What's Ahead for Golf Travel in 2025

Our Golf and Accommodation Partners Give an Insider's View

Connor Evers, PGA

February 5, 2025

6 Minute Read

During the recent PGA Show in Orlando, we had the opportunity to catch up with a dozen of our golf and accommodation partners from across the pond. With 2025 on the horizon, we asked them to share what’s new and exciting for the upcoming golf travel season.

From the Birthplace of The Open to the host of this year’s championship, this episode offers a firsthand look at what’s in store—from course enhancements to off-the-course experiences you won’t want to miss.

We’ve made this content available in two ways: you can listen to the full episode below, or browse through the transcript to hear directly from each participant. However you choose to take it in, there’s plenty of insight for upcoming Expeditions across the pond.

David Fleming – Prestwick Golf Club

We love welcoming your guests to Prestwick, Birthplace of The Open. You know, it's a special, unique golf course. Seaside links with some really unusual holes, some unusual lines off the tee.

First thing is they will have a caddie, I hope. That's very important because you need a caddie to guide you around. The famous holes for us would be the Cardinal Hole, the 3rd hole, which is a par 5, dogleg left to right with an enormous bunker in the middle you have to avoid. The 5th hole is the blind par 3, the Himalayas, which there aren't many golf courses that have. That is a lot of fun to play.

Hole 15, the Narrows, there’s a single-file walk down that fairway, short par-4. And 17 is our Sahara bunker hole, the Alps, the original hole that really has remained unchanged since 1851 and the first Open in 1860.

We've got some exciting plans in our clubhouse where we're doing a renovation upstairs this year. So if you're coming this year, you'll get to use the main dining room and smoke room at the golf club. There will be a relaxed dress code, so just golf gear, but you get to see those two famous rooms. And then the following year, you'll get to see our renovation, which is very special.

We've got the Dormy House, No. 17, across the road from the club, with eight bedrooms. It's a great place to base yourself. You stay there and then come across the road to the club—it’s just a few steps away, it's perfect. It’s a fantastic course, and we look forward to welcoming your guests to Prestwick.

John Eggleston – Ballybunion Golf Club

Thanks, Daniel. We're looking forward to a really busy season again at Ballybunion with our North American visitors.

Developments at the club include our new driving range, TrackMan, which is a facility that is really good. We’ve got 32 bays, a great practice facility.

As you might know, we’re also developing the Cashen Course at the moment. We’ve got nine holes completed by this summer, which will be open for visitors on July 1st. It’s a collaboration with Tom Watson and Graeme Webster, so we’re really excited about this. By 2027, we’ll have the full course completed. We’re really going to elevate the standard of the Cashen Course, get it closer to the high standards of the Old Course.

The Old Course is still where all the visitors come to, and it’s getting better every year. Visitors really enjoy it, they have a great time, great feedback, and we’ve got lots of loyal customers. They’re coming back again and again, just like your clients at Haversham & Baker, and we thank you for your business.

Andy McMahon – Adare Manor

So we’ve done a lot of work over the winter period on the golf course, continually trying to improve and get ready for the big event in 2027.

We’ve done a lot of bunker works, new sand in our bunkers, reshaped a lot of our bunkers, and new tee boxes getting built in preparation for the tournament.

And when you walk inside our pro shop now, you’ll see the merchandise. The merchandise is there, and we always had a vision of how anticipation would ramp up. It’s faster than we thought. So you walk into our shop now, and you can get Ryder Cup shirts, sweaters, golf balls, accessories, golf bags, travel covers.

That’s the first evident thing that you will see when you come to Adare Manor—when you walk into the pro shop—that the Ryder Cup is coming.

You will see works on the golf course that we do in the off-seasons, so you’ll see little changes if you’ve visited before—the changing of some bridges, the ditches, and the streams—but the playability of the golf course remains exactly the same.

We’re still incredibly proud of the conditions that we have on a daily basis, that Alan MacDonnell and his team provide for our guests, so that the conditioning is still the thing. You’re going to play the golf course in the same condition as they play it in 2027.

As a resort, we’ve opened a chocolate shop. So we have our own chocolatiers making the most beautiful chocolates for our guests, situated just behind our driving range.

So, God forbid that you’ve got a cold day in Ireland, which does happen from time to time, you can have a little stroll down to our chocolate shop and maybe get a hot chocolate just to warm yourself up.

So we feel it’s another amenity for our guests, our golfers, and again, just trying to improve the experience that you have every time you visit.

Keith O'Neill – Enniscrone Golf Club

Enniscrone has been around a long time. It’s something special but it's a course that has remained somewhat undiscovered. We’re over a hundred years old.

Any visiting guest coming from Haversham & Baker has always loved it. The links course at Enniscrone, the Dunes Championship, is surrounded by unspoiled sand dunes with an amazing, dramatic backdrop of the Atlantic Ocean.

Links golf is ever-changing. When your clients come, they may be familiar with hitting a 7-iron 150 yards or an 8-iron 150 yards, but here, they could be asked to hit a longer iron by their caddy. Playing into the wind at Enniscrone is a hot topic—you could find yourself clubbing up by two or three clubs, hitting a 5-iron 150 yards. Trusting your caddie is definitely something that needs to be considered.

We have an amazing stretch of holes, which we call our own version of Amen Corner. The par-3 11th generally plays into the wind, uphill to a two-tiered green. The 12th hole has a green cut into a large sand dune—you absolutely need to have the right club to make par. Then, the 13th generally plays downwind, a drivable par-4.

One hole that really stands out is the 17th, especially when the sun is setting over the Atlantic Ocean. You look back at the backdrop of 16 and 17, and hopefully, if you’ve played it well, you’ve recorded a par or birdie.

We’re delighted to have your clients come and visit, and it’s something we definitely look forward to in the coming years.

John Casey – Rosapenna Resort

I suppose everybody in the northwest is looking forward to the return of The Open Championship at nearby Royal Portrush. It’s only about 90 minutes to a couple of hours east of us, so it’s going to be great for the entire region—getting all of the world’s greatest golfers back there.

So many people are going to come, stay, and make a holiday out of it, visiting Rosapenna and the courses along the north coast to experience some great links golf.

We certainly still have some tee times available, though not an awful lot in July on St. Patrick’s Links or Sandy Hills, but we definitely have some times open. We’ll do our best to fit people in and create a great itinerary for them. The Open is going to make July—already a busy month—even busier.

We’re just focused on getting our three golf courses in the best possible condition for the 2025 season. St. Patrick’s Links, being a younger golf course, is maturing, settling in, and improving every year. It’s exciting to see how it’s evolving and to welcome back golfers who played it in its early years—now returning in what will be year five—to see its progression and enjoy playing it again.

I always encourage people to spend an extra night or two at Rosapenna and really make the most of their trip. There are some fantastic nearby links courses, including Donegal Golf Club, Narin & Portnoo, and Portsalon—all within an hour’s drive. That way, golfers can enjoy a variety of world-class links golf without having to pack up every night.

Gary McNeil – Royal Portrush Golf Club

As you can imagine, The Open is dominating everything on the horizon for us this year, and we’re super excited about it coming back. I mean, it took 68 years for The Open to return to Royal Portrush, and here we are, just six years later, getting ready to host another one.

Everything is in place. The golf course is in wonderful condition. Graeme Beatt and his team have done a marvelous job over the last few years, working closely with the agronomists from The R&A to prepare the course. The build for the tournament will begin at the end of March, early April, and you’ll start to see grandstands going up and all the infrastructure coming into place to support the championship.

Outside of that, we’ve had contractors on site doing work on spectator areas around the course, so those attending The Open are going to have a little bit more space to move around than they did in 2019. Even just walking the course, they’re going to find it an easier walk, as some of the peaks and troughs have been smoothed out to make navigation more comfortable.

Beyond The Open, we’ve done a lot of work on the Valley Links, and that’s really exciting. We now have a new front nine, and holes one to six are open. Those who have played the Valley before will recognize one or two of the holes, but there are three brand-new holes, still growing in on new ground, with some nice elevation changes and lovely views overlooking the East Strand in Portrush, the Skerries Rocks, and the sea.

All of a sudden, you get to see some of the beautiful vistas that you’d normally associate with the Dunluce Links. Martin Ebert has done a wonderful job designing the new holes, and Graham D'Arcy and his team from DAR Golf have completed the construction work to an exceptionally high standard.

Of course, The Rosses is our new luxury accommodation on-site, just to the right of the fourth fairway. We have gorgeous suites, where golfers can stay and play at Royal Portrush with a range of offerings, from breakfast service to even personal chef experiences.

So, there has been a lot going on, it's a big season ahead, and we’re really looking forward to it.

Leigh Heggerty – Galgorm Resort & Spa

At Galgorm, we’re incredibly excited for 2025. We’ve had a lot of investment this year. We have officially bought Galgorm Castle Estate, which includes the 18-hole championship golf course and a new project—Galgorm Castle, a 17th-century castle that we’re transforming into a 35-bedroom ultra-luxury addition to the estate.

It’s shaping up to be a really standout year for golf in Northern Ireland and for hospitality across the board. We continue to enhance our world-class golf facilities, and we’re investing in the course itself to improve the experience for all our guests.

One of the things that probably surprises most golfers about Galgorm is our award-winning Thermal Spa Village, and it just keeps growing and growing. Even if you’re not a spa person, I guarantee you’ll be converted by the time you leave Galgorm.

We now have over two acres of indoor and outdoor spa facilities, which include snow cabins, salt caves, and fabulous treatment rooms. After a long day on the links, it’s definitely the place to relax.

My favorite thing about the thermal spa is the new and innovative treatments we’ve just launched, including the Symphony of Touch, which is a brand-new treatment and the first in Europe.

For those planning to visit in 2025 and beyond, my top tip would be book early. There’s going to be huge demand with The Open in July, and Galgorm is definitely going to be a hot spot for visitors.

Paul Vaughan – Ardglass Golf Club

We always love having your clients and giving them that warm welcome that we pride ourselves on. 2025 is going to be another great year. We’ve got a lot of your clients coming in, and we’re looking forward to welcoming them.

We have some new changes in play. We’ve built a brand-new par-5 16th, and it’s going to be in play from May 1st. So now, we’re going to have two par-5s in a row—15 and now 16. It’s a 605-yard par 5, slightly uphill, but it should mostly play downwind.

We have a wall that runs right through the middle of the golf course. We used to have a par-5 6th hole that went over the wall, a little bit like North Berwick style. When we made changes 20 years ago, we decided to take that out. Anybody who hadn’t been to Ardglass in 20 years would really enjoy their experience, but they would ask the question—where’s the wall hole?

So, the new par-5 16th recreates that experience, and then it flows perfectly into 17, where you’ve got this infinity par-3 green. It’s a really, really good par 5 that complements 17. It’s a lot closer to 17, and then that infinity green on 17 is just fantastic. The feedback from 17 last year was just great.

Golf in Ireland and Northern Ireland is thriving. It’s a really exciting time to be here. It’s really busy, and with The Open coming back to Portrush, it’s just huge.

We remember the memories from 2019, and it’s really exciting to be able to recreate that again. We’re going to be really busy in July, with the back of The Open bringing in even more golfers to Ardglass. And we just want to provide that really warm welcome.

The long-range forecast is looking good—if you believe that. So yeah, it’s exciting. Golfers are going to enjoy the experience, they’re going to head to Portrush, they’re going to have another great experience, and some of them will even visit Portrush before coming to Ardglass.

If you’re in the golf industry in Ireland, it’s a very exciting time. And if you’re not busy now, then you’re doing something wrong.

Gillian Steedman – Marine & Lawn Hotels & Resorts

We’re really excited about our newest property—Portrush Adelphi. It opens in April and has 34 bedrooms. So, we’re really excited ahead of The Open Championship.

And then, our other new initiative is Room 116 at Rusacks St. Andrews. It's a whisky lounge that's in partnership with The GlenDronach. So you can get a selection of really rare whiskeys in there and do whisky tastings. It’s got a balcony, and it looks right out onto the 18th green of the Old Course.

So groups can have, you know, a private whisky tasting or a drinks reception before they play golf, or after they play golf, and they can get some great photos up there. So we’re really excited about that and two of the newest things we’ve got coming to the brand this year.

We’ve obviously been very lucky with 18 St. Andrews, our rooftop restaurant. I’ve got a real soft spot for The Bridge Restaurant—it’s on the ground floor of Rusacks, and it looks right out onto the 18th. You can sit there for breakfast in the morning, and you can literally watch the golfers teeing off.

It’s Italian-Mediterranean themed, so it serves freshly made pizzas and salads, and it’s just a little bit lighter if you want something a bit different. At our other properties, we’ve got a beautiful restaurant—The Golden Gorse—up in Dornoch. We have a brilliant chef up there, and it’s definitely worth a try if people are heading up that way.

Tracey Milton – Kingsmills Hotel Group

First, DJ, thank you to you, John, and all the team at Haversham & Baker for this opportunity to join your podcast and tell all your lovely guests about the fabulous Highlands.

The Scottish Highlands is a truly vibrant destination, and 2025 is shaping up to be an incredibly exciting year for golf and beyond. This region continues to grow and evolve, offering new and memorable experiences for all of your visitors.

On the golfing front, we have huge news—Cabot Highlands is making waves with the highly anticipated launch of its new course, Old Petty, set to open for preview play in August 2025. This stunning addition joins their renowned championship course at Castle Stuart.

Beyond the fairways, Inverness Castle is undergoing a remarkable transformation. This Riverside landmark is being reimagined as a world-class visitor destination, celebrating the spirit of the Highlands by sharing its stories of the past, present, and future. It’s a must-visit spot for golfers looking to explore the area’s rich culture and history.

And as you know, DJ, I’m sure, as much as we love our golf, I think guests are looking to create those magical experiences and take those memories home with them.

We’ve also been working closely with local partners to offer unforgettable off-course experiences—just as you mentioned. Whether it’s trying your hand at scarf weaving, exploring the local landscapes through foraging, or immersing yourself in outdoor adventures, the Highlands has something for everyone.

So for golfers visiting the Highlands in 2025, prepare for an experience that blends world-class courses with a vibrant, welcoming culture. It’s an exciting time to be here, and we are very much looking forward to welcoming you and your guests.

Neil Hampton – Royal Dornoch Golf Club

Well, thanks, Daniel, yes, it's nice to be here, and it is another busy season coming up at 2025, with the tee sheet just as full as it was in 2024.

The exciting thing at Dornoch is our new clubhouse, which is under construction at the moment and is about to be finished this summer.

Unfortunately, because it’s the middle of summer, we can’t move in right away. So, it will be your clients and everybody coming in 2026 who will see it and get to use our new clubhouse.

What I would like to do, if we can, is—health and safety-wise—do some guided tours in late summer, once the clubhouse is in our ownership, and take people around so they can see what they’ll get in 2026.

Moving on from that, we’ve just engaged with a number of golf course architects to help us upgrade our Struie Course. We’ve bought 50 acres of land at the far end of the Struie Course, and what we’ve asked them to do is look at how we can make the Struie Course even better by utilizing that land.

What that will do is free up some of the existing holes and existing property, allowing us to put in new practice facilities, a driving range, and a short course. So, we’ve asked them to develop some ideas about what Royal Dornoch could look like in 30 years' time.

We’re right in the middle of that process, and again, this summer, we will be putting it out to our members. Hopefully, by the end of summer, we’ll be able to share some of those plans with the rest of the world.

I think we are done with changes to the Championship Course now. What we’ve done over the last few years—things like modifying the 7th and 8th holes—those tweaks have been completed. We’re very satisfied with where it is now. I think it just needs time to settle in, mature, and grow, so it remains the course people love, remember, and want to come back to.

There are a couple of favorite moments for me:

The first one comes when you finish the 2nd hole, our notorious par 3, and then walk through to the 3rd tee—that’s when you get the first full view of the golf course. Everything is laid out in front of you, and it’s just a fantastic sight.

Then, the next moment comes when you get to the top of the 7th tee. You’ve just played the par-3 6th hole, and as you walk up the hill to the 7th, you turn around and look back over the golf course. That is the iconic shot that everyone wants to capture.

For us locals, it’s still the same feeling every time I step onto the 7th tee—I turn around, look back, and think, Wow, what a place we have here. What a joy it is to play, and how lucky we are to be able to do so.

David Scott – Dumbarnie Links

We open our fairways on the 4th of April again, and we’re super excited because this is going to be our fifth full season since opening. We’ve welcomed many of your guests in the past, and last year was our best year yet in terms of service levels and guest experience. We’ve got a great team here, and what we will deliver this year will be just as good, if not better, than what we did last year.

I’m confident that when people come in, they will have a great time—from the arrival experience, to having a wee nip of whiskey on the first tee, which many of your clients have really enjoyed. It’s a great way to start the round—a wee dram of whiskey, a bit of warmth, and then off you go.

Our fairways are wide and playable, so you’re not getting beaten up too much—you’re going to have a good time out there. You don’t have to bring your A-game, but you will enjoy your round.

We’ve got great caddies, and they all have great stories, making the experience that much better. And then, of course, at the halfway house on the 9th hole, we serve Tennent’s Lager and our homemade chicken pies—a brilliant mid-round treat.

After that, you head into the back nine, and when you finish, you come into the clubhouse, where you’ll likely hear some country and western music. You can enjoy a great burger, some chips, and a couple of beers or whiskey—it’s a proper Scottish golf experience. That’s what we are hoping to deliver every time.

We’re really excited for the season ahead. The course conditions will be fantastic, as we have a great superintendent looking after the place. And of course, we’ll pray for good weather for your clients. So, thanks so much for all your support, and we look forward to welcoming your guests to Dumbarnie this year.