Portrush, N. Ireland
The only Irish course ever to host an Open is perennially ranked in the world’s Top 15 courses, thanks to a superior 1929 H.S. Colt design that maximizes its setting in the high dunes along the Irish Sea. It features one of the great holes in golf, the 210-yard, par-3 14th, aptly named “Calamity.” Amid whipping winds, a fade off the tee will plunge into a 75-foot-deep chasm short and right of the hole. At 16 years of age, Rory McIlroy shredded this fabled links in 61 strokes.