Royal County Down Golf Club

When you come to Royal County Down make sure you are prepared for it. I've played 500+ courses now and I think the front nine at RCD is probably the best I have seen. The massive dune landscape, the tight fairways, the contrasting two-way mowed fairways and the treacherous greens are amazing true and fast.

The driving range, where they shuttle you from the clubhouse is very nice. Nice pyramids with balls, tee's, buckets with water and towels to clean your clubs Etcetera.

If you play there for the first time I definitely recommend to take a caddy. It will save you at least 10 shots and pushing a trolley around RCD can be tiring plus it's great to hear their stories if famous pro's playing there.

The first is a relatively easy par 4 but you're straight into the course. The little hills with rough, the high dunes on the side and the killing rough set the tone for conservative tactics. If you overplay your hand you will most likely lose your ball instantly. When you go further on the front nine the sea will be on your right side and the views over the course and water are breathtaking.

One of the best spots to take a picture is the back tee of the par 3 hole 4. You have an incredible view of the first nine. Also from the hill after your tee-shot on 9 is classic. What's also beautiful on County Down is the use of little rough islands in the middle of the fairway or sometimes blocking a green on a par 3. The rest of the holes on the back nine are just wonderful the only thing you want after playing this course is to play it again.

The clubhouse is very old school and we sneaked in with our golf shoes on, luckily nobody noticed or said anything. They have beautiful lockers and the staff is very friendly, definitely coming back here.

I was lucky enough to get a tee time during The Open RCDGC, it was a course that I wanted to play for a while, my expectations were accordingly high.

First of all, I did the booking trough the LC site and the experience was very pleasant, no complications, no delays, the staff responded to my mail within an hour, everything worked.

When you arrive at the estate, it becomes clear that the club put a lot of value on neatness, everything is well organized, structured and clean. After checking, you can change at the visitor locker rooms (relatively small, but functional and kept clean), gear up at the pro shop (well stocked) and have some coffee at the restaurant. One thing worth mentioning, there are no outside sitting areas, in case you’re a smoker and want to have some coffee and a cigar/cigarette, your options are quite limited.

When you are ready, you can go to range that is located a bit further down the street from the main house (you get taken there with a buggy). The down side is, it is clearly meant to be just a preround warm up. In my case, I have arrived about 2 hours prior to my tee time, hoping I’ll be able to do a bit of practicing before the round, the layout of the facilities makes this a bit difficult, for instance, you’re not supposed to take your bag to the practice are, just a few clubs, the chipping green is at a different location etc… all the facilities are well maintained, just not convenient for a serious practice session, at least in my opinion.

Then it’s time for the main attraction, the course. I have to note, on the day I played, it was pouring rain up to about 40 minutes prior to my start (it has been for a few days before as well) and we had thick fog during the entire round, nevertheless, the course was in an impeccable condition, it surpassed my expectations! The fairways were nicely trimmed, the greens did not lose any of the speed or had any pitch marks, out of the normal, on them, there were no water puddles and the tee boxes were in a good condition. Furthermore, we were all surprised how hard the surface (greens and fairway) was. I don’t know how they manage to maintain the course in this weather conditions, but they do, and they do it very well!

As per the layout, it’s just about as fun as it can get. I think this was one of my favorite rounds. You have a ton of blind shoots where the natural layout of the terrain blocks your view of the green, some fairways are split in half by a steep slope or a sands dune or something interesting, the par 3’s are very challenging due to the fast greens and relatively narrow openings, just fun! It’s not the longest course (as is the case with a lot of the older designs) but it still allows you to have a ton of fun with the driver, something I was quite surprised of, usually, I only use my irons on the old links courses, here, I was hammering them with the driver, quite successfully, might I add (and I’m not the most accurate player), especially, a good drive on the 9th and 18th are graciously rewarded and give you the feeling you can really master the course.

All in all, I had a great group, the caddies were very nice and no rain, could not have hopped for a better experience, well, maybe a bit less fog.

What a fantastic course! The green staff have worked so hard to get the course in great condition for the Women’s Amateur. The condition of the course was second to none, all the hard work that has gone into the course is amazing and such a credit to all the people who are involved in course maintenance! The course is challenging, but fair and it is a great test of golf for all abilities with fantastic practise facilities and great views.

Ein absoluter Traumplatz mit einer unglaublichen Kulisse. Die weltweiten Bewertungen sprechen für sich. Ein unvergessliches Golferlebnis. Leider hatten wir kein gutes Wetter, dadurch wurde dieser sehr schwer zu spielenden Golfplatz zu einem absoluten Härtetest.

Uno dei campi più belli giocati: le prime nove buche sono fantastiche! Peccato che alcune delle buche centrali siano un poco meno caratteristiche, ma in complesso un super campo.

Non mancano alcune buche cieche tipiche di molti links, ma nel complesso tutto e' armonioso e molto divertente. Sperate solo che non tiri troppo vento, altrimenti le ultime 5-6 buche potrebbero risultare mortifere per i vostri score.