On the last day of my recent ten day golfing trip to Ireland to participate in the BUDA Cup, I was able to secure a tee time at Royal County Down. Given that I had only committed to taking the trip a few weeks earlier, I spent most of the lead up time making reservations and plotting out a tour that would take me from Dublin to the northwest Irish coast and back to Dublin with 11 rounds in 9 days – the usual crazy GCA agenda.
As a result I didn’t do any real research on RCD before going other than to know that it was pretty much universally considered top 5 in the world, was considered to be very difficult, and had flat greens. Unlike many places I’ve been, I hadn’t built up any preconceived notions or great expectations. I hoped it would be worth the €200. Well, I was just blown away. It is golfing heaven for those who appreciate links golf.
In my planning, I knew that I needed to spend the night before at a nearby hotel to make it easy to have a leisurely breakfast and get to a noon tee off time. It became clear to me quickly that the place to stay was the Slieve Donard Resort and Spa – it was both right adjacent the course, upscale and affordable at €120 including breakfast. It turned out to be a wonderful hotel and I wished that I had had more time there. It is a spectacular building and is very visible from many of the holes on the course. The sea and wind sculpture in front of the hotel also portended well for playing real links golf.
The hotel fronts onto Dundrum Bay and the course is laid out along the bay to the north of the hotel. Although the course is laid out along the coast, the sea does not really come into play, although it is visible from many of the high points.
It wouldn’t be Ireland if it didn’t rain. It was pouring down when I checked into the hotel and it was raining hard with blustery winds when I got up in the morning. After breakfast the rain stopped and it began to lighten up. Perhaps it would turn out to be a passable day weather wise. I was going to play whatever the weather, but what a bummer if I came to a top ten in the world course and ended up playing in atrocious weather. When my tee time came just after noon, the sun was peeking out and the starter said that if there was rain coming, you would see it come down off the mountain. See the 8
th hole for an example. Otherwise it turned out to be a perfect weather day, sunny with a two club wind out of the southwest.
The course is right in the town of Newcastle, but lots of trees and shrubbery actually isolate the club from the town. It is unlike say St Andrews or North Berwick where the town is immediately adjacent and in play on the last hole. The club is approached on a small residential road between the hotel on one side and residential housing on the other. There is a simple gate leading to a small parking lot surrounding a grass oval.
The clubhouse is understated and relatively modern with a pristine manicured garden near the entrance and parking lot. It was quite beautiful but gave me momentary pause as to whether the course was equally manicured.
After checking in you proceed around the clubhouse to a glen bounded by trees and shrubs and the clubhouse. In this wonderfully bucolic setting where you feel like you’ve entered another world are a small putting green (reputedly an Old Tom Morris original green) and a much larger putting green with a small chipping area and a practice bunker. Hidden in the bushes on the far side are a few hitting bays with nets.
On the far side of the glen is the starters hut and the first tee. With players and caddies lingering about, the anticipation is growing.
A look to the left and there is the 9
th green and towering over it in the distance is a mammoth dune with players silhouetted against the sky on top of the dune. And, the rough areas are festooned with fescue and heather and gorse. It doesn’t look too manicured any more. The anticipation is now tempered with a little fear. The course is reputedly very tough after all.
Having booked as a single I knew that I would be paired with three other players who were also visitors. After putting and chipping for a while and hitting a few balls into the nets I approached the first tee to meet the playing partners only to find that somehow they’d arrived with four players instead of three and were already teed off a little early. The starter was very apologetic that they hadn’t realized the fourth wasn’t me and that there was only another foursome after that time. I was happy to go alone and they were happy to have me go. I was in no hurry and it would give me an opportunity to see the course a little more and take pictures without disturbing anyone else. They also encouraged me to play two balls if I wanted. I did on occasion hit some extra shots. There were apparently three groups of Australians in front that were having some difficulty with the course and consequently the pace of play was quite leisurely. All in all it worked out very nicely for me.
The design of the course evolved over time and a good number of people including Old Tom Morris, George Coombe, Harry Vardon, Harry Colt and more recently Donald Steele have had a hand in making it what it is today. The routing has two returning nines and runs more or less north-south. All the holes play more or less one way or the other on that axis. There are no long green to tee walks. Notable features for me were the ferocious bunker style with fescue eyelashes, slightly raised greens with false fronts and sides, and relatively subtle slopes and undulations on the greens. The routing takes you up and over a couple of significant dune ridges, including the Matterhorn. In that respect it is different than a number of other famous links courses I’ve played where the routings went between dunes. The result is that there are a number of blind tee shots. The line of play is well described in the yardage guide and there are aiming markers for all the blind shots. I found it relatively easy to see how to play the blind shots given the guide and markers although there is certainly trepidation in not knowing what was over the ridge and out of sight.
The course has a reputation for being tough and long and that is certainly true. But it is not by any stretch unplayable for average golfers. I can see that it would be possible to run up some scores, but the course can be played and enjoyed. The scorecard yardages are daunting – the yellow (guest) tees are 6675 yards, which is about 300 yards above my comfort zone. The red ladies tees are a lengthy 6249 yards which must be a real challenge to many ladies. The medal and championship tees are 6878 and 7186 yards respectively. The SSS for the three men’s tees are 73, 74 and 75. They also list a slope for USGA followers of 126, 131, and 142 respectively for the men’s tees. The web site provides some guidance on tee selection. The championship tees require an ability to carry the ball 250 yards and to have a handicap of 5 or better. The medal tees require 200 yard carries and a handicap of 9 or better. Even the yellow tees require a carry of 175 yards. I chose the yellow tees – no use setting yourself up for frustration and failure.
Hole by hole descriptions to come.