When people were required to stay at home to avoid spreading the Covid virus, golf became one of the only recreations available. Many people returned to a game they had played before but stopped, and others discovered it for the first time.
Six years on, golf participation in the UK is near historic highs, with around 5.5 million people playing the game on full-length courses. Membership of traditional golf clubs in England stands at around 750,000, an increase of 100,000 since the pandemic. Junior golfer numbers are up 34 per cent, the number of adult females playing has doubled and the average age of golfers has fallen by five years.
With numbers like that, it’s hardly surprising that British and Irish clubs and developers are keener to invest money in their facilities than they have been for many years. Traditionally, those golf courses have been run on a shoestring, with any course improvements done bit by bit over a period of time. The elite Loch Lomond club bucked this trend with an enormous sandcapping project, estimated at £7.5 million, which finished around the time of the pandemic, and when the McGuirk family, owners of Prince’s in Sandwich, bought Chart Hills GC a few years ago, they embarked on a similar, though less grandiose, exercise. But generally, it had been a bunker here and a tee there.
The last few years have seen this change. Most interestingly, we have finally seen the restoration movement, so popular in the US, start to get a real foothold in the UK and Ireland after years in which clubs have talked about restoration but never really taken it on. The Addington was first to embark on a massive restoration, while St George’s Hill and Sunningdale represent exciting projects at two of Britain’s classic clubs.
The traditional strategy of British and Irish clubs has been to hold revenue tightly and spend it only when absolutely necessary, because even when times are good, bad times must be round the corner. It remains to be seen whether the present spike in activity is a sign of fundamental change, or a short-term bubble. But for the golf course architecture business in the UK and Ireland, the good times are now.
Brittas Bay
Location: County Wicklow, Ireland
Designer: Kyle Phillips
Brittas Bay Club, formerly The European Club, was acquired by Irish businessman Raymond Conlan and his family in summer 2025.
The course is being reimagined by Kyle Phillips, alongside consultancy Turfgrass, which is acting as the owner’s representative, project manager and agronomic lead, and contractor GolfLink Evolve.
With construction now underway, the project aims to reintroduce fescue for firm and fast conditions, and add native sands and marram grasses to protect and enhance the dune environment. Design and landscape work will reinforce the course’s links character.
“Our vision is to realise the full potential of this site,” says owner Nicky Conlan. “We believe we potentially have a world-class golf course on our hands, and we treat that with huge respect with what’s gone on before us.”
Brittas Bay Club, formerly The European Club, is being reimagined by Kyle Phillips (Photo: Turfgrass)
La Grande Mare
Location: Castel, Guernsey
Designer: European Golf Design
La Grande Mare, one of only two 18-hole courses on the Channel Island of Guernsey, will reopen in August 2026 after a three-year renovation. Robin Hiseman of European Golf Design oversaw the design, MJ Abbott handled construction, and Jonathan Pendry of Turfgrass provided agronomic support.
Guernsey-based Pula Investments, owned by entrepreneur Stephen Lansdown, has led the development and is also constructing a new country club and leisure facility alongside the course.
“The compact, 5,367-yard par 69 layout features a highly strategic, intricate and imaginative course design, built to a tour-quality specification,” says Hiseman. “For a course of this length to be designed and built to this exceptional standard is unique in my experience.”
Robin Hiseman of European Golf Design has completely redesigned the La Grande Mare course on the island of Guernsey (Photo: Kevin Murray)
Sunningdale
Location: Berkshire, England
Designer: Gil Hanse
Sunningdale Golf Club, approximately 30 miles (50 kilometres) southwest of London, is one of the founding documents of golf course design. Architect Martin Hawtree worked there for some years in the first decade of this century, but two years ago the club took the bold step of hiring American Gil Hanse to consult.
The first fruits of Hanse’s work at Sunningdale have recently broken cover. The fronting bunker on the famous par-three fifth hole on the New course has been restored to something closer to Harry Colt’s original and looks magnificent.
Gil Hanse is carrying out renovation work at Sunningdale in England, including restoring the par-three fifth on the New course (Photo: Kevin Diss Photography)
Ury Estate
Location: Aberdeenshire, Scotland
Designer: Nicklaus Design
The 1,600-acre Ury Estate in Aberdeenshire is the site of one of Scotland’s most long-awaited golf projects, which includes the renovation of the abandoned Ury House, the construction of a new golf course and residential development.
FM Group, the firm behind the project, anticipates a 2028 opening for the golf course, a Jack Nicklaus design, with his associate Dirk Bouts overseeing work on site.
The opening nine holes will play in the natural valley landscape alongside the Cowie Water, while the back nine winds through the ancient Ury woodland to finish in front of the restored mansion.
Ury Estate is a new development in Aberdeenshire and includes a golf course by Nicklaus Design (Photo: Ury Estate)
Curracloe Links
Location: County Wexford, Ireland
Designer: Fry/Straka
Curracloe Links is part of Neville Hotels’ Ravenport Resort development, near Curracloe Beach on the southeast coast of Ireland.
The course has been designed by US architects Dana Fry and Jason Straka and built by DAR Golf Construction, with Turfgrass providing agronomic and technical support. It is expected to open in summer 2027.
Fry and Straka toured various Irish courses prior to starting work. “We have opted for a more aggressive style of bunkering, mainly in terms of steepness of slopes, depth and more randomised locations,” says Straka.
Curracloe Links is a new golf course designed by Fry/Straka on the southeast coast or Ireland (Photo: Curracloe Links)
The Addington
Location: Surrey, England
Designer: Clayton, DeVries & Pont
Six years into the course’s Clayton, DeVries & Pont-led restoration, The Addington has reacquired much of its former majesty. The highlight this year is the opening of the restored seventh green (pictured); the par three has been transformed by the recreation of the back half of the old ‘double punchbowl’ green. The green is now over 100 yards long and has grown from 4,000 to 20,000 square feet.
“We expect most of the project’s remaining elements to be completed in the next three years,” says partner Frank Pont. “In the meantime, heather is starting to return to parts of the course where it has been lost, the playing surfaces are vastly improved, and although it remains a stern test, we think that the course is now much more fun to play and much closer to the layout that Abercromby and Colt envisaged.”
Clayton, DeVries & Pont is six years into a restoration at The Addington (Photo: Cookie Jar/AGC)
Bellarena Golf Links
Location: Northern Ireland
Designer: To be announced
Luxury hospitality group Galgorm Collection is leading the development of County Londonderry’s first championship links course in over a century: Bellarena Golf Links.
Bellarena is being built on a site between Portrush and Limavady, beneath the shadow of the Binevenagh hill and surrounded by spectacular coastal scenery. The site possesses all the ingredients golfers dream about: natural dunes, sea air, expansive views and rugged terrain. Opening in 2029, the £30 million course forms part of a £65 million investment, aimed at transforming the northwest of Northern Ireland into a world-class golf destination.
An aerial photo of the site where Bellarena Golf Links in Northern Ireland (Photo: Bellarena Golf Links)
St George’s Hill
Location: Surrey, England
Designer: Renaissance Golf Design
Harry Colt’s St George’s Hill will spend the next few years undergoing one of the most exciting restoration programmes ever seen in British golf – at the hands of a team led by Brian Schneider of Renaissance Golf Design.
The front nine (the Red) will close in August 2026 for the work, with reopening expected in May 2027, while the back nine (the Blue) will follow a similar pathway a year later.
The headline is the restoration of Colt’s enormous scar bunkers on the par-three eighth hole. Colt’s original green, which, for a short time after the course opened, also included the area to the right and below the existing surface, will also be put back. Matthew Dickinson, chair of the club’s course conditioning group, says that the goal of the project is “to ensure the course is as good for the next 113 years as it has been for the first!”
In August 2026, Renaissance Golf Design will begin a restoration at St George’s Hill (Photo: St George’s Hill)
North Berwick
Location: East Lothian, Scotland
Designer: Hanse Golf Design
Hanse Golf Design is working at North Berwick, a venue that has become one of the most revered courses in the world.
The course has some of the most admired and copied features in golf, including at the Redan, Pit and Gate holes. Hanse’s brief, when hired in 2025, was to make subtle improvements to the West Links while addressing the potentially catastrophic effects of coastal erosion – the sea has advanced to within a few feet of some greens, with the fourteenth hole, Perfection, particularly at risk.
Stuart Bayne, general manager at North Berwick, said: “The masterplan will identify ways to polish the West Links to be the best version of itself, ensuring continuity year on year through minor refinements.”
Hanse Golf Design is overseeing subtle improvements to North Berwick’s golf course (Photo: Air Tog)
Portstewart
Location: Londonderry, Northern Ireland
Designer: European Golf Design
Portstewart Golf Club has completed a three-year redevelopment of its Strand course. European Golf Design produced a masterplan in 2022 to strengthen strategy, enhance the finishing holes, and add new practice greens and a full-length range.
Work began in winter 2023-24 and included redesigning the Strand’s thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth holes, followed by rebunkering the front nine. More recently there have been changes to holes sixteen, seventeen and eighteen, the creation of four new practice greens, the range and bays, as well as new first, seventeenth and eighteenth holes on the Riverside course.
The revamped Strand course reopened in May 2026.
European Golf Design has renovated the Strand course at Portstewart in Northern Ireland (Photo: European Golf Design)
Royal Dornoch
Location: Dornoch, Scotland
Designer: King Collins Dormer
Golf has been played in Dornoch for over 400 years, but the next few might just see the biggest changes in the Royal Burgh since John Sutherland transformed a nine-hole course into the links now ranked among the best in the world.
In late 2024, the club sought proposals from architects to make use of some 50 acres of new land. Design firm King Collins Dormer (KCD) came up with a radical proposal to create an entirely new third 18, to rebuild the Struie, the club’s second course, and create various practice and short game facilities.
The club appointed KCD in May 2025, and work has been done since to prepare for what will be a massive upheaval. A pre-planning ‘scoping’ document has been filed with the local council, and the actual planning application is in development. “The plan is to build the new course first and then move on to the rest of the works,” says Rob Collins.
King Collins Dormer is designing a new 18-hole course for Royal Dornoch (Photo: King Collins Dormer)
And there’s more…
Several other major projects in Britain and Ireland are also in planning or progress.
A £480 million leisure development near Dundee that would include an 18-hole golf course is awaiting planning permission. ‘Brae of Angus’ is being spearheaded by the Angus Land Company on a site that includes the nine-hole Kingennie Golf Course that was designed by Graeme Webster and opened in 2007. The development’s golf business, tournaments and luxury events would be managed by IMG, and the project also includes a five-star hotel and 185 housing plots.
The ‘Brae of Angus’ project near Dundee is part of a £480 million development by Angus Land Company (Photo: Angus Land Company)
Another project in the planning phase – it has been for some time – is Coul Links. The 10 year-plus-long bid to build a new, Coore & Crenshaw-designed course at Coul Links, close to Dornoch, seems no closer to being resolved. Last autumn, the Scottish government announced that it was giving Ramsar wetland sites the same level of protection as Sites of Special Scientific Interest and Special Protection Areas; this means that the proposal will not be approved unless developers prove beyond reasonable scientific doubt that the integrity of the site will not be compromised.
Elsewhere in Scotland, construction of a new course in St Andrews is continuing quietly. Hogs Haven is a development by Alvarez & Marsal Golf, and the golf is being built by MJ Abbott near the Craigtoun course (formerly known as the Duke’s).
South of the border, there are two projects that hold aspirations of hosting a Ryder Cup. The first is Hulton Park in Bolton where developer Peel Land and local authorities are finalising a bid to host the 2035 Ryder Cup on an 18-hole course by European Golf Design. The second is Luton Hoo, which is a £200-million redevelopment by The Arora Group. Again, European Golf Design is involved, this time leading a remodel of an existing course, with Gary Player and Justin Rose consulting. Atlantic Golf Construction is in progress with the build, with Turfgrass providing agronomic support.
Hulton Park in Bolton will be redeveloped by European Golf Design if the club is successful in its bid to host the 2035 Ryder Cup (Photo: Harris Kalinka)
At Ballybunion in Ireland, Graeme Webster of Team Niblick and Tom Watson Design have collaborated on a major renovation of the club’s Cashen course, which was originally laid out by Robert Trent Jones. Webster has also completed a multi-year project on the Arnold Palmer design at nearby Tralee. You’ll be able to read more about that in our next issue.
This article first appeared in the July 2026 issue of Golf Course Architecture. For a printed subscription or free digital edition, please visit our subscriptions page.