Brent, when you asked about which course most resembled a downscale RSG, i thought about Saunton on the basis that they have in common quite a dramatic dune-scape. But i think asking for a downscale course with the same amount of good holes is asking too much!
On Sean's general point about Dornoch v Brora and the latter being less demanding/more pleasurable - I agree with the general point but would make two observations:
- for the last 15 years, 8 of us have played an annual weekend of 36 holes at Brora and 54 at Dornoch. Average handicap is about 14 and includes 2-3 pretty irregular golfers. Although the general perception is that Brora is a bit easier - the warm-up course - i am not sure that the scores especially bear this out. Sure it is harder to lose balls at Brora, but that does not make it easy to score on. To take one example - none of the last four holes is an easy par - indeed, they are all quite difficult in their different ways. I am not trying to argue that Brora is the match of Dornoch or as difficult, just the overall playability of the two courses is not, in our experience, as divergent as you might assume.
- and in relation to Dornoch in particular, most guests play it relatively short and although it obviously has more demanding greens/bunkering than Brora, it is not when played at this length a course that chews up the golfer. Indeed, i think that is part of its appeal - you know you are playing a very good course, but it is not set up as a slog. Indeed, even a modest 2-ball can get round in 3 hrs 15 or so which just adds to the pleasure.
Unrelated to the above: I recently played Birkdale and Deal within three days of each other, which was quite an interesting experience. It was really striking how different they were. To my mind Birkdale is a "faux" links - it has the attributes but not the character of a true links. I only had to play three holes at Deal though to be reminded what a real links is like - and it is pretty different to Birkdale!
Philip