Straight from the off the recent work is imposing, the bunkering with natural edging is a resounding success, blending in well with the new sand scrape areas. 

The opening stretch of holes sit discretely in gentle dune structures, before opening out into the flatter ground, where the bunkering focuses the gaze. 

Conditioning as you would expect from a championship course was really good for mid autumn, with the endless yards of grass paths visually impressive. 

The course is a very high quality sibling to its championship course, and it will be amazing to watch the remaining planned work unfold further improving.

Finally, I must call out the most amazing friendly welcome and service in both the clubhouses

I don’t have to be a genius to point this one is way “easier” than Dunluce but that doest not take fun and challenge out of the picture with some very demanding tee shots and some other greens which will demand intelligence and wise choices to avoid missing on the bad side.

One strong feature of the course is the set of five par 3s, none of them too long and a couple quite short but all of them to different sized greens and in varied directions:

3rd is short but from tee you don’t see a wide landing area if you wish to hit a low one and make it roll to the gree.

9th again short and downhill, also played downwind and it was not easy to hold the ball.

13th with green small and elevated needs a high shot but that is a risk when wind blows left to right as we had.

Loved 15th from elevated tee downwind to the biggest green, one of the best images of the course.

17th elevated green with false front played wuite similar to Castlerock’s Bann Course 4th hole.

It is a course that will allow you to score (if you play well), there is space to miss off the tee and after the test at Dunluce, having the chance to end the day on a high note is always a good reason to make the 300yds walk from Club House to the 1st tee, even more if you consider it is 20GBP extra if played on the same day.

Best holes?

Short par 4 7th to a well protected green around mounds … driver is not the best choice.

Difficult 5th demanding a well placed tee shot to a sort of punchbowl green.

Brutal long 10th to the end of the valley.

Par 5 16th with OB on the right side and a false front, a hole where pin position can be the difference between birdie and bogey.

Loved it from beginning to the end, every time I will be back to RP it will be both courses with no argument.

In recent years with the MacKenzie & Ebert reworking of the Dunluce course for the Open Championship I was aware that some key land on the Valley was lost to the reworked Dunluce, and I guess I assumed that The Valley Links was somewhat second rate.

I was wrong.

Maybe it helps to turn up with low expectations, but I very much enjoyed playing the Valley.

It certainly isn’t a championship course in the mould of The Dunluce, but instead offers a golfing experience that is perhaps more relevant and enjoyable for the everyday hacker.

The Valley course is an easy walk and should be popular with all levels of player. It does not challenge a player’s length and carry like the Dunluce, but rather will test the better player for accuracy off the tee, and will reward the thinking golfer. The longer handicapper who can manage his game will also enjoy the course.

The greens are generally small and contoured to repel the wayward approach, but offer a range of interesting recovery shots.

The fairways twist and turn through bumps and hollows flanked by gnarly rough, but very few bunkers.

There are only 18 bunkers on the course, but you will scarcely notice..

The eighth hole, named Switchback is perhaps the most memorable hole.

It is a rollicking par 5 through some undulating territory.

The key is to place the ball safely with the blind second shot to open up a short shot to the green.

It’s not about length, you just need to manage your game!

The Valley Course is a delight to play, and is an ideal entree to the main course- The Dunluce.

I visited the course for the first time this April knowing that two of its best holes were stolen to create the Dunluce’s Open routing. I was concerned that this might create a lesser course, but more on that shortly. When looking at the Valley course from up high, whilst playing the Dunluce’s infamous Calamity hole, the Valley doesn’t look like much. What you see below is War Hollow. A relatively flat piece of land that sits within a large valley, hence the course’s name, and where a battle once took place at the start of the 12th Century between the Chieftains of the Route (the home team) and the King of Norway (the away team). Within this valley, around half a dozen holes are located. These are decent holes, quite straight forward in their design and holes you can open your shoulders on, but they aren’t what the course should be characterised by. The 4th is the first hole within the valley and has a green that’s set in front of the large dune that Calamity sits upon, whilst the 5th and 10th have quite excellent green complexes, but it’s outside of this area where the best of the land sits.

The 1st and 2nd play through and around small dunes and provide a relatively soft but pretty opening, whilst the drop shot 3rd is a cute par three, one that you’ll have taken a glimpse of earlier if you’ve warmed up at Royal Portrush’s fine practice facilities. Coming out of the valley, you play the 6th where you're required to thread your ball between two small dunes and over a sunken fairway. The 7th, Cradle, is a cracker of a short par four with a hidden dell for a green site, where a taller dune on the left can obscure the line of sight to the green. The 8th hole then takes you back towards the valley, and is a little madcap in its design. It’s a par five where the line of entry would be best suited from the fairway of the previous hole, but those meanies at Portrush made that line of approach an internal out of bounds. Instead, you need to take the left-hand passage which means the approach to this par five is semi blind, reaching across a huge dip in the land to a tucked green.

Once past the next section of valley holes, the run into the clubhouse is electric. The 13th has a beautiful natural green site with bunkers hidden within swales, whilst the 14th, a short par four, naturally tempts you to correct your line of approach directly towards the green, rather than sensibly playing along the bend of the dogleg. 15 is one of the new holes, and an excellent par three framed by large marram grass covered dunes. This hole plays perpendicular to the angle of the majority of holes on the course.

A par five - three - four combination finish then completes the round. The 16th having been extended into a testing long hole, whilst the 17th was rediscovered by Martin Ebert and co after a century of being in the wilderness. Any ball landing short here will find its way falling back towards the bottom of a valley. The new 18th meanwhile, was one I found out from a local caddie to be derided by Portrush members and there is talk of a redesign. I personally fall onto the other side of this argument. The teeing ground is set high in the dunes providing the only views of the spectacular beach setting. Whilst the fairway is of the lumpy, bumpy variety, so the design team resisted the urge to iron out these handsome creases when building it. I’d be worried that any changes to this hole would result in something more uniform and compliant. I’m not always a cheerleader for Martin Ebert, but I personally felt that the changes he’s designed at the Valley fit seamlessly with the rest of the course and should be allowed to stand the test of time.

I recognise that my review of the Valley is a departure to some of those views below, but characterising the Valley around its half a dozen flat holes is really missing the delights of the rest of the course. If given the opportunity to create a personal top 100 of Great Britain and Ireland, the Valley would belong firmly in my list. I beg you to play it if you’re visiting the other top courses in the area. You may not agree with my personal ranking, but it’s a very pleasant departure from the more challenging links courses on the North Antrim Coast and allows for both an easier walk as well as providing entertaining matchplay holes. This is the kind of course for which I seek when I’m on my travels across the British Isles, and I hope my review goes some way to sway others to enjoy a wonderful course that they might otherwise have overlooked. Portrush might just be the best 36-hole links venue in the UK.

Once through the short, treacherous but fun 3rd hole you spend a lot time out in the flat valley area, which for me is where holes blended together and it felt like you were playing the same shots. A break from this was the long, blind 8th which is even called Switch Back, the meaning of which I learned on here recently.

I would therefore recommend Valley if in the area but some its land is a bit too flat. These fairways still have ripples but in my uninformed opinion could have used a few more bunkers to add definition and variety. If this was in Scotland I’d rank it around the same level as Montrose and the Jubilee course, and in England maybe Littlestone and Seaton – so still pretty, pretty good. If you are playing then the car park and starter’s hut are at the Rathmore Club, not the Dunluce clubhouse.

It is in fantastic condition and has wonderfully designed holes with thick penal rough and subtle contoured greens.

Lovely beach view from the 18th tee box, definitely bring your camera for this one.

This course rewards precision over length. Some of the par 3s are great fun to play.

Following an innocuous, but perfectly acceptable start, the round really gets going at the 6th from where we enjoy a run of holes until the 10th which are quite excellent. The 6th, 7th and 8th in particular offer much shot-making opportunities - I simply loved the short par-four 7th ‘Cradle’ where you have a number options on how to find the putting surface with your approach and the 8th is a bamboozling long hole.

We must then find some big hitting for the up and down nature of the flatish 10th, 11th and 12th before a wonderful run for home which contains some full blooded links golf.

The Valley course, also originally designed by Colt, recently lost two holes (5 & 6) to the main Dunluce course but created some new ones towards the end of the round to compensate and tweaked a couple of others. The slightly altered 16th (now a par five) is the highlight from this rousing closing stretch which also contains a couple of very good short holes and a fun finisher over bumpy ground.

The course in its own right is a very fine links and one that makes a fine bedfellow for the Dunluce. It’s no pushover either at 6,346-yards, the par is 71.

Ed is the founder of Golf Empire – click the link to read his full review.

That said, there are a bunch of quality holes here, with some well positioned bunkers and just enough turn in some of the doglegs to keep the interest up. The course was pretty much empty when we played it, so makes for an easy ad-hoc second round.