Portstewart Golf Club consists of three 18-hole courses situated in the town of

Portstewart Portstewart () is a small town in County Londonderry, Northern Ireland. It had a population of 8,003 people in the 2011 Census. It is a seaside resort neighbouring Portrush. Its harbour and scenic coastal paths form an Atlantic promenade leadin ...

County Londonderry County Londonderry ( Ulster-Scots: ''Coontie Lunnonderrie''), also known as County Derry ( ga, Contae Dhoire), is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, one of the thirty two counties of Ireland and one of the nine counties of Ulster. B ...

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

. Golf was first played there as far back as 1889. The three courses are: the Strand Course (par 72), a championship course, the Riverside Course (par 68) and the Old Course (par 64), which is where the club was founded in 1894. Portstewart Golf Club hosted the

Dubai Duty Free Irish Open The Irish Open (currently known as the Horizon Irish Open for sponsorship reasons) () is a professional golf tournament on the European Tour. The Irish Open was first played in 1927 and was played annually, except for the war years, until 1950. ...

in 2017, setting up a three-week spell of links golf culminating in

The Open Championship The Open Championship, often referred to as The Open or the British Open, is the oldest golf tournament in the world, and one of the most prestigious. Founded in 1860, it was originally held annually at Prestwick Golf Club in Scotland. Later th ...

History

The club was founded in 1894 and started off as 9 holes at the existing location of the Old Course. This was upgraded to 18 holes in 1934. In 1920 the club built another clubhouse at Strand Head and Willie Park Jr. designed 18 holes and this is now currently the Strand Course. In 1986 the club purchased land in the sand dunes known as 'Thistly Hollow' which allowed seven new stunning holes to be built in these towering dunes and in natural links land, these holes were designed by club member Des Giffin. Due to this makeover on the Strand Course left an extra 9 holes from the original layout, which was expanded to 18 holes in 2001 and this is now currently the Riverside Course.

Tournaments

The club held a qualifying round for

in 1951 when it was played at Royal Portrush. The club played host to the Irish Amateur Close Championship in 1992, and has hosted other events such as the Irish Professional and Irish Amateur. The British Girls Championship was also hosted in 2006, won by Belen Mozo of Spain. Most recently it has co-hosted

The Amateur Championship The Amateur Championship (sometimes referred to as the British Amateur or British Amateur Championship outside the UK) is a golf tournament which has been held annually in the United Kingdom since 1885 except during the two World Wars, and in 19 ...

in 2014 along with

Royal Portrush Royal Portrush Golf Club is a private golf club (institution), golf club in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. The 36-hole club has two links (golf), links golf course, courses, the Dunluce Links (the championship course) and the Valley Links. The ...

which was won by

Bradley Neil Bradley Hay Neil (born 16 January 1996) is a Scottish professional golfer. He won the 2014 Amateur Championship. Amateur career In 2013, Neil won the Scottish Boys Championship. In 2014, he won The Amateur Championship, defeating Zander Lombar ...

of Scotland. It also co-hosted the

Boys Amateur Championship The Boys Amateur Championship is a golf tournament which is held annually in the United Kingdom. The competition is organised and run by The R&A. History The Boys Amateur Championship was first played at Royal Ascot in 1921. In 1921 boys had to ...

in 2018 alongside

which was won by Conor Gough of England. It has hosted the

British Ladies Amateur Championship The Women's Amateur Championship, previously known as the Ladies' British Open Amateur Championship, was founded in 1893 by the Ladies' Golf Union. It is organised by The R&A, which merged with the Ladies' Golf Union in 2017. Until the dawn of the ...

as well in 2015, won by

Céline Boutier Céline Boutier (born 10 November 1993) is a French professional golfer. Amateur career Boutier won several international amateur events including the 2012 European Ladies Amateur Championship and the 2015 British Ladies Amateur. She played co ...

of France. In 2017, Portstewart hosted the

, from 6–9 July for the first time in the club's history. This was by far the biggest tournament the club had ever hosted and attracted crowds of 92,000+ for the whole week. The young Spaniard

Jon Rahm Jon Rahm Rodríguez (born 10 November 1994) is a Spanish professional golfer. He was the number one golfer in the World Amateur Golf Ranking for a record 60 weeks and later became world number one in the Official World Golf Ranking, first ...

took the title and shot an Irish Open record score of 24 under par for 4 days. David Drysdale broke the course record for The Strand Course by carding a 63 on the final day. Portstewart hosted the North of Ireland Amateur Championship in 2019 along with Castlerock due to Royal Portrush's closure as the

2019 Open Championship The 2019 Open Championship was the 148th Open Championship, played at Royal Portrush Golf Club in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. It was the second Open Championship at Portrush, which last hosted in 1951, won by Max Faulkner. Royal Portrush sa ...

host.

Scorecard

Strand Links – Championship tees

References

External links

*{{official, http://www.portstewartgc.co.uk/ Golf clubs and courses in Northern Ireland Sports clubs in County Londonderry Irish Open (golf) venues 1894 establishments in Ireland Sports venues completed in 1894

History

Tournaments

Scorecard

See also

References

External links