If Augusta National Golf Club is the PGA Tour’s version of Daytona International Speedway, then Port Royal Golf Course in Southampton, Bermuda, is golf’s answer to Bristol Motor Speedway.
Bristol, the iconic NASCAR short track in Tennessee, measures just 0.533 miles around its concrete oval, earning it the proud distinction of the “World’s Fastest Half-Mile.” Its steep grandstands, tight confines and thunderous acoustics have inspired a collection of nicknames. “The Last Great Colosseum” captures its stadium-like atmosphere. “Thunder Valley” evokes the roar of engines reverberating around the bowl. And after winning the 2018 Night Race, NASCAR Hall of Famer Kurt Busch offered perhaps the ultimate tribute, calling Bristol “The Holy Grail of Short
Tracks.”
Port Royal has a similar capacity for chaos. At 6,828 yards, it is a bull ring of action, one of just three courses measuring under 7,000 yards on the PGA Tour and the shortest of the bunch. Yet it is the longest of Bermuda’s 10 courses and one of only two public golf courses on the island.
Like Bristol, Port Royal doesn’t need much room to deliver a heavyweight fight.
Its winding fairways are bordered by blooming oleander and whispering casuarina pines, while its hilltop greens frame spectacular views of turquoise water, craggy coral formations, swaying palms and pastel cottages with white roofs. The back nine is generally considered the more scenic half, particularly the views of Hamilton Harbour from the 11th and 12th holes. It is also the more demanding, with winds frequently sweeping in from the west and turning seemingly straightforward shots into exercises in imagination and restraint.
For Seamus Power, the 2022 Butterfield Bermuda champion, Port Royal is a triumph of design over distance. The course’s relatively modest yardage is no protection against an ocean breeze that can transform the same hole from a scoring opportunity into a survival test.
“The course is kind of designed for it, which I like. It kind of helps you picture some of the shots with wind directions,” said Power, noting he’s hit both sand wedge and 3-wood for his second shot at the 517-yard par-5 seventh hole. “I've seen it in all different winds at this point and it's just fun, all sorts of different shots here, uphill and down, makes it fun to play, makes it challenging, but it's kind of enjoyable.”
Enjoyable, certainly. Forgiving, not necessarily.Power made a tournament-record 28 birdies en route to his victory. But Port Royal turns nasty when the wind blows in from the Atlantic Ocean and the sun gives way to rain. During last year’s tournament, Port Royal rolled its shoulders and stirred awake, an unpleasant combination of howling winds, gusting to 35 miles per hour, which sent scores ballooning on Sunday. Last year’s final round produced a field average of 73.12, the highest single-day mark in the event's history.
“You had to really control the flight and the spin of your golf ball and that's stuff I'm usually pretty good at doing,” said defending champion Adam Schenk, who hung on for a one-stroke victory, his first Tour title.
That ability could prove essential again this week. The forecast calls for sustained winds of 20 to 30 mph from Friday through Sunday, with showers also expected. At Port Royal, controlling trajectory and spin is more than a technical exercise; it is a prerequisite for keeping the ball in play. The numbers bear that out. Players hit just 52.71 percent of fairways in 2025, making Port Royal the sixth-toughest course on Tour for finding the short grass.
The course’s compact dimensions can be deceptive. Six of its 11 par 4s measure fewer than 400 yards, and none stretches beyond 460. But distance is hardly the point. Port Royal asks players to manage angles, flight the ball beneath the wind and judge how much trouble lurks beyond a green or along a fairway’s edge.
The par 3s, in particular, can turn the round on its head.
No. 16 is the standout menace, demanding a tee shot of roughly 235 yards to a narrow spit of land that seems to dangle over the ocean. It is the sort of hole that can make even the world’s best golfers reconsider their career choices.
“That could easily be the toughest hole you’ll ever play in your life,” Ernie Els once said.
A marker on the back tee commemorates Lucas Glover’s victory in the now-defunct PGA Grand Slam of Golf, an event featuring that season’s four major champions. Glover’s inscription captures the psychological toll of the hole as well as any yardage book ever could: “Man, I’ve never been more nervous over a shot.”
PGA Tour University grad Ben James, who hasn’t finished outside the top 5 in his past three Tour starts, has a simple approach for handling 16.
“I just plan on hitting a good shot, there's nothing much else you can do,” James said. “It's all depending on the wind direction. It's going to swirl pretty much all week and be different directions every day, just take what I can get and see what happens.”
At Port Royal, that may be the wisest strategy of all. Preparation matters, but so does accepting that the wind gets a vote.
And even when players find the green, the ordeal may not be over. The combination of rain, wind, elevation changes and grain — all the elements that pester today’s Trackman pros — can make Port Royal’s putting surfaces every bit as intimidating as its exposed tee shots. Matt Fitzpatrick, who is not in the field this week, discovered as much when he played the course in 2021.
Reflecting on a first-round adventure at the ninth, Fitzpatrick described the unnerving prospect of a five-footer for birdie followed by a foot-and-a-half putt for par.
“I was scared to death of it,” he said. “I honestly didn't know what to do, I've never had a putt like it.”
At Port Royal, even a short putt can become a small crisis of faith. There is a story, too, about a caddie who once advised his player that a putt broke toward the water.
The player paused before delivering a perfectly reasonable objection.
“But we’re on an island,” he said.
“I know,” the caddie replied. “A perfect read.”
It is the kind of exchange that belongs at Port Royal, where the ocean is never far away, the wind rarely follows instructions and the shortest route to the hole is not always the simplest.
Like Bristol, Port Royal doesn’t need length to deliver drama. It needs only a little wind, a few exposed greens and a golfer who thinks he has everything figured out.
Adam Schupak is a senior writer for Golfweek, covering the PGA Tour.
This article originally appeared on Golfweek: Why pros fear Bermuda's Port Royal golf course, the Bristol Speedway of the PGA Tour
