David's point about the old 7th hole deserves comment. RDGC is unusual among the world's great courses in that it is quite diferent today than it was in John Sutherland's day. The club has never hesitated to change the course layout; just a few years ago they altered the entire landing area of the 3rd hole, shifting it to the right in response to complaints from homeowners on the high ridge far to the left of the tee, over ferocious gorse, complaining that they were in range of an errant tee shot. Personally, I'm not sure most of us could have hit any of those properties even if we tried. Now, in the US, living on a golf course comes with the assumed risk of the odd ball showing up in your yard. But the club rerouted the hole in response to these complaints. The seventh hole was essentially a "linking" hole from the older part of the course, which only went out as far a 6, and the new land acquired by the club in the late 1940s from the Duke of Sutherland and developed by George Duncan (Sutherland died in 1941). It has always been the least interesting hole on an otherwise fantastic layout- though it maintains the great flow of walking along the seaside. The club believed that the land now occupied by the redone 7th was so much more spectacular that it made sense to redo it- and also to give the 8th hole a different feel, since it previously was similar to 17. I was told that the original 7th green was lasered to allow its duplication for the new hole. I was supposed to be there now to find out but, of course, no travel or golf there at the moment. I can't wait to see how it plays.