Herd's score reads -

Pulford's reads -

The par which Colonel Bogey fathers, comprises the following figures, and will be found, even by the leading amateurs, well worthy of emulation -

The amateur record of the green is held by Mr. George Combe with the following brilliant, if somewhat erratic score -

But in Mr. Combe's case it must be granted that when he played this very fine round the 2nd, 4th, 8th, 15th, and 18th holes were played from somewhat shortened tees.

Touching the question of accommodation at Newcastle, while perhaps such a matter may not quite come within the scope of a chapter on Irish golf greens, yet (though in one's play it is wise to take all lies with equal composure and placidity) golfers are not all Spartans, and some have a luxurious and epicurean side to their nature. Have not good authorities laid it down that above all things it is necessary that the successful player should be well fed ? So admitting this, with somewhat of shamefacedness, it will be useful to English and Scottish players to know that perhaps at no golfing centre in the United Kingdom will they be so well off in this respect as at Newcastle. In addition to the line club-house recently erected by the County Down Golf Club, and the already well-known hotels - the "Annesley Arms" and the "Belle Vue," which are, however, at the southern end of the village some distance from the links, the Belfast and County Down Railway Co. have just completed the building of a magnificent structure called the Slieve Donard Hotel. This imposing pile of buildings stands in its own grounds of about twelve acres, all of which are most artistically laid out. The site was selected with a fine eye to scenic effect. The chief rooms command superb views of the mountains, the bay, and the surrounding beautifully wooded country. Everything in this building is of the most modern type. The house contains about 150 bedrooms, and is lighted throughout with electricity. There is a lift for the tired golfer to every floor of the building, and there are baths of every description, from Turkish to salt-water plunge; in fact, the hydropathic department is a distinct and unique feature, and what is perhaps better than all this (good as it undoubtedly is) is the fact that the entrance hall of the hotel is not 100 yards from the railway terminus, and scarcely 100 yards from the club-house and first tee of the County Down Golf Club.

From almost the most southerly point on the County Down seaboard to the most northerly on that of the County Antrim is not a far cry in these days of comfortable and rapid transit, and here the Emerald Isle has another of its fine golf greens.

Standing upon the most elevated portion of a rocky peninsula, which is lashed unceasingly by the surges of the Atlantic Ocean, the little town of Portrush was merely the fashionable bathing resort of Ulster ten years ago, and an after-dinner promenade upon a storm-swept hill constituted its sole relaxation. In the spring of 1888 golf came as a fertilising agent, and changed the appearance of things generally and considerably. When a club was formed, and a lease of the wide stretch of natural golfing ground which runs eastward towards the Giant's Causeway obtained, Portrush began to bustle about a bit, and shook off the torpor under which it had been in the habit of lying for about eight months in every year. New houses sprang up everywhere and knit themselves into terraces and streets, the lodging-house keepers flourished exceedingly and waxed fat. The Northern Counties Railway Company went extensively into brick and mortar, and, heedless of Sam Weller's aphorism, that "buyin' houses was delicate English for goin' mad, and takin' to buildin' a medical term for being incurable," added considerably to their already extensive hotel. In 1892 the Golf Club had 400 members and £3,000 to spare, which sum was forthwith also turned into brick and stone, and ultimately fashioned into a very handsome club-house, which commands a noble view of the sea and the Giant's Causeway, and is internally replete with every comfort and convenience. There are two very fine courses at Portrush, and the ladies' course of eighteen holes is one of the very finest to be found anywhere. The long course, as extended in 1896, is a very fine one, and bad lies are an infrequent cause of bad play. In fact the nature of the ground through the green renders players who golf constantly at Portrush extremely fastidious, and liable to be considerably disappointed when, on golf intent, they wander into new pastures. Round several of the holes, notably those near the club-house and those which are skirted by the main road to Coleraine, Bushmills, and the Giant's Causeway, there has been for many years past very considerable impress by the foot of the excursionist, of the nursery-maid and her charge, and of the perambulating townsman, so that hereabouts the sod is firm and true and level, and covered with short, fine grass, though somewhat heavy withal.

The new course at Portrush is a long one, and as it has not yet been properly advertised by the pen of the golfing scribe or exploited by the play club of the far-driving professional, a task of some difficulty lies in describing it accurately. There is no better test of a course than a two or three days' tournament for substantial money prizes in which twenty or thirty of the leading golfers in the world seriously engage each other for gold or glory. This discloses the character of a course better than reams of scribbling or oceans of irresponsible conjecture, though it is almost invariably accompanied by a ruthless slaughter of many beautiful and innocent hypotheses by very ugly yet entirely incontrovertible facts. Nothing so much discomposes the local authorities as to see three or four of their perfect "five" holes calmly annexed by some daring young professional in four each, and although the ruffled equanimity of the authorities is a painful sight, it is by no means an uncommon one. Both the par which is understood and generally accepted at Portrush for its new course, and the record also, may, therefore, go on with calm and even minds until next September, when the open Amateur and Professional Irish Championship is due to be played there, but then they may be very rudely and completely shattered.