The Island Golf Club

Between Broadmeadow and the Irish Sea

The golf course at The Island Golf Club grew from an 1890 private venture by ten founders known as the Syndicate. Early players crossed the Broadmeadow estuary from Malahide by boat, then signalled the ferryman with a red-and-white disc when they were ready to return. The original designer is unknown, but the routing followed valleys between the dunes and established the links' enduring character.

When a new clubhouse opened in 1973, Fred Hawtree prepared a complete reorientation, implemented with changes by Eddie Hackett. Martin Hawtree later revised the course, and Mackenzie & Ebert reshaped the front nine in 2019-20. Their work added the new 8th and 9th while preserving the stronger back nine.

That inward stretch moves through larger dunes beside the estuary. The short 13th, Broadmeadow, asks golfers to carry a deep grass bunker or choose the safer route left. Water presses against the narrow 14th fairway, before the rising 18th opens from a valley towards the deepest green on the course.