The Causeway Coast and Glens

Rob Smith pays a golfing visit to the Northern Irish coast to check out the fantastic variety on offer not far from this year's Open Championship venue

- By Rob Smith

A few weeks before this summer's Open at glorious Royal Portrush, I headed over to Northern Ireland with Jeremy Ellwood to play a mix of the brilliant courses – inland and links – in the surrounding area. This combination of something old and something new turned out to be an absolute treat...

Big links, little links

The Causeway Coast is blessed with two real giants in Royal Portrush and Portstewart. The former is a global superstar; the latter continues to improve year on year. Not a million miles behind them and in the Golf Monthly Next 100, Castlerock's Mussenden course is a fabulous links that I first played in 1996. I remember liking it greatly, but surprisingly little detail had remained in my shrinking memory bank.