Plenty of golf clubs have moved home over the years for many and varied reasons. Not quite so many have moved home four times, but that is what the 27-hole Malone Golf Club, five miles from Belfast city centre, has done – home to one of the best courses in Northern Ireland.
In fairness, and to appease those who place stock in the notion of constancy, it has now been at its present site on the Ballydrain estate for nearly half its life, moving there in 1962 some 67 years after the club was founded.
There is much good golf to be enjoyed in and around Northern Ireland's capital, including, of course, Holywood, the home of Rory McIlroy,, where I finally got to enjoy a game last year on my most recent Belfast trip.
Rolling parkland terrain
The grand mansion, which now serves as the Malone clubhouse, sits at pretty much the epicentre of the club's three loops of nine, with the estate giving its name to the back nine of what is regarded as the Championship layout, where a large lake comes into play several times.
The front nine is christened Drumbridge and plays down close to the River Lagan, weaving through mature parkland over significantly more undulating terrain in places than the Ballydrain nine.
Some holes on the third nine – Edenderry – also play close to the river, which you drop down quite steeply towards on the Drumbridge's opening right-to-left dogleg, before following it for nearly a third of a mile on the par-5 2nd.
The par-4 7th is a tough nut to crack on this nine, no great surprise given that it measures anything from 451 to 485 yards thus fully justifying its SI-1 status. Par here will be a rare beast indeed for most golfers.
Before that, there's a beautiful self-enclosed par-3 at the 6th, while the Drumbridge nine closes with a fascinating rollercoaster putting surface on the 9th, one of several new greens to arrive in the last five or six years.
Water on your mind
Four of these new greens are on the Ballydrain nine, where your first encounter with the lake comes on the tee of the dogleg-right par-4 13th. You then double-back on the par-4 14th, which bends the other way down to a green pretty close to the water's edge.
Not as close as the green on the picturesque short par 3 that follows, though, where anything left will meet a watery grave – worth remembering if the greenkeeper has set a sucker pin on that side.
The run for home is enjoyably varied, starting with a short par 4 that's well protected by sand up at the green.
The par 5 17th sweeps down and round to the left, before a strong par-4 finale where water is in your eye off the tee, then in play on the right on what is likely to be a fairly long approach for most.
● Essentials
Malone Golf Club, 240 Upper Malone Road, Dunmurry, Belfast, BT17 9LB
Stats: Championship: par 71, 6,510 yards
GF: round: £125-£155 mid-May to Sept; £75 April and Oct
(Prices correct at time of publication in April 2026)
