Hotel completes refurbishment and is ready to take advantage of The Open

All of the refurbished and new luxury bedrooms in the £2.5m extension have names relating to the historic course.

Whose name will join them? Rory McIlroy? Graeme McDowell? Tiger Woods?

This was announced following the completion of the new extension at the hotel which features seven new luxury bedroom suites, each of them with glass-fronted panoramic views of Royal Portrush Golf Course and the North Coast.

The hotel, which is part of the famous Kellys Complex, is located directly opposite Royal Portrush Golf Course, home to The Open Championship, and will be directly accessible to Open ticket holders via a specially erected temporary fly-over bridge. The Open, which hasn’t been hosted at Royal Portrush since 1951, is set to welcome an estimated 190,000 visitors from all over the world with an approximate £80M boost to the local economy. The hotel is ready for the huge surge in footfall and will host a large-scale, specially erected marquee ‘Golf Zone’ with live streaming of the competition, pop-up Dunvegan Bar and has hired in TBC additional staff to serve food and drink around the clock to accommodate golfers, spectators and media.

The investment forms part of Kellys 50th anniversary year plans to improve, update and fully refurbish the entire hotel complimenting the recent £400K investment into the new bar and lounge, The Stubborn Stag and the Pizza Library, an Italian-themed, 80-seater family restaurant. All 23 bedrooms and bathrooms have been fully revamped.

Speaking about the investment, Sam Kennedy, General Manager, Golf Links Hotel said: “We are absolutely delighted to have completed our seven-month build project ahead of The Open, which saw us close our accommodation doors in November to allow for the extensive work to take place.

“Our Pizza Library will also undergo a temporary transformation when the owners of the famous Dunvegan Bar and their staff from St Andrews take it over for The Open Week in their ‘Be Here with Atmosphere’ bar-from-home bringing their collection of golf memorabilia to welcome golfers and their families.

“And we will also have an extensive Golf Zone marquee erected in our carpark adjacent to the hotel which will help us raise money for our charity partner of the year, Northern Ireland Chest Heart and Stroke. This will feature a bar, plasma screens to live-stream the Championship... this will be flanked by a bridge which the R&A have erected which can take Open ticket holders over and above the road to Royal Portrush.”

Golf Links Hotel and Kellys Complex will continue their 50th anniversary celebrations throughout the summer with a 12,000 Beach Festival in partnership with the Ulster Orchestra for their Lush! Live at the Beach Classical Dance Music Event on Portrush East Strand on August 10.