In response to Carl (above), I think it would be a huge shame if only 4 handicappers or better played RCD. I have never been, nor ever will be, a 4, but I love RCD and consider it one of the finest courses I have ever seen or played. Now, if you are a 22 handicapper, and have a chronic slice, you will need either a huge amount of patience or a bottomless bag of golf balls. A friend who is a good +1 played RCD in Open Week (off Championship tees) and shot a 74 in a 2 club wind. He said it was one of the best rounds he ever played, hitting 2 irons off tees and 4 irons in to the greens.
RCD is probably my favorite golf course.I love everything about it.BUT,a 22,or maybe even a 12,has to be borderline masochistic to play it.RCD is brutal.
Echoing your +1 friend,I played RCD the week before the Open and ran into 3 US Tour Pros--none of whom was playing from the back markers.One of them asked me why I was dumb enough to think that I could.He said that he'd played RCD over 20 times,thought it was the best course in the world,and thought it was the hardest course he'd ever played.
This is a guy who's won ~ 15 tournaments.
I wish I could play it every day.
I think that one difference between some local mid handicappers and overseas visitors is one of expectation. A 15 handicapper from a club in Northern Ireland would play RCD and be happy to get round without having to borrow golf balls and a score under 100.
I wonder if overseas players are more concerned about the score they shoot and get more distressed if they can't hit a par-4 in 2?
Martin: There are many difficulties for the American recreational player, as I see it. Remember, this was the first time around RDC for all of us. Despite being a very good golfer, our 0.7 says he has to visualize shots. A caddy telling him to hit a full 7 over the top of a dune just doesn't work for him. He'd do much better after playing the course a number of times and knowing "what was out there." Same for me, from a different perspective. If you tell me to hit my driver over the white rock, or just to the left of the white post, and I have no idea what's "over the hill," I have a lot of trouble making the same swing I would if I knew where I was likely to end up. There are quite a number of blind and semi-blind shots required on the course.
So, a lot of the problem has to do with difficulty for
first-timers, particularly those who've paid 150 pounds (or more for an early round), and are unlikely to see the course again.
Then there are the expectations, as others have pointed out. In spite of the fact that we were playing a modified Stapleford competition, most of the guys liked to have a medal score, and were unhappy with high medal scores that would have been even higher if they're stuck to the rules on lost balls. That's not a problem for me because if I'm past the points level for a hole, I pick up and tell the scorekeeper to give me an X and go on. I don't pretend to have a medal score. Not to mention the tight lies on bumpy, rolling fairways, deep bunkers, imposible rough, wind -- all of the things we go to Ireland and Scotland to experience and then grumble about when turns out to be really difficult.
Without a doubt RDC is a great course, and that is why I'd like to see the Open there -- but I don't believe it could happen.
On the subject of the "Troubles," which you say are over, how do you explain to a foreigner the recent Newtownards Road "riots" (a term used by one of your local papers to describe the situation), and the remaining Peace lines (fences), the murals that continue to be painted, I am told, the locked road gates at nights and on weekends, and the substantial police presense (albeit in the shadows) at the apparently family-friendly Tall Ships festival in Belfast last weekend, with armored police cars and truck based water cannons at ready. Is it simply a serious gang violence situation?
By the way, here in my city of Charlotte, NC, USA, we had riots, apparently gang related, following a street festival (related to a NASCAR race) in our center city a month ago in which one man was shot and killed. Our next big center city festival will be July 4, our Independence Day, and steps are supposedly being taken to try to keep things calm. http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2011/06/30/2417710/city-acts-to-keep-july-4-peaceful.html. So, we're not imune to trouble here either.