By chance I was in Portrush during the two nights of troubles in Belfast early last week, and then arrived in Belfast on June 25 for a four day stay. I arrived home late last night and am still on Belfast time. In Belfast we had a nice hotel in the university area. (Golf, of course, about which more later, was the reason for the trip.)
On Sunday afternoon our driver, a Belfast native, gave us a tour of the "troubles" areas in west Belfast and the area of the recent action to the northeast. His take is that the violence is limited to the "ghettos" and the bombing of police stations and other government facilities, and is instigated/fomented by thugs and gangs who want to keep things stirred up for their own purposes, which include running protection rackets and other criminal activity.
Sunday afternoon was calm, but for an American visitor seeing for the first time the west Belfast "peace lines," gate-closed streets, murals (at least one continuing to advocate violence in the name of religion), police stations (at least one) built like forts, an Orange marching band breaking up, and groups of young and not so young men and some women in their colors staring each other down from opposite sides of a thoroughfare, the situation was somewhat disquiting. They next day our driver told us that the making of a large fertilizer bomb "down south" had just been discoverd and stopped by the police, and that it had probably been intended for shipment to Belfast to use against a police station. Here's a newspaper report. http://www.examiner.ie/breakingnews/ireland/two-arrested-after-device-made-safe-in-louth-510485.html
I've reached no conclusions of course, but my interest in the "troubles" situation is quite obviously much greater now than it had been before my visit.
Among other courses, we played both Portrush Dunluce and the championship course at RCD. Our group of eight 62- to 70-year-old seniors included a wide range of handicaps, from a top senior golfer in N.C., who is a 0.7 index, to me, with a 20.6 index. The 0.7 played as far back at Portrush as they allowed him, which was not all the way back, and finished a legitimate one over under benign conditions. Even I could play Portrush from a more forward set of tees.
At RCD, also under benign conditions, the 0.7 "shot an 83" that was not legit. They did allow him to play from the so-called "championship tees." I'd say that if he played it by the book, the 0.7 would probably have finished in the low 90's. (All of our competitions were modified Staplefords, with generous allowances for lost balls.) For me the RCD course was not playable, except for later in the round, at 15 I think it was, where the fairway was wide off the tee and you could actually see it. Clearly, someone made a mistake there. Our consensus was that if you are not a four handicapper or better, don't waste your money at RCD. (For us humans they ought to figure out how to make some money just offering walking tours of the course with knowledgeable guides.)
So, I'd love to see an Open at RCD, but my sense is that there is no way spectators could be safely accomodated on the course, or that the members would allow it. Based on my one round, I would think that Dunluce could handle all of the spectators likely to get there, and that it would be a legitimate test for the pros.