tee-shot.  Neil Regan or HP@HC, do you know what this is?

Finding our ball was no easy task, especially on some of the doglegs where you didn't exactly know how far to hit it off the tee.  The good news was we usually found 4-5 other balls if we didn't find ours, so we never went without  

[Darren_Kilfara]

Wow, Brian, you are too kind!

Count me among those who think Portrush deserves all of the acclaim it gets, but I'm afraid I was being a bit of an ass on the day I played it and wasn't in the best frame of mind to enjoy it. I really need to make a proper golfing trip to Ireland one of these days - a tough proposition with Scotland proverbially on one's doorstep!

Cheers,
Darren

[Paul_Turner]

I remember the rough at Portrush having some wiry prickly plant-a bit like a strawberry plant.  Southerness has it too.