Eggsplorations

Andy, Brendan, Cameron, and Matt re-convene to put a bow on their March 2024 trip to Northern Ireland. They discuss some feedback and questions they’ve gotten since returning home, ponder some of their favorite holes, courses, golf memories, and non-golf activities. There’s some debate over a composite eclectic 18 from the courses they played and a head-to-head Royal Portrush vs. Royal County Down hypothetical match.

All four Fried Egg Golf staffers return for this episode on their impressions of Royal Portrush after a few days playing, walking, and filming its Dunluce Links, Northern Ireland’s Open Championship host and perhaps its most renowned course. They debate some of the characteristics that make it so great, changes undergone by Martin Ebert to accommodate The Open, and favorite holes. They also relay a few of their own unique experiences trying to navigate the course, what to look for as you go around, and take on the age-old debate of how you’d split 10 rounds between Royal Portrush and Royal County Down.

In this episode of Eggsplorations, the greatest golfer in the history of Northern Ireland joins to discuss his roots there, his favorite golf memories growing up, and his favorite courses and earliest memories of Royal Portrush and Royal County Down. Rory McIlroy fields questions from TPC Sawgrass as he prepped for The Players while Andy and Brendan were across the Atlantic in his home country acquainting themselves with the golf culture and a few of the world class courses that Rory came to know in his earliest days as a junior standout. He also explains this golden age of pro golf success for the island, which boasts five different major winners since 2007 after a 60-year drought. There’s also plenty of banter and insight into what it was like growing up at Holywood, how different it is now as a big shot on the PGA Tour, and much more. Thanks to Rory for his time.

The Fried Egg Golf four in Northern Ireland discuss their experience playing Portstewart, which possesses perhaps the most extreme dunes land you will find with a golf course attached to it. They offer some of their favorite holes and memories of the land on the front nine, which has a fascinating and charming backstory to it. It is not the work of some golden age great or local from 100 years ago, but rather a front nine, sometimes labeled among the best in golf, bought in the late 80’s and then designed by a local teacher in town. It was an experience that Cameron called “restorative” and one that should be seen on a trip to Northern Ireland.

Castlerock might be considered a “throw-in” to a trip up to the Causeway Coast — a way to spend a day that’s not at Royal Portrush or Portstewart. As Andy articulates at the top of this episode, it was a course and experience that pleasantly captured him and the kind of unexpected day that really helps redeem these treks to golf-rich areas. Cameron and Brendan also join to discuss some of their favorite features and holes from a true links setting and fabulous day in the sun. There are a few points about where they think it could improve or may have gone too far, but it’s a course where their experience had them concluding it is one that should visited on any trip to this part of the world.