Alex-Aside from the logistics I was told that the Membership at RCD wasn't very interested in hosting an open. They love their course and they'd hate to lose prime golf season to the open. Now, how much of that is true or how much that is just tempering expectations, I don't know. While they were proud to host the Irish Open they don't seem to be in too much of hurry. The club isn't lobbying too hard for the open, but you never know. Logistically it wouldn't be the easiest Open site, but I'm tired of hearing about how one place is too difficult to host a tournament, or there are too many problems. It seems every time a major sporting event is held outside of the common venues there are a thousand of doomsday sayers, but they alway seem to figure out how to pull it off.
Anyway...I'll take this time to Identify what i consider to be the weakest element of RCD, and why the routing prevents it from being a 10.
While there are certainly many more elements in a course routing than the direction in which the holes play, the direction in which in holes play are its greatest weakness. RCD is arranged in two little 9 hole out and back "mini loops". In these mini-loops every hole plays from the North or the South, albeit except for a couple of small shifts. This matters because Ireland is a windy place, and in my experience at least, its not entirely uncommon to have a strong wind coming out from the West. In the event of a strong East/West wind you're forced to play every single hole in a crosswind. RCD is also a fairly difficult, and in some places not wide enough, golf course. While I absolutely love RCD, the thought of playing it over and over in a 25+mph crosswind doesn't exactly thrill me. Wind is an integral element in course routing, and i feel that it was at least partially ignored here.
While there are plenty of out-and-back links all over the UK&I, all the ones considered truly great offer more variety in directional play which allows at least some respite from a crosswind wind, in which RCD does not.
Sure 18 is can be a bit of a letdown, and that pond on 17 is easily the worst single feature I've seen on the best course. Would 17 be better without that dumb pond? Absolutely! Would 17 be a great hole without the pond? No, it would not.
Regardless of whats been said here I still consider RCD to be one of the best courses I've had the privlidge to play, and would hope that my nitpicking doesn't void me of an invitation to one day return.