...under Architecture Timeline and Courses by Country.
County Down doesn't have the same relentless sense of perfection that Pine Valley or Sand Hills or Merion enjoys. Perfect visuals don't exist whereby the golfer is trying to carve a tee ball just past a certain bunker, etc. HOWEVER, its very own idiosyncrasies separate it from all others, and when combined with its unmatched challenge and staggering beauty, the player is reminded of no other course in the world.
The architecture student delights in studying its 'high demand architecture' (a phrase coined by the legendary Tom Paul
in regards to both Oakmont and here) and in understanding its design evolution. To that end, the book available at the Club Office entitled Royal County Down Golf Club: The First Century by Harry McCaw and Brum Henderson is a must read.
To me, there is something almost unnatural about courses where everything fits perfectly. Nature is random and courses should reflect this randomness. My two favorite architects are getting dangerously close to perfecting their art to the point where this randomness is being reduced to an uncomfortably low level.
Indeed, is architecture at the highest level today becoming too perfect/too well thought out? I don't know and its all very brainy stuff, which gives me a terrible headache.
Great courses must have great holes and RCD has at least 12 of them (the entire front plus 13, 15 and 18.) The other supporting holes like the 11th (which is technically flawed in the eyes of modern golf architecture) help make the course a one of a kind, which is a GREAT attribute.
In short, RCD's lack of perfection may make it the perfect course, at least to me.
Cheers,