Portstewart Golf Club Key Information
Portstewart Golf Club
Blessed with a wonderful location for golf, this exhilarating seaside course has a quite sensational front nine. It will be very interesting to observe the proposed changes take place to the back nine with the intention of creating an even better course that is still as spectacular but with a greater balance throughout.
Reasons To Play Portstewart
– One of the most beautiful, most exciting and most difficult opening holes in the Top 100
– A brilliant site for golf with towering dunes, the sea and the River Bann
– Eighteen holes of fun
Rankings
UK & Ireland Top 100 Golf Courses 2025/26 - 98
Such is the test of golf on offer at Portstewart that the Strand was selected to host the 2017 Irish Open, won by Jon Rahm who was very complimentary about the course. Partly on the back of this, it made its way into the Top 100 Golf Courses UK & Ireland for the first time in 2019, and it is now rated as the third best in the country behind two absolute world-beaters, Royal County Down and Royal Portrush. As a dunes fan, the front nine is among of the most thrilling I have ever played.
Portstewart Golf Club is not far from the world-famous Open Championship course at Royal Portrush, and its Strand Course is high in the list of the best golf courses in Northern Ireland. The club was founded in 1894, and with 54 holes of golf, it is the Strand Course that is the real star of the Portstewart show. The course evolved from an original design by Willie Park Junior that was subsequently given a very substantial makeover in the late 1980s when Des Giffin blended seven new holes with the existing layout to create one that is both beautiful to look at and exciting to play.
For me, highlights include just about all of the phenomenal front nine, starting with the excellent dogleg-right opener. With such wonderful dunes in view, the anticipation as you stand on the first tee is huge. Here, an elevated drive takes you down to a rumpled fairway with the green waiting over 400 yards away as you start your golfing safari.
The two short holes on the front nine - the 3rd and 6th - are especially lovely. There is a general consensus that the back nine is something of an anticlimax due to its flatter topography, but there are some undulations and elevation changes, and perhaps still more so than at many leading links courses. There is also much to be said for having two quite different nines. Work is taking place to address this imbalance, and I am really looking forward to seeing how this beds in.
What's new for 2025/26? What our panellists said...
This course was built on a budget but they now have the funds to realise its true potential and a comprehensive strategic course plan is following. If the changes, as evidenced by the improvements to the thirteenth and fourteenth holes, are anything to go by, the future looks very bright indeed.
I can’t think of a more spectacular front nine that I’ve played in over 430 courses. I cannot wait to return for the front nine and to see the results of the considerable changes planned and underway on the back nine. A course not to be missed on the Causeway Coast with aesthetics to die for.
It wasn’t a course I approached with great expectations, but everything about the visit created a wonderful experience and lasting memories. This is a course I would love to revisit, as soon as possible.
A course of two contrasting halves, with the front nine being of significantly higher quality than the back nine. Thus, notwithstanding the improvements (actual and planned) to the back nine, the feeling remained that I wish we could have started on ten and the round had reached its climax on one to nine. That said, overall this was a thoroughly enjoyable course and well worth the green fee.
Portstewart Golf Club Location
Portstewart Golf Club Strand Course Scorecard
Best Courses Near Portstewart Golf Club
Best Places To Stay Near Portstewart Golf Club
Anchorage Inn - Book now on Booking.com
This is part of the Anchor Complex incorporating the award-winning, traditional Anchor Bar, established in 1898. Skippers Restaurant, Inishowen Business Suite and Club Aura are all part of the complex.
Strand House - Book now on Booking.com
The award-winning Strand House is available on a room-only basis. Each comes with a light complimentary breakfast, tea and coffee making facilities, luxury robes, slippers and fridge. Accommodation is spacious, with a large residents' lounge downstairs and a smaller library-lounge with sea views.
Portstewart Golf Club Gallery
Historical Top 100 Rankings UK&I
- 2025/26 - 92
- 2023/24 - 98
- 2021/22 - 97
- 2019/20 - 97 New Entry
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is the most famous golfer to have played Portstewart?
John Rahm won the 2017 Irish Open here with an amazing score of 24 under par.
How Many Courses Are There At Portstewart?
There are three 18-hole courses at Portstewart. Apart from the Strand, there is the par-68 Riverside, as well as the Old Course which is actually a 5-minute drive away on the other side of town.
Who Will Be Designing The Changes At Portstewart?
The club has appointed European Golf Design whose MD Jeremy Slessor said, “We are thrilled to have been given the opportunity to work with Portstewart to look at its three distinctive golf courses.”
