Royal Portrush

The list of Opens staged at Royal Portrush might be short, but it is certainly impressive.

The Dunluce course on Northern Ireland’s north coast has staged two of the more iconic Championships in history and if The 153rd Open in 2025 can match them for drama, we are in for quite the show.

Royal Portrush first staged The Open in 1951 and left an indelible mark.

The 80th Open is known for many things: the charismatic winner Max Faulkner, the first Open played outside of Great Britain and the Championship debut of Peter Thomson.

It seems unthinkable now in light of the excitement for the Claret Jug’s second return to Northern Ireland in six years, but eyebrows were raised when Royal Portrush was picked to host 73 years ago.

After all, the Championship had never been taken outside Scotland and England since its formation almost a century prior in 1860.

Introducing Max Faulkner

With Portrush officially announced as the venue in November 1949, work on refurbishing the clubhouse and preparing the course began in earnest soon after.

An incredible 183 golfers from 14 countries, including Thomson, a then unknown 21-year-old from the northern Melbourne suburb of Brunswick, descended on the town that sits just eight miles from the famous Giant's Causeway.

Thomson would go on to win The Open on five occasions, including consecutive victories in 1954, 1955 and 1956 as he became only the fourth player to complete such a hat-trick.

Another player among the field in 1951 was Faulkner, a two-time Irish Open runner-up who found himself with a two-shot lead at the midway stage.

The Englishman only increased his advantage at the top after posting a second consecutive 70, opening up a six-shot gap to his nearest rivals - Antonio Cerda and Norman Sutton.

Faulkner was assisted all the way by his trusted, if slightly eccentric, caddie Michael 'Mad Mack' Burke, who gained attention for wearing a long raincoat with no shirt.

With advice from his man on the bag such as, “The putt is slightly straight, sir”, Faulkner went into the final round feeling confident about his chances. In fact, he was almost too confident.

'I knew it would end this way'

When asked to sign an autograph for a young boy, whose father requested he add ‘Open Champion’ because, “You are going to win, aren’t you?”, Faulkner duly obliged.

“I said, ‘Good God, I’ve got 18 holes to play’. Then I thought, nobody will catch me.” he said. “I have nightmares now when I think about it, but I’m arrogant on a golf course, always have been.”

Faulkner’s faith in his own ability soon began to waver, however. He almost went out of bounds on the 1st and struggled to a front nine of 37, salvaged only by his red-hot putter.

A crushing weight'

“Never in my life have I experienced such strain. It was like a crushing weight,” he said. “I developed a cracking headache and was not far from passing out on two or three occasions.”

With the late starters beginning to close the gap, Faulkner even overheard one spectator on the 13th hole say: “It doesn’t look as if he’s going to win it after all.”

Bogeys at 15 and 16 - the latter coming where he had hit what Frank Stranahan called the “greatest shot I’ve ever seen” in his third round - only added to the pressure before a birdie at the 17th steadied the ship.

Another bogey at the last saw him finish with a 74 and left him with a nervous wait in the clubhouse, with Cerda needing to complete the last three holes in 12 shots for a play-off.

Yet the Argentinian ultimately fell two shots short and Faulkner was crowned Champion Golfer of the Year, leaving him to reflect: “I somehow knew it was going to end up this way.”

Shane's time

Shane Lowry also predicted it. As he walked off the back of the 18th green at Royal Liverpool in 2014, he predicted his day would come.

"I know if I have a chance down the line, I can play the golf,” he said after a 65 that saw him tie for eighth at The 143rd Open.

"I'm very comfortable in these surroundings. I love links golf and I think I'm good in bad conditions.”

You bet he is. The manner in which the Irishman walked away with the Claret Jug at The 148th Open only made it only stranger that it had taken him five years to do it.

Such was his concentration, focus and determination that it was only when his head emerged into sight over the crest of the hill leading to the 18th green that he allowed himself to soak it in – cheered on by those from the north and those from the south of this island, who managed to make The 148th Open feel like one giant homecoming, 68 years after its previous trip to Royal Portrush.

Rory’s charge

Despite being from the island of Ireland, Lowry was not initially the man most locals were desperate to see.

That was Rory McIlroy, the 2014 Champion Golfer, a four-time major winner and perhaps Northern Ireland’s greatest ever athlete.

The ovation McIlroy received as he strolled onto the first tee box at around 10am on the first morning was similar to what he would have experienced walking down the 18th at Royal Liverpool en route to victory five years before.

That can breed nerves, though, and McIlroy was errant with his first tee shot, sending it out of bounds down the left.

He struggled to regain his composure from there and shot a 79, leaving his hopes in tatters.

However, neither McIlroy nor the Royal Portrush crowd were finished there. The local hero returned on Friday and sparked enormous excitement with one of the rounds of the week.

Roared on by the gallery, he attacked pins and dropped birdies aplenty on his way to a memorable 65 – finishing just one stroke from making the cut.

Super Shane produces round for the ages

The subsequent Saturday at The 148th Open will go down in history as the day Lowry put himself among the Championship’s greats and moved to the verge of a stunning victory.

Lowry produced one of the most outstanding rounds in Open history as an eight-birdie, zero-bogey effort saw him break the Royal Portrush course record on this layout with a 63, He narrowly missed a putt on the last to join Branden Grace as the only man to shoot 62 in a major to that point.

He shared the lead for much of the afternoon with Tommy Fleetwood but hit the accelerator to sink five birdies on the back nine – including three in a row on 15, 16 and 17 – to the backdrop of an atmosphere more synonymous with Glastonbury than golf.

The party from the fans afterwards – with football chants and pop songs lauding Lowry reverberating round Portrush long into the night – suggested he had already won the Claret Jug. While that was not yet the case, the four-stroke lead he could take into Sunday was certainly a huge boon.

Lowry sees it home

A bogey on the 1st hole on Sunday cut Lowry’s lead to three – but that gap was as close as it got all day.

Lowry birdied the 4th, 5th and 7th to always keep Fleetwood at arm’s length and stop an all-time classic shootout developing.

The Sunday tee times had been moved forward due to an adverse weather forecast in Portrush and conditions became increasingly wet and windy as the day progressed, but the Irishman controlled his golf ball and held his nerve despite three further bogeys.

A six-stroke lead heading to the 18th meant the 32-year-old could enjoy the greatest walk in golf knowing the Claret Jug was waiting for him and his one-over round of 72 meant the winning score was 15-under-par, with Fleetwood settling for second on nine-under-par.