At Morelli’s ice cream parlour in Portrush, the face of golf champion Rory McIlroy beams down. Made entirely from multicoloured sugar sprinkles it is a good-luck charm for the local legend as one of the sport’s most prestigious tournaments comes to Northern Ireland.
“Rory mania” is in full swing on hopes the newly crowned Masters champion will delight home fans at the Open in Royal Portrush next week. Asked who would win, caddie Jim Wilson had no doubt: “Rory, of course.”
Whether McIlroy wins or loses, the tournament’s return to Northern Ireland promises a boost for the region’s economy, which was hit by challenging falls in tourism and visitor spend last year.
The prospect of seeing Northern Ireland’s McIlroy — one of only six men to have won the Masters, the US Open, the Open and the PGA championship to cement a career grand slam — is just one of the draws in a region once synonymous with a brutal three decades-long conflict.
Northern Ireland lures visitors with its stunning scenery, whiskey distilleries and Game of Thrones film sets, but it rarely hosts major sporting events. It was dumped as a venue for the Euro 2028 soccer championship because of a political row over the cost of a new stadium.
Sheffield Hallam University estimates the tournament, played at the course overlooking the Atlantic Ocean that regularly ranks as one of the world’s best, will deliver a £213mn boost to one of the UK’s poorest regions.
Hosting major events is “really, really compelling way of selling Northern Ireland abroad”, said Andrew Webb, chief economist at consultancy Grant Thornton.
Overlooking the fourth fairway, where players will practice from July 13-16 and compete from July 17-20 before an expected 278,000 fans, stands the Dunluce Lodge, the region’s first five-star hotel in almost a decade.
“The owners are from Dallas — they saw a gap in the market for a luxury property,” said Sinéad McNicholl, director of sales and marketing at the hotel, which opened in February. “It’s a legacy from the 2019 Open.”
Northern Ireland’s tourism sector had a challenging 2024, in which visit numbers fell 13 per cent and tourist spend dropped 10 per cent from the previous year.
But golf tourism at the region’s more than 90 courses is booming, earning a record £86.2mn in 2024, 66 per cent up on 2019, when Northern Ireland hosted the Open for the first time since 1951.
Wilson, who has been a caddie at Royal Portrush for 15 years, said demand from visiting players has soared, mostly among Americans but also Japanese, Chinese and Koreans. The club has 160 caddies on its books now, up from 60 to 70 in 2010, he said. “People see the course on telly and want to play it,” he added.
Visitor numbers rise even further when cruise ships arrive in Belfast, said Michael Garton, who works in operations at Royal Portrush. “The Open is a massive money-spinner — people went mental for it last time.”
Rory mania has helped drive huge demand for tickets, resulting in the fastest sellout in the ticket ballot in the Open’s history and record sales for premium experiences, according to the organisers.
McIlroy, 36, currently ranked world No 2, began turning heads when he smashed the course record at Royal Portrush aged just 16.
His stunning victory at the Masters in the US in April boosted his popularity, fuelling hopes that a “curse” that saw him wait an agonising 11 years without a major trophy has now been lifted. McIlroy bombed at the Open in 2019, when Ireland’s Shane Lowry raised the victor’s Claret Jug.
Hosting the Open will “celebrate the sportsmanship of those heroes as well as demonstrate our fantastic 19th hole offer — what happens after the golf”, said Áine Kearney, director of events at promotion body Tourism NI.
Portrush is a 15-minute drive from both the Giant’s Causeway, a remarkable rock formation that is a Unesco World Heritage site, and Bushmills, the world’s oldest licensed whiskey distillery.
And among golf tourists “For every pound spent in terms of tee time, around £4 is spent off the course,” Kearney said.
“It’s a brilliant atmosphere for us,” said Daniela Morelli-Kerr, one of five siblings running the family ice cream business including the shop on Portrush’s main street that will stay open “as long as people come out”.
But up the road at an amusement park, an institution for the past century, some fear the town will be inaccessible in daytime while the Open is on.
“We rely on the summer season,” said Marnie, who runs a mini golf attraction. If for one week, Portrush is [essentially] closed, that’s a massive loss of earnings.”
But Rajesh Rana, managing director of Andras Hotels, which opened the Marcus Portrush last month, saw “the next four years of benefits”.
Nearby Bushmills has hired extra staff, eyeing a golf-driven bump to record 2024 visitor numbers that hit 200,000, said master blender Alex Thomas.
And Judith Owens, head of Northern Ireland’s top draw, Titanic Belfast, a museum devoted to the ill-fated liner, said it would cast a “brilliant halo effect and legacy” region-wide.
For Niall McKenna, chef and owner of the Waterman House and James St restaurants in Belfast: “We’ll have two Christmases in one year.”
