Portmarnock Golf Club

Overview

On Christmas Eve 1893 a Scottish insurance broker, W.C.Pickeman and his friend George Ross rowed over from Sutton to the peninsula of Portmarnock to explore the possibility of creating a golf links. The Jamesons (of whiskey fame) owned the land having come from Scotland and built a distillery in Dublin in 1780. Their private course was at the Northern end. John Jameson readily agreed to lease land at the South end for golfing purposes for twenty-five years at a nominal rent. And so it was that 'Portmarnock Golf Club' opened in 1894. Today, Portmarnock has a yardage of almost 7500 yards for it’s par of 72 and is arguably the toughest championship golf course in Ireland. It has hosted all of Ireland’s major championships, an early edition of The World Cup (won by Snead and Palmer) and the Walker Cup. It has also played to the Irish Open on no less than nineteen occasions. “I know of no greater finish in the world than that of the last five holes at Portmarnock.” Bernard Darwin