How Royal Portrush got back on the Open road

The last time the Open was staged at Royal Portrush in Northern Ireland, George VI was on the throne and Winston Churchill was shortly to be returned to power.

The BBC experimented with a new radio programme called The Archers and the British Board of Film Censors introduced an X rating. Newcastle United won the FA Cup.

In the years since 1951, there were times when the fortunes of Portrush the town and its mighty golf course dwindled so badly that it became just another forgotten speck on the neglected Antrim coast, and particularly at the height of the Troubles.

But look at it now, at the end of an awfully long road back to glory and the return of the Open next week. In the regenerated seaside idyll, the painters were out last week applying the final touches, and the streets were getting their thrice-weekly clean. Portrush has always been the sort of town where people say hello to you when you walk by, but now it is with an evident sense of pride.

As for the golf course, you never forget the first time you see it, as the road north from Belfast sweeps around the corner and there it lies in front of you, like something from a book of dreams. Such is the interest, the 215,000 tickets sold out in minutes, with thousands of corporate guests happily paying £900 each day.

It’s an extraordinary story, how Portrush was returned to lustre and the Open to the venue that is the scenic equivalent of Pebble Beach. It starts with the arrival in January 1985 of a new secretary who wasn’t the Brigadier-General type who normally got the job but — whisper it — a 26-year-old woman. 

‘When I started work, we were in the middle of the Troubles, the middle of an economic downturn, the membership was declining and the clubhouse was falling down,’ says Wilma Erskine.

The Open Championship returns to Royal Portrush for the first time since 1951

‘We’d staged nothing since the great Joe Carr won the Amateur Championship in 1960, with little prospect of that changing.’

A step forward was taken in 1993 when the Amateur returned. ‘The R&A were impressed, then we got the Senior Open from 1995 until 1999,’ continues Erskine.

‘In that first year, Brian Barnes won and his father-in-law Max Faulkner, who won the Open at Portrush 68 years ago, came to watch. Arnold Palmer and Gary Player came, the weather was kind, the TV pictures showed our stunning views, the press wrote about us and we were back on the map.

‘The Americans, with their vital tourist spend, began to return.’

There were times when the fortunes of Portrush the town and its mighty golf course dwindled

Boosted by the signing of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998, what could they stage next? ‘We formed a little committee at the club and, of course, the Open was the dream but it was all a little bit tongue-in-cheek,’ says Erskine.

‘We targeted the Irish Open, which hadn’t been staged at Portrush since 1947. We got a meeting with Arlene Foster, who was head of enterprise and investment at the time, and she was so helpful. She saw the good of what we could do for tourism, not just for Portrush, but the whole of Northern Ireland.’

With the politicians on board, the Irish Open duly arrived in 2012, and what an event it proved to be. It poured with rain from the start of the first round but still the people queued patiently, creating an atmosphere that had to be seen to be believed.

‘Among those impressed was the next key figure to emerge — Peter Dawson, then chief executive of the R&A.

‘When the Open was staged at Lytham a few weeks later, Peter got a bit annoyed that he kept getting asked about when the Open was going back to Portrush,’ says Erskine. ‘We had Graeme McDowell winning the US Open, Darren Clarke winning the Open and Rory McIlroy winning his majors, so the golfers from Northern Ireland were piling on the pressure as well.

The regenerated seaside idyll of Portrush is the scenic equivalent of Pebble Beach

‘So Peter came, along with the R&A’s architect Martin Ebert, and at first they couldn’t get past the fact there was no place for grandstands around the 18th green and no place for a tented village. I’ll never forget when Peter came for another site visit. The weather was awful, but he said: We might be able to do this. But you might not like the idea.’

The difficult bit meant closing the 17th and 18th holes of the historic Dunluce links — losing one of the course landmarks, the Big Nellie bunker to the right of the 17th fairway — and replacing them with two new holes carved from the less-celebrated Valley Course, which runs alongside.

‘As you can imagine, the proposal brought with it many challenges,’ says Erskine. ‘Even when the changes were agreed, we had the diggers here for many years and we had to keep the members and visitors happy. But Peter was behind it when he could see it would work. And so, in 2015, we found ourselves back on the Open rota.’

Club captain Robert Barry is hopeful the feelgood factor can stretch far and wide

When it was announced for 2019, Portrush itself leapt to attention. ‘The course was a big hitter but now the town had some catching up to do,’ says local businessman Alan Simpson, who became chairperson of the scheme in charge of revitalisation.

‘This is a strong independent trading town and all of the traders were keen to play their part.

‘We got a new railway station. We got money from the department of communities to paint the shop fronts. It’s been heartening to see. Portrush was always the crown jewel of Northern Ireland.

‘It was the place where people would spend their first beach holiday, have their first swim in the ocean, their first ice cream, their first kiss. Now it’s back to its best. Even five years ago, I’d have been worried if we could cope with a week like the Open. Now I know we can.’

The focal point will be the Harbour Bar, the oldest in town, and the place now known in golf circles as Darren’s local. ‘I think for us it’s about the legacy as much as the one week of the Open,’ says Matt McAlpin, whose family own the bar plus five other restaurants in the vicinity. ‘Our seasons have become longer. We’ve not just got the golf, we’re down the road from where Game of Thrones was made.’

Secretary-manager Wilma Erskine has been the driving force behind the return of the Open

McAlpin, a former professional himself, plays off a handicap of plus two at Portrush. ‘I’ve been fortunate to have attended a lot of golf tournaments and there’s no better town to host one than here,’ he adds.

Club captain Robert Barry is hopeful a successful Open can play its part in the bigger picture, too. ‘We’re a small country and we’re going to show what can be done when all sides pull together,’ he says. ‘Of course, it’s wonderful for the club and the town, there’s still a “pinch-me” element to it all, but it’s going to create such a feelgood factor for Northern Ireland as a whole, and it’s important we ride that.’

It’s almost here now, the day that Erskine could never have conceived when she walked through the door in 1985. What an incredible job this veritable force of nature has done. With another two Opens all but guaranteed over the next 20 years and nothing left to achieve, she will retire before the end of the year.

‘I’ll be somewhere around that first tee on Thursday when it starts at 6.30am — it could be a little emotional,’ she said.

‘We’re going to show we’re the best, aren’t we? There’s a real passion for golf here in Northern Ireland. I know they are all great courses on the Open rota, but where are the sea views like we have here?

‘I just hope we get a little luck with the weather — oh, and an Irish winner would be nice.’