The 2025 British Open at Royal Portrush Golf Club is just the third in the club’s storied history, but the Northern Ireland classic is more than worthy of the honor and the praise.
The 137-year-old club first hosted the oldest men’s major golf tournament in 1951. Nearly 70 years later, the Open finally returned to the shores of Portrush. Ireland’s Shane Lowry broke through and won his first career major that summer after building coasting to the victory.
Like all courses that host the historic tournament, Royal Portrush has some teeth that get even sharper when the weather starts to get gnarly. But as the world’s best golfers have explained, there’s still a chance to score.
“It’s a very rewarding course if you hit good shots and a very penalizing course. It seems to be consistent with the degree of how good or bad you hit it,” the 2013 Open champion explained in a press conference the week of the 2025 British Open. “Like if you hit a really good shot, it gets really rewarded. If you hit a really bad shot, it gets in a really bad spot, as opposed to getting away with really bad shots and get lucky. It seems like it penalizes it to the degree which it should.”
As simple as that might seem, it’s of course easier said than done. Between the elements and the course, you have to really be on your game to score well.
Here are the five toughest holes at Royal Portrush.
1. No. 11 (par 4, 475 yards)
What a beast. A 475-yard par 4 is pretty standard, but this hole plays even tougher by how the landing spot in the fairway is tightened by sprawling rough on each side. If you’re lucky enough to find the fairway, the approach shot is at a green that features a false front, a pot bunker to the left and is otherwise armed and surrounded by thick mounds of rough. There were 168 bogeys or worse on this hole in 2019.
2. No. 4 (par 4, 502 yards)
Once again, it’s another treacherous tee shot with OB down the right and a pair of fairway bunkers down the left landing zone. Another hilariously difficult approach shot awaits with two mounds basically acting as a wall in front of the putting surface.
“I think on the 4th hole, if the pin is toward the left here, you do have those hills in the way a little bit,” Jon Rahm said in a pre-tournament press conference. “If it’s downwind, you definitely need the height to be able to stop it properly. Most of the time you can use the ground to your advantage, but it’s also are you moving it left to right, right to left, where’s the wind. All those things affect it.”
3. No. 14 (par 4, 466 yards)
Once again, it’s another treacherous tee shot with OB down the right and a pair of fairway bunkers down the left landing zone. Another hilariously difficult approach shot awaits with two mounds basically acting as a wall in front of the putting surface. Players then hit toward a vertically narrow green that tilts toward the player’s left — with an extremely difficult greenside bunker lurking. It was the most difficult green to hit in 2019.
4. No. 16 (par 3, 236 yards)
Long par 3s are a hot-button topic in modern golf, but regardless of how the players feel about it, this is going to test them every time they step on the tee. You simply cannot miss to the right here. The green is basically built into the hill, and the thick stuff grows all the way down the hill into a valley. To get anywhere close to up and down from there is a miracle. Just ask Johnson Wagner and the people he almost killed.
5. No. 18 (par 4, 474 yards)
This came down to the first or the last hole on the course, which is a sign players will be tested early and often. The tee shots are brutal. In the end, No. 18 won out for two reasons. The first is that between exhaustion and pressure, ending your day with this sort of test is brutal. This is actually a hole that looks even more intimidating with the stadium buildout, as the hard right turn in the fairway looks even more pronounced. And don’t you dare think about trying to backstop your approach shot off the bleachers. The drop zone is no joke.
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