The Island Golf Club
The Island Golf Club is one of Ireland’s Premier Links Golf Courses, situated just off the main M1 (N1) Dublin to Belfast route, near the village of Donabate. This links course is located across the estuary from the quaint village of Malahide, just North of Portmarnock
The Island Golf Club, to put it quite simply, is one of the finest links golf courses in the world. Just why it is generally not spoken about in the same breath as Ballybunion, Royal County Down and Waterville is a mystery, but make no mistake that The Island is in that league. The course will tantalize, tempt, satisfy and infuriate, but at the end of the round you will be well aware that you have just played a very special golf course. It is that good. Having played in the Irish PGA Championship at The Island in 1999, Darren Clark proclaimed the course “a fantastic links which tests every club in the bag.” This is no understatement.
Like most great links courses, The Island has a long history attached to it. It was back in the 1880’s when four well-to-do bachelors rowed across the inlet between Malahide village and “the island” to inspect the territory and quickly returned to spread the word. Soon, a group of ten local men clubbed together to lease the land, and so was born The Island Golf Club. The club remained strictly private until after the Second World War when a lack of finance prompted the move to membership. The course was only accessible by boat from the Malahide marina until 1973, and though these days are now gone, what remains is a traditional, world class links golf course that rivals the very best in the world.