I just reread Ran's profile. I recommend it. I played Lahinch twice; The Old and The Horrid at Ballybunion ; Enniscrone (36)and Carne before ending at Rosses Point.
At Rosses Point the weather was incredible---50 mph and steady gusting to levels that started my trolley rolling on flat terrain and constantly blowing my bag off the trolley if I did not place it exactly into the wind. Rain was sideways, but passed quickly so that throughout the round we were totally wet and totally dry 15 minutes later several times during the round.
Despite this , I thought the routing on that piece of land was among the top three or four I had ever seen. And that the architectural merits were highlighted by the tremendous wind. You really needed to think about where to hit the ball .
As Ran mentions, the course starts on the top of the hill. I didn't know the designer going in but on the first hole I knew it was Colt. The look was reminiscent of #1 at RPR. I saw the fourth hole as "redanish" because of the slope from front right to back left. I agree with Ran's comments about conditioning. The firmness of the fairway turf added to the challenge of executing shots.
The dramatic drop shot of #5 ,the Jump hole, was intensified by the wind that day. The use of the creek was well documented by Ran , but I would add the sparse use of bunkering as another simple idea well done at this course.
#9 , a short three, sits on a ridge and welcomes the shot over the green since the green slopes front to back. Although on this day I saw no way to do anything but go long!
#10 and#11 run parallel with both having tiered fairways. This broke up the flatness nicely.
#12 runs out to the Point. So, on this day it was impossible to get there in three.
I agree with Ran's comments on the remaining holes.
We wondered how the hell we were going to get back up that hill to the clubhouse.
#17 is a classic hole that starts that ascent. I hit slightly short of two other guys who drove into the broken ground. They complained about getting screwed; I asked them if they had looked at the course map.
#18 was a blind shot well up the hill. This completed the ascent in a graceful fashion for us.
We thought that the white rock worked for the second shot to #17 as well as the tee shot on #18. Is this true? Are there other examples of this?
My impression was that it was a classic links, possibly more Scottish than Irish.
Why isn't it spoken of in the same sentence as Ballybunion, Lahinch, County Down, and Royal Portrush?