The Island Golf Club Course Review

The Island Golf Club Fact File:

• Location: The Island is just 15 minutes from the airport to the north of the city centre
• Year Established: The Island was founded in 1890 and came about in fascinating circumstances
• Par: 72
• Length (yards): 7,041
• Green Fees (weekdays): €325
• Signature Hole: The ‘short’ 13th is something else; both for the hole and the setting
• Website: theislandgolfclub.com

Just like Portmarnock, the club's story begins with a boat journey which saw four men row across the channel which separates the village of Malahide from a piece of land known locally as The Island to search for some ideal golfing terrain. Look closely at the club's logo and it depicts a man in a rowing boat underneath the founding year of 1890.

To begin with it was a private club with 10 founder members known as 'The Syndicate' and they would be the judge and jury as to who else could play as annual ticket holders. Most were members of The Dublin GC, which would become Royal Dublin, and a course was laid out between the sand dunes and, while it has been modified and changed, the character still remains.

The biggest change came in 1973 when the new clubhouse meant that the routing of the course had to be completely re-jigged and Fred Hawtree put the new layout together, along with modifications by Eddie Hackett. Hawtree's son, Martin, made further amends and Mackenzie & Ebert recently came in to strengthen the front nine.

The Island somehow still remains less talked about than many of the other great Irish links but it's a firm fixture in the country's top-10 courses and it shared the hosting duties for The Amateur Championship with Portmarnock in 2019 which gives us some idea of the quality here. Otherwise it has held countless prestigious amateur events and regularly acts as a venue for Regional Qualifying for The Open.

The Island Golf Club Review

The Island is a magnificent place to play golf. It's certainly less recognisable by name as some of the courses it sits above in the course rankings but it is now slowly being accepted by the greater good as one of the truly great world-class Irish links.

We all like to obsess about where the stars of the game play before an Open and Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas were both here before the 2024 Championship and they supposedly preferred the front nine which would go against the usual thinking. The first nine holes used to begin with eight par 4s before a short hole and this is where the changes in recent years have come about.  

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If you were last here a decade ago then this is now what's different. In short Mackenzie & Ebert oversaw a project which reworked the bunkers and re-introduced a former par 3 at the 4th which had been put in as a 'spare hole', and new holes were added at 8 and 9 and the old 9th is now a new short-game area. Both nines now measure around 3,600 yards and have a par of 36 which sets it up well for hosting the bigger championships.

The front nine is still a collection of strong and brilliant par 4s and none more so than the opening hole which is framed by huge dunes that wouldn't look our of place at County Down and beyond. 

On the other side of the clubhouse sits the back nine and, by more common consent, this is where the senses really come alive. From teeing off by the estuary at the 11th – water sits on three sides of the course – there is certainly more variety on the back nine and a trio of holes which are so different and so brilliant that they will make your day.

For all the talk of short holes having to be short to be outstanding, the 13th kicks that into touch. Every now and then, if the setting and hole is spot on, then a long par 3 can be the talk of the course. The 13th does just that, with Malahide in the background and a hole of 190 yards which is generally played into the wind. On paper it doesn't sound too inviting but it's spectacularly good.

Up next is one of the narrowest fairways on the planet and somewhere I, rather unfortunately, had to play through when I was last there. It's a short par 4 with a bit of a bail out to the left and it offers something that is rarely seen with a slim slither of fairway. You wouldn't want this all the way round, or even on one more hole, but it's well placed in the round and makes sense.

Then is the par-5 15th where the duneland moves to another level and certainly on a par with County Down – Tom Doak describes it as one of the best par 5s in Ireland.

Everything about The Island is what you want from a day of links golf. There is one blind shot and very few bunkers but the land and greens are spectacularly good and reward the good shots without making the bad ones look too terrible.

Final Verdict

There are lots of good stories about The Island (it's a headland, not an island) and one is how the golfers used to get on and off the course. They were dependent on the boat to get to the clubhouse, which used to sit by the 14th tee and which is now called 'Old Clubhouse', and the signal to collect the golfers was to open a red and white disc on the side of the pavilion. When it was closed it would be green which meant that it blended in with the wall of the clubhouse. 

There will be many stories of golfers blaming the tide for not getting back home when they will simply be enjoying the liquid benefits of the clubhouse. Up until 1973 the course could only be located by boat which adds to the whole charm of the place.

Bernard Darwin was decades ahead of his time and he described The Island as follows: “It would be unfair to omit some mention of Malahide – ‘the Island’ – where there is golf to be had, which may legitimately be called sporting in the best sense of the word.”

The Island will generally sit inside the top 50 courses in GB&I. To give you some idea of quite how strong a course it is, on one ranking it can be found a few places ahead of Hillside, Saunton (East), Formby and Nairn.    

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

For more information, please visit the club's website here