The Dublin Bay Golf Extravaganza

All eleven miles of it 

The Wild Atlantic Way made waves on the tourism world stage when it was launched in 2014. Over the past decade it has been a huge success in terms of visitor numbers, visitor spend and the number of jobs supported by tourism. Put simply, between 2013 and 2023, visitor numbers increased from 6.2 million to 8 million and the value of tourism rose by 59 per cent… to €3 billion.

 

So, a big idea reaps big rewards. Do we have those ideas in Irish golf? I ask because they do in Scotland. And one of the stand-outs is ‘Scotland’s Golf Coast’, a 12-mile stretch of coastline, east of Edinburgh, possessing 16 golf courses. It is promoted heavily and it has good recall amongst golfers.

The Island, 3rd green

In Ireland, we tend to focus on regions… such as the ‘south-west’ and the ‘north-west

coast links’ but these are geographically specific… not cosy marketing terms. There’s nothing wrong with that and we all know how successful these regions are, but there isn’t an emotional ‘trigger’. At this stage, right now, you would be hard pushed to introduce a new name for two of the world’s most famous stretches of golf courses. If anything, it would cause confusion.

 

That is not the case on the east coast. Open Golf Ireland (look him up on social media) got in touch after seeing the level of social media activity by Scotland’s Golf Coast, and he posed this question: how many golf courses are there between Raheny and Donabate?

 

How many do you reckon? It’s an 11-mile stretch, north to south, and you can venture inland just a touch.

Malahide, an under-appreciated parkland gem

We agreed on the number 13. This stretch includes world-class names (Portmarnock, Jameson Links, Royal Dublin, The Island), well known links (St Anne’s, Corballis), 9-hole beauties (Sutton), hilltop heaven (Howth) and a gang of entertaining parklands, such as Malahide and Beaverstown. It is a rich mix and one full of history, from the creation of Bull Island and Royal Dublin (Ireland’s first links) to Sutton (JB Carr) and the story behind Jameson Links. Add in some quirk – the famed boat trip to reach The Island, the orchards of Beaverstown – and you have something that could be promoted as one very neat golf package, full of fame, variety and fun. 

 

Calling it ‘Dublin’s Golf Coast’ is too close to the Scottish name and the ‘Dublin Bay Golf Trail’ might be a bit simplistic, but you get the idea. It would reinforce the quality of courses available in north Dublin and shine a spotlight on some of the lesser known courses. It would also highlight the volume of golf available, something I believe is too often and too easily missed when golfers look at Dublin as a destination.

 

The 13 courses from north to south are:

Beaverstown, 

Donabate, 

Balcarrick, 

Corballis, 

The Island, 

Malahide, 

Jameson Links, 

Portmarnock, 

Sutton, 

Howth, 

St Annes, 

Royal Dublin, 

Clontarf

Rush Golf Club, approach to 1st green

And, two final thoughts: this stretch will soon include the course which is slowly taking shape on the old Deer Park course – so no unlucky 13 to worry about – and, second, it wouldn’t require much extra reach to include the brilliant Rush Golf Club.