The Royal Dublin Golf Club

The Garden at the Final Turn

The golf course at The Royal Dublin Golf Club has occupied North Bull Island since 1889, four years after John Lumsden founded the club in Dublin. The First World War brought a six-year interruption, with the links used for military training and left badly damaged. Harry Colt rebuilt the course in 1920, creating the traditional out-and-back routing recognised today.

The outward nine usually plays with the prevailing south-westerly wind, while the longer homeward half turns back into it. That shift gives the round a clear change of pace. The 10th begins the return as the stroke-index-one hole, and the often-drivable 16th is guarded by seven pot bunkers.

The final two holes tighten the test. The 17th has a narrow entrance to its green, while the dogleg 18th brings the out-of-bounds Garden into play from the tee and on the approach. Martin Hawtree later updated the layout while respecting Colt's work, and a 2023 bunker restoration returned the hazards to more irregular forms seen in earlier aerial photographs.