I played Calamity Corner and survived – this is why pros fear the 16th at Royal Portrush

It has been variously described as a “beast”, a “card-wrecker” and “236 yards of pure terror”. So by the time I reach the 16th hole at Royal Portrush, better known as “Calamity Corner”, on a blustery day back in April, I am resigned to my fate. The wind is into my face and slightly off the left. The sky is dark. Ahead of me lies a yawning chasm of dense-looking rough.

I already know what is going to happen. My playing partners – who have watched me spray the ball around the Dunluce links all day – already know what is going to happen. But there is nothing else for it. With the advice of my handy Strokesaver course guide ringing in my ears (“Aim for the left side of the green, take plenty of club and say your prayers!”) I clutch my driver tightly, and swing…

The yawning chasm

Signature holes on the Open rota tend to have evocative names. The Postage Stamp at Royal Troon (named for its tiny landing area), the Maiden at Royal St George’s (because of the shape of a huge greenside dune which reminded the club’s founder of the Jungfrau summit in the Swiss Alps), the Road Hole at St Andrews (for obvious reasons).

Calamity Corner is not so subtle. It does what it says on the tin. Well, in certain conditions it does.

If the weather is benign, Calamity Corner is “just” a long par-three. But if the wind gets up, those 236 yards will feel like a long way, even for the bigger hitters. And it does tend to get up. Calamity Corner is the highest point on the famous Harry Colt-designed course.

The sight that greets players arriving on its tee box is certainly not a reassuring one. A yawning chasm stands between player and green, which is approached to the left via a raised path. Anything short or to the right and you are liable to find yourself 50 feet below the hole in heavy rough.

“I think every competitor would quite happily take a three in each round,” concedes Gary McNeill, who has been the head professional here for 28 years. “It’s a hole where if you get it wrong you can easily run up a double-bogey or worse, particularly if the player pushes it out to the right and doesn’t make the carry across.

“The ball has a tendency to bounce and make its way right down to the base of that chasm and then you’re at the mercy of what lie you get down there and you’re trying to play a shot up a very steep bank to a blind target.”

Tyrrell Hatton found himself in exactly that pickle when his tee shot tumbled into the chasm during his second round in 2019. The Englishman’s next two attempts advanced his ball a total of two inches. Hatton ended up escaping with a double bogey (thanks to an excellent long putt) but was not a happy bunny afterwards. “I don’t think it’s a good hole,” he said sniffily. “It’s maybe a bit too harsh if you can’t actually move the golf ball when you’re seven yards right of the edge of the green.”

The trick, of course, is to make sure you don’t go in there in the first place. When Portrush first hosted the Open in 1951, Bobby Locke, the legendary South African who won the Open four times, took one look at the hole, which was the 14th hole back then, and made the decision to play to the left on all four days. By landing in a bowl-shaped dip on the left, he was able to escape with a par on each occasion. That dip is now called “Locke’s Hollow”.

But that is easier said than done. In 2019, when the Open was last held at Portrush, just 41 per cent of players hit the 16th green in regulation – among the top-three lowest success rates on the course that week.

Even if you do find the green, putting is no picnic. If the wind is up, the putting surface, which is 39 yards deep and set diagonally from front left to back right, can be treacherous. Rory McIlroy four-putted here en route to missing the cut in 2019. Overall in 2019, Calamity Corner was the third-hardest hole on the course, playing 0.25 shots over par. In round four, that rose to 0.37 strokes over par.

Rory would pay good money for my score

So how did my experience of playing Calamity Corner pan out? Better than expected actually. Some might snigger at my use of a driver (no, we were not playing off the Championship tees, but it was still over 200 yards off the whites and, as I say, it was into a headwind!) but it worked for me.

Aiming my tee shot about 30 yards left of the green, cunningly taking my “natural fade” into account, my ball somehow ends up just off the front-left edge, about 20 yards from the pin, and I manage to two-putt for a far-from-calamitous par. I may have lost a dozen balls over the course of the day, but I console myself that Rory would pay good money for that score on 16 come Sunday evening.

See Nick Faldo’s full video of the 15-18th holes at Royal Portrush.

Fourth: Fred Daly’s

📍 482 yards
🏌️ Par four

My favourite hole at Royal Portrush. Two bunkers on the left almost force you to play to the right centre of the fairway. A well-positioned drive sets up a medium iron to a green that is set among three to four very high dunes. The putting surface is quite flat and two good swings will get you inside 20 feet and present a welcome birdie chance.

Fifth: White Rocks

📍 374 yards
🏌️ Par four

This is drivable, although if the wind is against, only the long guys will get there. There are a couple of new bunkers just short of the green that will make the tee shot a little more difficult, but the big thing is that if the pin is at the back, on the second tier, it is about 20 feet from out-of-bounds. Risk and reward at its best.

18th: Babington’s

📍 474 yards
🏌️ Par four

With the two holes introduced for the Open in 2019, the fi­nal par four is the old 16th and it fi­ts in really well. It is a dog-leg right, but from the back tee you cannot cut the corner. There is OB left but anything hit to the safe side down the right half of the fairway leaves a very tough angle into the green. It is a great fi­nishing hole and the grandstand is just so cool.