St. Andrews is the epitome of links golf, but there's many left to discover in the British Isles
Great Britain and Ireland have the highest concentration of links golf courses in the world, primarily due to the amount of sandy dunes land along the sea that’s ideally suited for links golf, and for nothing else, save for the grazing of cattle. The guys over at the A Position, have published an article listing the best golf courses to never host an Open Championship, and it lists a host of golf clubs that would be worthy to host an Open Championship.
First, if you haven’t checked out the A Position, it’s worth a look. It’s a gathering of professional golf writers which publish their articles to this website about golf travel, equipment, the tours, and instruction, I personally like their golf travel and golf course reviews sections by a host of well known authors. Like Forelinksters, it doesn’t appear to be influenced by outside agencies or advertising, which is the problem with most golf course review sites and magazines.
Their article on the best golf courses to never host an Open Championship is right on target. Every course they’ve listed would be ideal as a venue, in fact many are better than those in the current Open Rota. The Rota is the current rotation of golf clubs which have been selected to host the Open over the years, the last one added was Turnberry in 1977.
In addition to their suggestions, we would put forth the Rye Golf Club on England’s east coastline at the English Channel in East Sussex where a par of 68 provides one of the toughest golf courses in Great Britain. Machrihanish, at the tip of the Mull of Kintyre would be the least attended Open Championship, since it’s a five hour trek from Glasgow with a combination of ferries or a long drive down the Mull. Save for the travel it’s one fantastic Tom Morris links layout with one of the best openers in golf, a drive across the Atlantic to the first fairway. Finally, although the Republic of Ireland has never hosted an Open, Northern Ireland’s Royal Portrush hosted the last in 1955, Carne Golf Links in far northwest Ireland’s Co Mayo, is Eddie Hackett’s last design, admittedly his best work, is a rugged links layout overlooking Blacksod Bay and the wild Atlantic Ocean near the town of Belmullet.
There’s at least a dozen other links courses in Great Britain and Ireland worthy of holding an Open Championship, that’s the fun of poking about and discovering these gems in the British Isles which are relatively unknown in America.
