Ireland First
It was my opportunity to do some travel in October as I was overseas twice during the month, the first one was for the Northern Ireland Golf Convention. It had been a few years since I’d been to Northern Ireland so it was nice to see some of the properties that we use, many of which have undergone some changes since my last visit.
 | Marine and Lawn is a company that has purchased a few of the top golf hotel locations in the UK and Ireland, and that includes the iconic Slieve Donard Resort & Spa, on the doorstep of Royal Country Down Golf Club. The Slieve Donard has always been a favourite of ours and the improvements seen from the recent renovations has made the product even better. It’ll continue to be the place to stay when playing Royal County Down. |
| After a short stay at the Slieve, we played a couple of parkland courses on the way to Derry, where we had a couple of days of meetings with our suppliers. One of the parkland courses we played was Royal Belfast, a Harry Colt designed classic that is one of the best non-links courses on the island. |  |
My visit to Derry for the conference represented my first ever visit to this famous walled city. A great base for golf trips in the NW of Ireland, Derry is a city that has transformed significantly since the troubled times of the 1980s in Ireland. It offers several great hotel options, great Irish Craic and a wonderful historic tour of the walled portion of the city.
We were lucky enough to end our week with a round of golf at Royal Portrush, which will be hosting the Open Championship again in 2025 after an incredible event in 2019. It’s always a treat to play the Dunluce Links at Portrush.
Then on to Scotland
A couple of weeks later – after an all-too-quick visit back home – I was back overseas for the inaugural Golf Connects Scotland event in St Andrews. This event brought together a select few tour operators from around the world, along with many 4 and 5 star properties across Scotland. We were hosted at the fabulous Old Course Hotel and had the chance to play two of my favourites, Kingsbarns and Dumbarnie.
I capped off my week in St Andrews by finally playing my first round as a St Andrews Links Ticket Holder, flying around the Jubilee course in under 2 hours on my own on a breezy but dry late October day. It was a magical afternoon, I always love playing the courses in the Auld Grey Toon. As always, I can’t wait for my next visit to the Home of Golf.
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