WEBVTT - Deep Dive: Royal Portrush 0:00:00.280 --> 0:00:03.880 Royal Port Rush is hosting the Open Championship for the 0:00:03.960 --> 0:00:08.280 third time. Let's dive deep. I'm Garrett Morrison and this 0:00:08.480 --> 0:00:09.760 is designing golf. 0:00:16.560 --> 0:00:16.920 All right. 0:00:16.960 --> 0:00:20.200 I'm here with my Frida Egg golf colleague Matt Ruschis. 0:00:20.400 --> 0:00:24.000 How's it going, Matt doing well, doing well? So Matt, 0:00:24.040 --> 0:00:26.479 you're gonna help me with this deep dive on Royal 0:00:26.480 --> 0:00:31.440 port Rush today because, unlike me, you've actually been to 0:00:31.520 --> 0:00:34.199 this golf course. You saw it last year on a 0:00:34.200 --> 0:00:37.879 trip that you Andy Johnson, Brendan Porath and Cameron Hurdis 0:00:38.240 --> 0:00:42.480 took for our Explorations series. People should check that out 0:00:42.520 --> 0:00:45.000 if they they haven't already. There was a podcast series. 0:00:45.000 --> 0:00:47.520 There are articles associated with it, a bunch of cool 0:00:47.520 --> 0:00:51.920 social stuff. Great trip that you took focused on northern Ireland. 0:00:52.600 --> 0:00:55.440 Where did port Rush sit in your itinerary? What was 0:00:56.040 --> 0:00:58.320 its role? Did you stay in the town of port Rush. 0:00:58.440 --> 0:01:01.560 I'm having trouble remembering that details of what you all 0:01:01.600 --> 0:01:02.120 did there. 0:01:02.720 --> 0:01:05.560 Yeah, So we came in through Dublin, made our way 0:01:05.640 --> 0:01:08.800 up the coast to Newcastle, which is where Royal County 0:01:08.800 --> 0:01:11.960 Down is, spent a few days there and then drove 0:01:12.040 --> 0:01:16.160 up to port Rush, which sits basically at the northernmost 0:01:16.319 --> 0:01:21.160 part of Northern Ireland and the entire island of Ireland. 0:01:21.680 --> 0:01:25.680 So it's way up there. And yeah, we stayed right 0:01:25.720 --> 0:01:28.479 there in town. Like you could basically see the golf 0:01:28.480 --> 0:01:31.920 course from our place. It's it's honestly like a pretty 0:01:31.959 --> 0:01:35.200 small town that sits on this peninsula that kind of 0:01:35.280 --> 0:01:39.080 juts out into I believe it's the North Atlantic Ocean, 0:01:39.640 --> 0:01:42.320 and from like there, like you have a great view 0:01:42.400 --> 0:01:45.600 kind of looking back in towards the dunes where Royal 0:01:45.600 --> 0:01:49.000 port Rush is. So we we got to see Port Marnick, 0:01:49.440 --> 0:01:55.040 Royal County down and ard Glass before we set our 0:01:55.080 --> 0:01:56.760 sights on Port Rush. 0:01:56.880 --> 0:01:59.680 Okay, so port Rush was kind of a culmination. You 0:01:59.720 --> 0:02:02.520 saw some other courses and then you're then you're able 0:02:02.560 --> 0:02:03.360 to see Port Rush. 0:02:03.640 --> 0:02:03.960 Yeah. 0:02:04.040 --> 0:02:07.160 Funny thing about the geography there you're describing how it's 0:02:07.240 --> 0:02:10.480 it's at this kind of northern most point of or 0:02:10.520 --> 0:02:14.240 a very northern point of the island. It's actually relatively 0:02:14.360 --> 0:02:18.240 not that hard too, if you were to take a 0:02:18.280 --> 0:02:21.519 boat trip to go right across to like where Macrahannish is. 0:02:21.840 --> 0:02:23.560 Yeah, in Scotland, and. 0:02:23.800 --> 0:02:26.520 In fact, there's a there's a plan a foot among 0:02:27.000 --> 0:02:31.880 some of the Macrahannish owners and operators to maybe design 0:02:32.040 --> 0:02:35.359 some kind of situation where where people can go play 0:02:35.440 --> 0:02:39.519 Macrahannish and then take a little flight across to Northern 0:02:39.560 --> 0:02:42.359 Ireland and see Port Rush and County down. So these 0:02:42.440 --> 0:02:45.520 this this area is kind of it's all one area, 0:02:45.680 --> 0:02:49.080 even though there are different countries and not necessarily thought 0:02:49.080 --> 0:02:52.680 of as being that close together. Now, you know, one 0:02:52.720 --> 0:02:55.720 of the famous things about Royal Port Rush is that 0:02:56.240 --> 0:02:59.440 it sits right on this kind of entrance into town. 0:03:00.639 --> 0:03:02.639 Did you have that experience of coming into town and 0:03:02.919 --> 0:03:05.400 seeing the links for the first time? Was this part 0:03:05.480 --> 0:03:06.600 of the trip? 0:03:07.080 --> 0:03:10.679 Yeah, So the entrance, I think when Rory was on 0:03:10.960 --> 0:03:13.400 our podcast he spoke to it in depth, like the 0:03:13.400 --> 0:03:16.320 first time he saw it, because it's like truly an 0:03:16.360 --> 0:03:19.600 amazing drive. So we were coming up the coast and 0:03:19.639 --> 0:03:22.960 we stopped up at the Giants Causeway, which is this 0:03:23.120 --> 0:03:29.200 really cool kind of like rare ecological like rock formation 0:03:29.440 --> 0:03:30.840 that's right on the coast. 0:03:31.280 --> 0:03:34.160 Yeah, and this is like a major attraction. It's a 0:03:34.200 --> 0:03:38.040 World Heritage site famous for a long time. Yeah. 0:03:38.200 --> 0:03:40.920 Yeah, But so we were coming from over there, which 0:03:40.960 --> 0:03:44.480 is I guess they'd be just east of the town 0:03:44.520 --> 0:03:47.360 of port Rush, and you're kind of up on these 0:03:47.400 --> 0:03:52.720 cliffs overlooking the ocean there, and you pass the Dunluce Castle, 0:03:52.840 --> 0:03:56.000 which is I think it's like a fourteenth century castle, 0:03:56.120 --> 0:03:58.840 really really old castle. So you kind of pass that 0:03:59.360 --> 0:04:01.320 and you come around on this corner and then all 0:04:01.400 --> 0:04:04.240 of a sudden you have this like incredible view. You're 0:04:04.280 --> 0:04:07.960 probably a couple hundred feet above like the town of 0:04:08.000 --> 0:04:10.200 port Rush and the golf course because you're up on 0:04:10.280 --> 0:04:13.720 these like high coastal cliffs and you just like come 0:04:13.760 --> 0:04:17.520 around this bend and there's this amazing, amazing view of 0:04:17.560 --> 0:04:20.760 the dunes land right there, which shits in between you 0:04:21.160 --> 0:04:24.800 and the actual town of port Rush. So the reveal 0:04:25.160 --> 0:04:29.320 like when you're driving is really really spectacular and certainly 0:04:29.800 --> 0:04:34.520 increases your anticipation if you already weren't really really excited 0:04:34.520 --> 0:04:37.279 to go see Royal port Rush. Yeah, very cool. 0:04:37.440 --> 0:04:40.200 Love a love a good drive into town where you 0:04:40.240 --> 0:04:43.520 get a preview of the golf course. So our basic 0:04:43.560 --> 0:04:47.599 plan for this episode, Matt, is for us to tell 0:04:47.600 --> 0:04:50.760 our listeners everything they need to know about the Dunloose 0:04:50.760 --> 0:04:53.480 Links at Royal port Rush Golf Club. We'll talk about 0:04:53.480 --> 0:04:57.480 the land, the routing, the characteristics of the hairy cult design, 0:04:58.200 --> 0:05:03.040 the greens, the hazards, thex, the agronomy, the recent renovation 0:05:03.160 --> 0:05:07.880 work done by Mackenzie and Ebert, the overall architectural significance 0:05:07.880 --> 0:05:10.479 of the place, and then finally we'll talk about some 0:05:10.839 --> 0:05:15.400 specific holes to watch for during the open. So let's 0:05:15.400 --> 0:05:19.160 get into the history of rural Port Rush. I've done 0:05:19.240 --> 0:05:21.960 some research on this subject. There's a lot of really 0:05:22.040 --> 0:05:25.719 interesting bits and pieces of this history that I want 0:05:25.720 --> 0:05:29.800 to cover. So the club was founded in eighteen eighty eight. Now, 0:05:29.839 --> 0:05:33.400 by this point in the eighteen hundreds, Port Rush the 0:05:33.480 --> 0:05:37.719 town was a vacation spot and it was accessible by train. 0:05:38.480 --> 0:05:42.520 The railroad arrived to this town in eighteen fifty five 0:05:43.120 --> 0:05:46.760 and this transformed Port Rush the town from just a 0:05:46.800 --> 0:05:53.400 small fishing village into a very popular, bustling seaside resort town. 0:05:54.400 --> 0:05:57.960 On its way into Port Rush, the train route passed 0:05:58.000 --> 0:06:01.040 the Duneland where the golf course now sits. So basically 0:06:01.120 --> 0:06:05.680 the train route was the current day highway route into town. 0:06:06.720 --> 0:06:09.480 So obviously people would would look out the windows of 0:06:09.520 --> 0:06:12.760 the train and see this duneland, and if there were golfers, 0:06:13.000 --> 0:06:16.559 they would see really obvious land for a golf course. 0:06:17.080 --> 0:06:20.480 So two of the most prominent founders of Royal Port 0:06:20.560 --> 0:06:26.200 Rush were George Lockhart Bailey and Thomas Gilroy. Both were 0:06:26.360 --> 0:06:30.400 Scotsmen born in eighteen fifty two, born the same year, 0:06:30.480 --> 0:06:34.560 and they were advocates of golf. Bailey was raised in 0:06:35.120 --> 0:06:39.160 East Lothian, became a school teacher and was posted as 0:06:39.360 --> 0:06:42.720 an English master at Belfast Academy. When he was twenty 0:06:42.800 --> 0:06:47.200 nine years old. He helped establish Ireland's first golf club, 0:06:47.200 --> 0:06:51.719 which was Royal Belfast in eighteen eighty one, and just 0:06:51.760 --> 0:06:53.800 went on to kind of become a Johnny apple Seed 0:06:53.839 --> 0:06:56.559 of golf in Ireland. He'd go on to help form 0:06:56.760 --> 0:07:01.600 Royal County Down and many other clubs. Thomas Gilroy grew 0:07:01.680 --> 0:07:06.400 up in Dundee and was trained in golf by Old 0:07:06.440 --> 0:07:09.640 Tom Morris's brother George, so Gilroy played a lot of 0:07:09.640 --> 0:07:13.400 his golf at Carnoustie, went to school at the University 0:07:13.400 --> 0:07:16.680 of Saint Andrews and regularly played with young Tom Morris 0:07:16.720 --> 0:07:20.720 while he was there, maybe encountered Cebe McDonald, who knows. 0:07:21.600 --> 0:07:25.480 He moved with his family to Ireland in eighteen eighty five, 0:07:25.920 --> 0:07:28.760 where they bought one of these kind of grand Estates, 0:07:29.080 --> 0:07:32.960 clearly from a wealthy family, and he went on to 0:07:33.120 --> 0:07:37.600 establish County Louth Golf Club or Baltray as it's more 0:07:37.600 --> 0:07:41.400 commonly known. He helped to design Royal Dublin and was 0:07:41.480 --> 0:07:43.960 just one of the best players in Ireland. Was kind 0:07:43.960 --> 0:07:47.840 of known as the golf guy in Ireland. So these 0:07:47.840 --> 0:07:52.280 two men, Bailey and Gilroy, joined with members of several 0:07:52.520 --> 0:07:56.720 leading local families to form a club in Port Rush, 0:07:56.920 --> 0:08:00.600 initially called the County Club. Now, this was the fifth 0:08:00.640 --> 0:08:03.720 golf club to be established on the island of Ireland, 0:08:03.760 --> 0:08:06.640 so this was early days of golf and Ireland and 0:08:06.720 --> 0:08:09.880 the first statement of the club's committee went like this. 0:08:10.240 --> 0:08:14.120 It said, the sandy hills or dunes around Port Rush, 0:08:14.200 --> 0:08:17.280 if properly laid out and cared for, will in a 0:08:17.320 --> 0:08:22.720 short time form excellent and attractive links. So the purpose 0:08:22.760 --> 0:08:25.440 of the club really from the beginning was to take 0:08:25.480 --> 0:08:30.320 advantage of this outstanding land that they were all familiar 0:08:30.400 --> 0:08:35.240 with next to this popular vacation town. So what happened 0:08:35.280 --> 0:08:38.000 next was was kind of clever and indicate some things 0:08:38.000 --> 0:08:43.720 about how golf developed during this period. George Bailey connected 0:08:43.840 --> 0:08:48.240 with the Belfast and Northern Counties, railway to lease the 0:08:48.320 --> 0:08:50.960 land from the Earl of Antrim. So the Earl of 0:08:50.960 --> 0:08:53.840 Antrim was kind of the administrator of this land and 0:08:53.960 --> 0:08:57.360 to lease the land from him, Bailey connected with a 0:08:57.480 --> 0:09:02.000 railroad company. So the railway influence on Royalport Rush and 0:09:02.080 --> 0:09:07.800 many other golf courses was absolutely critical. The construction of 0:09:08.120 --> 0:09:11.040 railroads in Great Britain and Ireland helped to create this 0:09:11.760 --> 0:09:17.080 culture of travel and a kind of fad for travel. 0:09:17.600 --> 0:09:21.760 Before this, most people rarely left the region where they lived. 0:09:22.760 --> 0:09:27.360 With the railroad in place, more and more people were 0:09:27.520 --> 0:09:32.120 using trains to escape from the congestion and the pollution 0:09:32.960 --> 0:09:36.320 of the cities where more and more of them now lived. 0:09:36.480 --> 0:09:41.480 This was happening at the same time as urbanization in Ireland, 0:09:41.600 --> 0:09:44.240 Great Britain and Europe. A lot of people moving to 0:09:44.320 --> 0:09:48.600 cities and access to the railroad gave them a chance 0:09:48.640 --> 0:09:51.280 to escape those cities from time to time to go 0:09:51.400 --> 0:09:54.960 visit these seaside towns. So it was just a lot 0:09:55.040 --> 0:09:59.960 easier to get from cities like Belfast in Northern Imla 0:10:00.480 --> 0:10:03.240 or what's now known as Northern Ireland to towns like 0:10:03.360 --> 0:10:07.680 Port Rush for a week or a weekend of recreation, 0:10:08.440 --> 0:10:12.400 and you know, around this activity was created an entire 0:10:12.559 --> 0:10:15.959 travel industry, or as they call it, a holiday industry 0:10:16.440 --> 0:10:19.720 in Great Britain and Ireland, especially along the coast. It 0:10:19.760 --> 0:10:22.080 was thought to be healthy to go to the coast. 0:10:22.120 --> 0:10:24.280 Cities were thought to be bad for you in a 0:10:24.320 --> 0:10:27.080 lot of ways, and going to the seaside was thought 0:10:27.080 --> 0:10:32.120 to be good for your health. Golf became part of 0:10:32.440 --> 0:10:38.080 this industry. So the Belfast and Northern Counties Railway understood 0:10:38.960 --> 0:10:42.520 the potential of golf to attract tourism and motivate people 0:10:42.559 --> 0:10:46.520 to buy train tickets, so they agreed with George Bailey 0:10:46.600 --> 0:10:49.600 to lease the land for the golf course in Port Rush. 0:10:49.679 --> 0:10:52.600 They helped to create Royal Port Rush because they knew 0:10:53.040 --> 0:10:55.720 it would be a nice little tourist attraction that would 0:10:55.840 --> 0:11:00.000 motivate people to use their railroad. So the County Golf 0:11:00.080 --> 0:11:05.160 Club formally opened on May twelfth, eighteen eighty eight. The 0:11:05.200 --> 0:11:10.440 original course consisted of nine holes occupying a forty acre 0:11:10.520 --> 0:11:14.520 plot called the Big Triangle. This is right next to town, 0:11:15.200 --> 0:11:18.600 right under that peninsula jutting into the ocean that you 0:11:18.640 --> 0:11:21.559 talked about earlier, Matt. So this is a triangle kind 0:11:21.559 --> 0:11:25.040 of formed by different roads that you can still see 0:11:25.080 --> 0:11:31.520 on Google Earth Maps of port Rush. Now today there 0:11:31.559 --> 0:11:35.199 are no holes golf holes remaining within the Big triangle. 0:11:35.640 --> 0:11:39.480 But originally the course was just there, and the course 0:11:39.559 --> 0:11:41.400 was pretty well regarded at first. I guess there was 0:11:41.440 --> 0:11:45.160 pretty good land within the Big triangle, because this is 0:11:45.200 --> 0:11:49.560 what the Belfast newsletter. The newsletter was a different thing 0:11:49.600 --> 0:11:51.720 at the time. It was a newspaper. This is what 0:11:51.840 --> 0:11:54.920 that paper said about the course in eighteen eighty eight. 0:11:55.480 --> 0:11:58.800 It said, port Rush, the town has many attractions. It's 0:11:58.880 --> 0:12:03.520 beautiful situation, its bracing air, its proximity to the Giant's Causeway, 0:12:04.320 --> 0:12:08.000 together with its extensive sands and excellent sea bathing, have 0:12:08.120 --> 0:12:12.440 rendered it a favorite place of resort. Golfers will be 0:12:12.480 --> 0:12:16.120 delighted to learn that to these has just been added 0:12:16.160 --> 0:12:19.599 one of the finest golf course of the three kingdoms. 0:12:20.440 --> 0:12:24.480 So right away what would become Royal port Rush was 0:12:24.480 --> 0:12:28.880 a well regarded golf links. Now the ground on which 0:12:29.160 --> 0:12:34.240 the nine holes had been laid out was close to 0:12:34.880 --> 0:12:39.160 the railroad, the railway station, it was right there, and 0:12:40.920 --> 0:12:44.600 so it had all just the elements of good golf 0:12:45.080 --> 0:12:50.000 right away. Old Tom Morris ended up visiting port Rush 0:12:50.120 --> 0:12:52.760 in the summer of eighteen eighty nine, so this was 0:12:52.840 --> 0:12:56.640 just a year after the club was established. Old Tom 0:12:56.679 --> 0:13:00.679 Morris visited and he ended up providing some on the 0:13:00.720 --> 0:13:03.600 expansion of the course to eighteen holes. Initially just had 0:13:03.679 --> 0:13:07.280 nine holes within the Big Triangle. Old Tom Morris came 0:13:07.320 --> 0:13:10.080 to town and gave some guidance on how to expand 0:13:10.080 --> 0:13:14.800 the course outside of the Big Triangle and into the 0:13:14.840 --> 0:13:20.080 actual more dramatic duneland that was to the east of 0:13:20.120 --> 0:13:23.600 the Big Triangle, so more away from town, deeper into 0:13:23.640 --> 0:13:26.640 the links. Old Tom Morris was saying, 'ro oute your 0:13:26.679 --> 0:13:30.880 course there now. The specifics of the advice that Morris 0:13:31.000 --> 0:13:35.280 gave were never recorded. It was just assumed. I guess 0:13:35.440 --> 0:13:39.760 that they were followed. And Morris never returned to Port Rush, 0:13:39.800 --> 0:13:41.520 so it's not like he built this course. This is 0:13:41.559 --> 0:13:44.280 not like Prestwick where it was Old Tom Morris's course. 0:13:44.840 --> 0:13:45.640 He was just there. 0:13:46.360 --> 0:13:50.560 We know that he provided some advice and an eighteen 0:13:50.600 --> 0:13:55.320 hole course was soon built. So the club acquired the 0:13:55.400 --> 0:13:59.760 land to the east this more dramatic duneland in eighteen 0:14:00.920 --> 0:14:05.320 and the eighteen hole course opened that year. This new routing, 0:14:05.640 --> 0:14:09.920 presumably recommended by Old Tom Morris, had a classic loop 0:14:10.320 --> 0:14:14.960 out and back structure. It started in town, ventured out 0:14:15.000 --> 0:14:19.680 into the dune land, looped back around in a counterclockwise direction, 0:14:20.480 --> 0:14:25.000 and then visited the coastline before returning to town. So 0:14:25.120 --> 0:14:28.160 this is what old Tom Morris did in many courses. 0:14:28.840 --> 0:14:31.080 I think we can assume that this is basically what 0:14:31.120 --> 0:14:33.640 he recommended. Just take the golf course out there inland, 0:14:34.040 --> 0:14:37.160 loop back around, you know, graze the coast, and then 0:14:37.240 --> 0:14:40.800 come right back. There was a hole on this course 0:14:41.160 --> 0:14:47.240 called the Crater, which played directly over a massive blown 0:14:47.240 --> 0:14:51.480 out dune. Now I'm not entirely sure which hole this was. 0:14:51.720 --> 0:14:55.360 The sources that I've read from the eighteen nineties and 0:14:54.920 --> 0:14:57.800 early nineteen hundred it's about the course, are a little 0:14:57.800 --> 0:15:00.520 bit confusing. It They seem to indicate that the hole 0:15:00.640 --> 0:15:03.720 was on the back nine, somewhere like in the middle 0:15:03.840 --> 0:15:05.840 or towards the beginning of the back nine, maybe hole 0:15:05.920 --> 0:15:08.920 thirteen or fourteen. But the photos of the hole that 0:15:08.960 --> 0:15:13.440 I've seen have show the hole being fairly close to 0:15:13.560 --> 0:15:16.720 some houses in Port Rush, which would indicate that the 0:15:16.760 --> 0:15:19.840 hole was more on the front nine. So I'm a 0:15:19.880 --> 0:15:23.760 little bewildered as to what the exact routing of the 0:15:23.800 --> 0:15:26.320 course was and which hole this was, But it was 0:15:26.400 --> 0:15:29.240 a very memorable hole. It was a bit like kind 0:15:29.240 --> 0:15:31.960 of like the maiden hole at Royal Saint George's which 0:15:32.000 --> 0:15:35.680 no longer exists, just playing right over this obstacle, and 0:15:37.040 --> 0:15:43.440 it made certainly a very striking photo. So at this 0:15:43.520 --> 0:15:47.120 time the course was still called the County Golf Club. 0:15:47.760 --> 0:15:52.360 It was renamed Royal County Club in eighteen ninety two 0:15:52.720 --> 0:15:56.040 under the patronage of the Duke of York, then renamed 0:15:56.080 --> 0:15:59.480 again Royal Port Rush Golf Club in eighteen ninety five, 0:16:00.240 --> 0:16:04.160 now under the patronage of the Prince of Wales. And 0:16:05.080 --> 0:16:09.640 by the nineteen twenties it was still this golf course 0:16:09.680 --> 0:16:12.200 that was Royal Port Rush Golf Course, this old Tom 0:16:12.240 --> 0:16:16.280 Morris routing. But a lot of advances in ball and 0:16:16.320 --> 0:16:20.240 club technology had happened. The course had fallen behind the 0:16:20.280 --> 0:16:23.560 times and the club leaders saw the need for a redesign. 0:16:24.040 --> 0:16:27.520 They were especially anxious to attract the best players in golf. 0:16:27.560 --> 0:16:30.800 This has been a through line in the history of 0:16:31.440 --> 0:16:34.560 Royal Port Rush, the desire to host big tournaments and 0:16:34.640 --> 0:16:37.880 the emphasis on competitive play. They got to a point 0:16:37.880 --> 0:16:40.680 in the nineteen twenties where they felt they weren't attracting 0:16:40.720 --> 0:16:43.400 the quality of players that they wanted, so they needed 0:16:43.400 --> 0:16:47.360 to improve their course somehow during this time, during the 0:16:47.400 --> 0:16:49.680 nineteen twenties, the club actually figured out a way to 0:16:49.760 --> 0:16:53.880 cut out the railway company that had helped them secure 0:16:53.920 --> 0:16:57.760 the lease of the land initially and they negotiated their 0:16:57.840 --> 0:17:01.640 own ninety nine year lease on the land from the 0:17:01.680 --> 0:17:04.640 Earl of Antrim or whoever it was, yeah the Earl 0:17:04.680 --> 0:17:09.439 of Amtrim in nineteen twenty eight. Around this time, the 0:17:09.520 --> 0:17:15.040 club also engaged Harry Colt to design two new eighteen 0:17:15.080 --> 0:17:18.399 hole courses. So they had one eighteen hole course, but 0:17:18.480 --> 0:17:22.080 they had a lot of Duneland. Harry Colt was brought 0:17:22.080 --> 0:17:25.560 in to show them how they could make full use 0:17:25.600 --> 0:17:29.320 of it create thirty six holes of golf. So Harry 0:17:29.320 --> 0:17:33.119 Colt quick sidebar on him. He's in the discussion for 0:17:33.240 --> 0:17:36.080 the most influential golf architect of all time, no doubt 0:17:36.080 --> 0:17:39.399 about that. He started designing courses in the first decade 0:17:39.440 --> 0:17:43.000 of the twentieth century. Among his first projects were the 0:17:43.000 --> 0:17:45.720 design of Rye Golf Club and the redesign of the 0:17:45.760 --> 0:17:50.720 old course at Sunningdale. Went on to design Swinley Forest 0:17:50.800 --> 0:17:54.160 Saint George's Hill in the new course at Sunningdale. All 0:17:54.200 --> 0:17:58.359 in the English Heathlands, also renovated and redesigned much of 0:17:58.400 --> 0:18:04.080 the modern open Roda, including Mierfield Royal Liverpool. Made key 0:18:04.119 --> 0:18:09.520 contributions to golf architecture on the European continent, particularly with 0:18:09.520 --> 0:18:13.000 a couple of great Links courses in the Netherlands. In 0:18:13.040 --> 0:18:17.560 North America, he designed Toronto Golf Club, Hamilton Golfing Country Club, 0:18:17.680 --> 0:18:22.480 Old Elm Club, and he provided really important assistance to 0:18:22.640 --> 0:18:27.359 George Crump in the design of Pine Valley Colts. Changed 0:18:27.400 --> 0:18:30.119 the way that golf courses were built. He changed the 0:18:30.119 --> 0:18:32.200 way that golf features were built. He was one of 0:18:32.280 --> 0:18:36.280 the first architects, maybe even the first golf architect, to 0:18:36.320 --> 0:18:40.720 blend artificial features into the natural landscape in an intentional way. 0:18:41.320 --> 0:18:46.120 He also adopted the strategic ideas pioneered and promoted by 0:18:46.240 --> 0:18:51.159 John Lowe, Tom Simpson and others, emphasizing options and angles 0:18:51.600 --> 0:18:56.399 rather than straightforward punishment for poor strikes. He just brought 0:18:57.400 --> 0:19:01.000 a new level of sophistication and artistry at a golf 0:19:01.000 --> 0:19:05.600 course design trained Charles Allison and Alistair McKenzie, who then 0:19:05.720 --> 0:19:08.680 exported this approach to golf architecture. 0:19:08.200 --> 0:19:09.240 Across the world. 0:19:09.320 --> 0:19:12.399 So the Allison and McKenzie courses that you see have 0:19:12.640 --> 0:19:16.119 a lot of the characteristics that early Cult courses had 0:19:16.560 --> 0:19:20.400 embodied his philosophies to a great degree. So Harry Colt's 0:19:20.400 --> 0:19:23.960 influence on architecture just spread all over the world by 0:19:24.280 --> 0:19:27.560 the nineteen twenties, and by that point his career was 0:19:27.600 --> 0:19:30.919 really winding down. Royal Port Rush was one of his 0:19:31.040 --> 0:19:35.800 last really well known designs. Now, it wasn't until nineteen 0:19:35.840 --> 0:19:39.400 thirty two that the new courses were built, the Dunloose 0:19:39.440 --> 0:19:44.080 Links and the Valley Links. Essentially nothing that I can 0:19:44.119 --> 0:19:47.240 see was kept from the old Tom Morris course, maybe 0:19:47.320 --> 0:19:51.960 a whole corridor here and there, but these were brand 0:19:52.000 --> 0:19:55.040 new courses that really didn't take much inspiration from the 0:19:55.040 --> 0:20:00.320 Tom Morris course. The company Frank's Harris and Company had 0:20:00.359 --> 0:20:05.120 worked with Cult previously carried out the construction and members 0:20:05.119 --> 0:20:08.399 played the new championship course the Dunloose Links for the 0:20:08.400 --> 0:20:12.600 first time on Eastern nineteen thirty three. The core of 0:20:12.720 --> 0:20:17.000 Colt's Dunloose Links still exists today with some modifications that 0:20:17.520 --> 0:20:22.040 will discuss, and he also designed, of course the Valley Links, 0:20:22.320 --> 0:20:25.159 which although owned by Royal port Rush is home to 0:20:26.200 --> 0:20:29.720 Rathmore Golf Club and the Royal port Rush Ladies Club 0:20:30.160 --> 0:20:32.120 is a primary course for those clubs. 0:20:32.760 --> 0:20:33.720 So the first. 0:20:33.480 --> 0:20:36.960 Major change to Royal port Rush came in the nineteen thirties. 0:20:37.000 --> 0:20:40.760 The first major change to Colt's design, that is this 0:20:40.800 --> 0:20:43.040 is when the town of port Rush purchased the remainder 0:20:43.600 --> 0:20:47.520 of that big triangle near town and they wanted to 0:20:47.520 --> 0:20:51.439 build a new school, so that purchase included the first 0:20:51.480 --> 0:20:55.679 and eighteenth holes of Colt's course. So Cult returned in 0:20:55.760 --> 0:21:00.399 the nineteen thirties to advise on some replacement holes, but 0:21:00.800 --> 0:21:05.520 the club's professional PG Stevenson, ended up actually designing them. 0:21:05.560 --> 0:21:09.480 Stevenson's holes were different from what Colt suggested, but Colt 0:21:09.520 --> 0:21:13.480 apparently said that they were better. These holes, the old 0:21:13.560 --> 0:21:17.840 eighth and ninth and the current tenth and eleventh, were 0:21:17.880 --> 0:21:22.040 completed in nineteen thirty nine, so the routing had already changed. 0:21:22.080 --> 0:21:25.040 The first and eighteenth holes original holes had been chopped 0:21:25.040 --> 0:21:28.879 off and more holes had been built deeper into the 0:21:28.960 --> 0:21:33.480 lynx Land rowport Rush hosted the Open Championship in nineteen 0:21:33.600 --> 0:21:36.359 fifty one, the first time it Open had been held 0:21:36.400 --> 0:21:39.680 outside of the island of Great Britain. It was won 0:21:39.720 --> 0:21:43.120 by Max Faulkner, an English golfer who apparently did most 0:21:43.119 --> 0:21:45.320 of his damage in the late forties and early fifties, 0:21:45.880 --> 0:21:49.960 and it didn't host another open until twenty nineteen, and 0:21:50.359 --> 0:21:55.280 of course won by Shane Lowry. So we'll talk about 0:21:55.280 --> 0:21:58.520 some more kind of recent history of Royal Port Rush 0:21:58.560 --> 0:22:02.359 a little bit later in this episode, but that's the 0:22:02.400 --> 0:22:07.040 basic story of the formation of the course, and in 0:22:07.080 --> 0:22:12.399 a minute will dive into the architecture. But first a 0:22:12.440 --> 0:22:18.119 word from the USGA Green Section, the sponsor of today's episode. 0:22:18.880 --> 0:22:21.480 One of the biggest trends in golf course maintenance is 0:22:21.560 --> 0:22:26.560 data collection, and no management system today makes collecting data 0:22:26.680 --> 0:22:31.719 easier than Deacon from the USGA Green Section. 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All right, Matt, let's let's 0:23:22.600 --> 0:23:27.119 dive into some characteristics of this golf course that Harry 0:23:27.119 --> 0:23:29.760 Colt designed and has been altered in some ways, but 0:23:30.119 --> 0:23:34.359 basically still embodies what Harry Colt envisioned in the early 0:23:34.440 --> 0:23:38.400 nineteen thirties. When you think about the land at Royalport Rush, 0:23:38.920 --> 0:23:42.639 what are the main features of the property. What's the 0:23:42.680 --> 0:23:45.200 structure of the property, Where's the interesting stuff, where's the 0:23:45.240 --> 0:23:48.200 less interesting stuff? How is it all kind of laid 0:23:48.200 --> 0:23:48.760 out out there? 0:23:49.960 --> 0:23:53.000 Yeah, I think the land is like far and away 0:23:53.240 --> 0:23:55.879 one of the best assets to Royal Port Rush. It's 0:23:56.000 --> 0:24:00.400 such an incredible variety of links land and it took 0:24:00.400 --> 0:24:03.560 me a while, like I actually kind of just recently 0:24:04.040 --> 0:24:06.840 understood this because this was actually this trip that we 0:24:06.880 --> 0:24:10.199 went on last March. It was my first time like 0:24:10.280 --> 0:24:13.240 making a trip to Scotland or island or to play 0:24:13.520 --> 0:24:18.440 you know, these classical links type golf courses and Portmarnick 0:24:18.680 --> 0:24:22.119 I guess is more like the Scottish Links where it's 0:24:22.200 --> 0:24:27.080 kind of this low lying land with smaller undulations, and 0:24:27.119 --> 0:24:29.119 then we went up to Royal County down which is 0:24:29.160 --> 0:24:34.600 like these incredibly dramatic like landforms and huge sand dunes, 0:24:35.240 --> 0:24:39.880 and it, like, I guess it like surpassed my thoughts 0:24:40.480 --> 0:24:43.239 of what real links golf was in this like kind 0:24:43.280 --> 0:24:46.640 of more low lying and less intricate land. And that's 0:24:46.680 --> 0:24:48.959 what Royal Port Rush has is which is why it 0:24:49.000 --> 0:24:53.000 makes it so great. It has huge, long, broad slopes 0:24:53.240 --> 0:24:57.360 alongside really choppy dunes that kind of layer on top 0:24:57.400 --> 0:25:01.040 of each other and create these really amazing peripheries on 0:25:01.200 --> 0:25:04.280 holes like nine, ten and eleven kind of in the 0:25:04.280 --> 0:25:07.959 middle section, but in general it's just like a very 0:25:08.119 --> 0:25:13.800 very good variety of land and at the same time, 0:25:13.920 --> 0:25:17.040 like you're set right on the water there and the 0:25:17.160 --> 0:25:20.399 land like really goes up high once you go inland 0:25:20.440 --> 0:25:23.280 there to kind of this rolling farmland, so you have 0:25:23.320 --> 0:25:26.440 really long views up the coast of the rocky coastline 0:25:26.480 --> 0:25:30.000 you can see the farmland inland and then just some 0:25:30.080 --> 0:25:33.880 of the most incredible sand dunes you'll ever find where 0:25:33.920 --> 0:25:36.359