Championship Links, Grand Hotels and Capital Nights. Northern Ireland has it all in abundance.

Northern Ireland has never been short of links golf to boast about. Royal County Down, Royal Portrush and Portstewart sell golf holidays on their names alone. On a recent trip I got the chance to see what sits around and between them and it proved to me once again that there is far more golf to experience in Northern Ireland than links.

The invitation came from Tourism Ireland. Four days and three nights, with rounds at Malone, Galgorm Castle, Portstewart and Cairndhu, plus a visit to the Giant’s Causeway, a stay in the luxurious Galgorm Resort and lively a night out in Belfast. 

Why Look Beyond the Links?

Top100GolfCourses’ Northern Ireland ranking reads like a links roll call. Royal County Down’s Championship course leads it, followed by Royal Portrush’s Dunluce and Portstewart Strand, with Royal Portrush’s Valley, Castlerock’s Mussenden and Royal County Down’s Annesley next in line. In the same publisher’s 2026 Great Britain and Ireland list, Royal County Down holds the top spot, as it has since 2006. The Dunluce is third, and Portstewart is among the courses moving up.

Three of the four courses on our itinerary were not links at all, and that was the appeal. Malone sits seventh in that Northern Ireland ranking, the only parkland in the top seven. Galgorm has staged the Irish Open. Cairndhu offers headland golf high above the Antrim Coast Road with dramatic views of the North West coastline. Played together, they make a varied week, with the undulations of the front 9 on the Strand course at Portstewart and the recently renovated back 9 ensuring any link junkie gets their fix of dramatic dunes and fescue! 

Malone: Belfast’s Parkland Benchmark

Our first stop after landing in Belfast was less than a 30 minute drive to Malone GC. We were unlucky with the weather, which was a shame given the quality of the course, but it was clear this is one of the premier courses for membership and tournament golf. 

Top100GolfCourses is unequivocal about Malone:

“If you are in Belfast and you’ve got your golf clubs handy, make sure you play the immaculately conditioned Malone Golf Club. You’ll be hard pressed to find a better parkland course in Northern Ireland.”

The club has 27 holes spread across 330 acres of wooded, undulating parkland, five miles from Belfast city centre. Mature trees frame numerous holes, but the natural trout lake decides the championship round. It comes into play from the 13th, which the club rates its second-hardest hole. The 15th is a par three demanding a full carry over water to an undulating green. On the 18th, anything missing the green to the right is in danger of getting wet.

The course ebbs and flows over the natural terrain, presenting a superb test that will test all level of golfer. The tee selection gives everyone a fair chance, with the white tees of the Drumbridge/Ballydrain combination currently a challenging course rate of 71.0.

Malone was founded in 1895 at Stranmillis and later moved to the Harberton estate, where Alister MacKenzie was engaged and where the 1933 Irish Open was played. It finally settled at Ballydrain. The club credits Commander John Harris, working with C.K. Cotton, with the current course. Hawtree and Son proposed the revised nine in 1965 that became today’s Ballydrain nine. A year later, Tony Jacklin won the Blaxnit International Golf Tournament here.

Club manager (and full member) Paddy Dean explained some of the amateur and professional tournaments that had been held at Malone GC. The main one being the Ulster Men’s Scratch Foursomes Open, which draws pairs in from all over Ireland. 

Belfast’s parkland offering may soon grow. Balmoral Golf Club proposes to relocate from south Belfast to a 149-acre site at New Grove House on Ballylesson Road, near Drumbo. Paul McGinley, Europe’s 2014 Ryder Cup captain, has drawn up the proposed design. The plans include an 18-hole Paul McGinley Signature championship course, a driving range and a restored Georgian New Grove House as clubhouse. A public consultation was held on 18 June.

“Ballylesson will be a truly classic and timeless golf course, rooted in the traditions of the game and embracing a minimalist philosophy where the land itself shapes every golf hole. Its natural contours, subtle nuances and strategic character will provide a pure, authentic, and enduring test of golf”

McGinley said in comments published by Belfast Live.

Capital Nights: Meatlocker & Madden’s Bar

Staying in the Grand Central Hotel in Belfast was a real treat for the the first night of our stay. The hotel is stylish and immaculate and the hotel rooms are spacious and comfortable. 

We started our evening with a short walk from the hotel to an American style steakhouse called Meatlocker, part of Deans, by Michelin Star chef, Michael Dean. This venue delivered exactly what it said on the tin, with an exceptional menu, perfect for the hungry meat eating golfer!

When you combine the sheer skill of Deanes Chefs with the superb quality and consistency of the beef, lamb and pork from Co Down with the accuracy of the Asador Grill you create an excellent product that is unique and is at the heart of Deanes Meat Locker

For the night out in Belfast we went to Madden’s Bar on Berry Street, one of the city’s most traditional pubs. Madden’s calls itself Belfast’s home of traditional Irish music and puts on live sessions seven nights a week. The walls are hung with Gaelic posters and traditional instruments, there is an upstairs space for céilís (traditional Irish gathering), and a snug doubles as the recording room for the “Music at Maddens” podcast. If you want a Belfast pub rather than a Belfast bar, this is the one.

Galgorm Castle: Tournament Golf and a Spa Village

Galgorm’s Championship Castle Course was designed by Simon Gidman and opened in 1997. It is a par-72 parkland on the 220-acre Galgorm Castle estate. The rivers Maine and Braid border the layout and come into play on several holes. There are also five lakes, plus an oxbow lake beside the 14th, and multiple tee options keep it manageable for every standard of player.

The tournament pedigree is substantial:

• The Dubai Duty Free Irish Open in 2020.
• The ISPS Handa World Invitational in 2019 and from 2021 to 2023.
• The Northern Ireland Open, which Galgorm hosts as its established home.

In September, Steven Alker won the NI Legends at 15 under par, two clear of Hennie Otto, whose closing rounds were 65 and 64.

“The greens are unbelievable and if you hit it close you can make the putts,” said Otto. “I just tried to be positive on the greens and it certainly did over the last two days.”

Practice facilities include a Toptracer range, extensive short game and putting areas and a six-hole pitch-and-putt course.

My experience of the course was nothing but positive. The conditioning is exceptional throughout and the tees, greens and bunkers all score 10/10, which is what makes parkland golf such a pleasure to play. The routing of the back 9 alongside the River Main is unique, and tests accuracy off the tee on many holes and adds a feeling of being close to unspoilt Irish nature to an otherwise highly manicured experience. 

The course finishes with a beautiful and challenging 18th hole, which has become iconic for the tournaments held here. With water surrounding the left side of the green and bunkers on the right, a strong finish reaching the green in two shots is possible, but by no means easy. 

Galgorm Resort 

The golf is only half of Galgorm’s story. Our base was the resort, a luxury, family-friendly hotel set in 550 acres of parkland with the River Maine running through the grounds. Alongside its 125 guestrooms are cottage suites, log cabins, shepherd’s huts, forest dens and private residences, several of them suited to groups and families.

After a solid round of golf the Thermal Spa Village at the hotel was the perfect place to relax, reflect, and even test ourselves with a dip in the plunge pool! We were blown away by the vastness of the whole spa village, which is among the largest and most extensive in the UK and Ireland. It spreads across four gardens: Riverside, Forest Spa, Alpine and Walled. Facilities include indoor and outdoor pools, a vitality pool, saunas, a snow cabin, a salt cave, experience showers and riverside bathing tubs, plus 15 treatment rooms. Day guests can use it as well as residents, which is worth knowing if you are staying elsewhere and need a cure for tired legs.

For any non-golfers in the group, (or wives and girlfriends who may not play) this offers a unique and memorable experience that will occupy may hours of relaxation. 

The Galgorm Hotel and Spa runs several restaurants and bars, meaning once you arrive there is no need to travel offsite during your stay, unless the desire takes you. Restaurants include: 

• Gillies for casual dining.
• Fratelli, a family-friendly Italian.
• The Conservatory for afternoon tea.
• Castle Kitchen + Bar at the golf clubhouse.
• The Palm House for drinks in the Walled Garden.
• Elements Spa Eatery, inside a Halodome in the Riverside Garden.

The Giant’s Causeway

The following morning we awoke to a beautiful October morning with time allocated to a visit to the Giant’s Causeway. I’d been wanting to see the famous World Heritage site for a number of years and this time we finally managed it. Around 60 million years ago, volcanic activity left roughly 40,000 regularly shaped basalt columns beneath the cliffs of the Antrim Plateau. They come with a long tradition of legends about giants crossing the sea to Scotland.

The views are spectacular and the stones themselves other worldly. Walking down to the stones on the public right of way costs nothing and was the perfect way to warm up the joints before our next round of golf. The Trust says most visitors spend about two hours there, so plan your tee time accordingly.

Portstewart Strand & Northern Ireland’s Most Dramatic Holes

Portstewart Golf Club was founded in 1894 and has three 18-hole links courses. We played the Strand, which hosted the 2017 Dubai Duty Free Irish Open, won by Jon Rahm, whose verdict appears on the club’s website:

“The golf course is amazing. It’s probably one of the most beautiful golf courses I have ever seen, if not the most”

The original Strand opened in 1908 and was revised by Willie Park Jr in the early 1920s. The course as we know it arrived in 1992. After the club bought Thistly Hollow, Des Giffin, a mathematics teacher at Coleraine’s grammar school, built seven new holes through its untouched dunes. The sixth now carries his name.

Those dunes give the front nine its drama, with elevated tees, big changes of level and fairways threaded between sandhills. The opening hole is a downhill, right-turning par four with the Atlantic behind it and views across the Strand to Mussenden Temple and the Donegal hills. It is one of the great first tees in the game. The precision required to navigate your way through the dune on the outward 9 of the Strand course can’t be underestimated. 

The inward nine runs over lower, more open ground beside the River Bann, and that is where the recent work has been done. European Golf Design was appointed in 2022 to draw up a masterplan for all three courses. The firm’s own project account is candid about the brief:

The Strand course is the highlight of the project, with improvements focused on its back nine holes, which currently lack the same visual and strategic appeal as the front nine,” the account reads. “EGD’s work involves upgrading bunkering, remodelling greens with steep gradients, and ensuring that these holes align more closely with the striking character of the rest of the course.

Holes 10 to 15 were redesigned first. The closing three were remodelled over the winter of 2025-26 before the full course reopened in June. From the blue tees it measures 6,592 yards, par 71, with a course rating of 72.5 and slope of 128. The 6,109-yard whites offer a gentler alternative.

The finish is three stout par fours. The 17th, Agherton, is 420 yards and stroke index 2, named for the old church and graveyard visible in the distance. The 18th, Strand Head, runs 422 yards. The 387-yard 16th, The Hopley, takes its name from the George A Hopley, shipwrecked on Portstewart Strand in 1856. According to the club, the wreck can still be seen at low tide from the 16th green, looking out towards Inishowen Head.

After finishing our rounds, we headed down to Portrush to stay at a a comfortable, modern yet cosy hotel, called The Marcus, part of the Tapestry Collection by Hilton. The evening ended with the obligatory Guinness in the famous Harbour Bar, an historic, character filler Irish pub, with 3 floors that all come to life in the evening. 

Cairndhu: Headland Golf on the Antrim Coast

Cairndhu sits at Ballygally, near Larne, on the Antrim Coast Road between Belfast and Portrush, which makes it a natural stop on the back down the coast. It began life as Larne Town Golf Club in 1928. John S.F. Morrison of Colt, Allison and Morrison designed the current course, which opened in May 1958, and his second nine followed in 1963. A 1981 pro-am here drew a field that included future major champions Nick Price and Ian Woosnam.

The opening stretch is unlike anything else on the trip. The first is an uphill par four to a raised green that gathers shots from the right and rejects anything left. Then comes the signature second, The Head. This par three measures 156 yards from the back, and its tee sits almost 100 metres above the coast road. It plays to a long, narrow green that falls sharply away on the left, with a bunker at the front right and views across to the Scottish coast and the Antrim Plateau. We were told by the local members it can play anything from a sandwedge to a 1 iron depending on the wind.

The club’s course guide offers advice worth taking:

“Have the courage of your convictions, especially into the wind – hit the ball better, not harder, and use the slope to the right of the green to gather the ball.”

The third, High Corner, begins with a blind carry of around 130 metres across rough, gorse and rocks before the approach drops to a green guarded by big bunkers on both sides. The fourth climbs again to a ledge green, and the fifth descends with views over Drains Bay, Larne and Islandmagee. 

The elevation settles down after the front 9 but the course never disappoints to challenge and interest, as it winds its way through valleys and woodland to a crescendo climax, with a reachable par 5 sevententh and drivable par 4 to finish.  

Visitors and societies are welcome, and tee times can be booked online on the golf club website.

Golf Today Verdict

Four days in Northern Ireland is only enough to leave you wanting more. Home to one of the highest concentrations of top-tier golf courses in the British Isles, it delivers world-class playing conditions at every turn. Beyond the fairways, Belfast buzzes with dynamic nightlife, exceptional dining, and rich local culture. Thanks to seamless flight connections from the US and across Europe via two major airports, your next unforgettable golf getaway is closer than you think. Visit www.ireland.com/golf for more details.