Royal County Down

It probably goes without saying that Royal County Down was going to be one of the highlights of my Ireland/Northern Ireland trip. It’s probably the course on the island that’s most consistently rated in the top 10 in the world. Many well-travelled people think it’s the best course in the world and I’ve seen it at the top of some lists. It’s certainly a course that shows well in pictures, crossing huge sand dunes and with mountains as the background. In short, for most people taking a golf trip to Ireland, it’s probably at the top of the agenda.

Yet I had a strong suspicion that I wasn’t going to like Royal County Down as much as all of that suggested I should because there’s another aspect to the course’s reputation: it’s very difficult. The course is notorious for blind shots; there are at least a half dozen from the tee and likely many more depending on where you drive the ball. And on many courses that run between large sand dunes, the space between them often isn’t wide enough to hit to reliably, especially when the wind is blowing…which is almost a guarantee on courses that run through large sand dunes. Just see my review of The Island from a few days earlier for an example of this. I was a bit concerned that the course was going to be a bit much and that its beauty might outpace its soundness.

So I was thrilled to see that there was no merit to my concerns. Yes, there are a lot of blind shots. Yes, the course is hard. But I thought that the elements of the course were so well balanced in terms of difficulty. With almost every blind drive, there’s ample room to hit to on the other side. The one hole where there isn’t is a short par 4. We were playing in a pretty good crosswind, yet I always felt that if you were smart about your aiming points (with the assistance of your forecaddie, which is absolutely essential here on a first trip around), you could get away will misses. You do need to drive your ball reasonably well here. If you’re having a very wayward day with the driver, you will lose balls. But the course is not as exacting off the tee as I feared.

But the other part of the balance is the greens. I’ve seen several people downgrade this course relative to Royal Portrush because that course has better greens. I disagree and for a very fundamental reason: you can’t assess a course’s greens independent of the rest of the course. A course may have a really wild set of greens but if the course is also very difficult from tee to green, I would say that its a worse set of greens than if you had the same greens on a course that was tamer from tee to green. The most important thing is how well balanced all of the elements are.

And the balance between the tee to green difficulty and the greens at Royal County Down is perfect. The greens are not very undulating and a lot of them give you some room to miss at their edges. But there’s also usually a side that’s no good. Approaches still require thinking, but for the most part, a miss won’t mean disaster (with a few exceptions). Maybe if you just limit your assessment of Royal County Down and Royal Portrush to their greens, you’d say that Royal Portrush has a better set. But Royal Portrush is also tamer from tee to green, so that’s reasonable. There’s no doubt in my mind that if Royal County Down had a ‘great’ set of greens, like Augusta National or Oakland Hills, it’d be too much and the course wouldn’t be as good.

How about the individual holes? I’ll leave most of that discussion for the holes themselves. But there are many great ones. And what I love about this course is how original a lot of the holes are. The front nine is the more famous and everyone agrees that it’s full of great holes but to me, some of the best of the best come on the back nine. And that’s because of how well they use some unusual land features. That’s the story of Royal County Down; it’s an incredible, challenging piece of land and the holes express that perfectly. They’re challenging and the best are highly original. There are no templates here and the only reason that this course isn’t the source of template holes is that it’d be so difficult to recreate these features.


Now onto the holes themselves. The opener, a ~520 yard par 5, is almost perfect for its job. In what will be a theme for the course, there’s plenty of room off the tee…unless you hit a really bad drive. For short hitters, the main thing to avoid here is a large, heather-covered on the left side. For long hitters, it’s running through into the dunes on the right.

There's ample room off the first tee. Just don't hit a weak pull.

The approach is blind and if you’re laying up, you’ll want to keep it about 100 yards from the green. The fairway narrows here between low dunes that follow it to the green. But the club has done a good job of maintaining these smaller dunes in the rough near the line of play. You can run your ball onto the green here but if you’re inaccurate, it will get caught up at the sides. Still, it’s open around the green and these shots should be playable.

This was the best opening hole on my Ireland trip and is on the short list of best opening holes that I've played.

It's a blind approach over a rise from the ideal spot in the fairway.

I love how the fairway narrows through the dunes, placing a premium on accuracy from long range if going for the green.

One of the best-looking approaches to a green in my first three days of golf in Ireland.

And one of the better views from behind the green too!

The par 4 second gives you the full RCD experience. It’s as blind a drive as you’ll ever see. I don’t want to give the impression that the course is not without severity; unless you can get within about 180 yards of the green here, the fairway is a narrow tongue with a heather-covered dune on the left and a dune/drop-off on the right. But past this point, it’s wide open. It’d take a few plays to learn how to do it, but it’d be best to be up the right here because a dune short-left of the green obscures approaches from the left.

This hole reminds me of an important, practical point: make sure you select the correct set of tees here. There are five sets, but the second are still 6,250 yards, which is plenty enough unless you’re a mid-single-digit handicap. We played the third set, the 6,675 yellows and really, you shouldn’t go any further back unless you’re a 2-handicap or less.

Actually you can see a little bit further down the hole--although not the landing area--just over the left side of the forward tee. And that's a pretty good line.

People playing from the wrong set of tees will have to try to land their drive in this narrow strip. But you can see that it's pretty wide open beyond that.

In addition to a half-dozen completely blind shots, there are several more where you can't see the landing area, like the approach here.

But this course excels at providing reasonable targets on the other side of blind shots and misses short or right here aren't bad.

The 450 yard third doesn’t not have a blind drive, but it’s certainly one of the more difficult holes. But the drive is actually pretty easy. It was only about 200 to carry the bunkers on the left and past this, the fairway is almost endlessly wide for the next 100 yards. The fairway is cut off at about 280 and the closer you can drive it to this, the clearer view you’ll have of the approach.

This drive is much more intimidating than it is difficult, with at least 50 yards of width past the bunkers on the left.

The approach is narrow between about 160 and 75 yards short of the green so you’ll need to be accurate if you need to use this space. But then it opens back up and while there are some bunkers to the sides, the green is open and relatively flat. This hole exemplifies the balance that I noted in my intro.

You might have a look at the green from near the end of the fairway on the left, but most approaches will be blind.

The landing area on the approach for those who can't reach the green isn't too wide but the final approach into the green is and the green is an appropriately open target given the length of the approach.

Most who know a bit about RCD before playing it have seen pictures of the ~200 yard par 3 fourth. It’s one of the most spectacular holes, especially with the gorse in bloom.

But if you put a massive black curtain around the entire hole, it’d still be an excellent par 3. It’s incorrect to say that the greens here are uninteresting and this is one of the interesting ones (apparently Colt did a few of the greens here and I’d bet this was one of them). The green is built up slightly from its surroundings, but more at the back than at the front. There’s more room to run the ball onto the green than you can see from the tee so it’s best to hedge to the front, which leaves a simple uphill pitch or putt.

She's a beauty...and a smart one.

This green complex is superb for a longer par 3. There's plenty of room short and pitches from here are simple. But the deeper you go, the more trouble that misses wide are.

When we were putting on the second green, a ball sailed right through us to the far side of the green. Where could it have come from? That’d be the fifth tee, which begins a 400 yard, reverse camber, dogleg right par 4…where the second green is about 260 yards out, just left of the fairway. It’s more directly in the line of fire than almost any green I’ve seen (one of the guys in our group hit it too).

One knock I’ve seen of RCD is that there are far more holes that favor a fade off the tee than a draw. That’s probably true overall, although not to a troubling degree. But it’s certainly true here. Probably most should club down off this tee and you definitely should if you’re not comfortable hitting a fade.

With all the junk on the right, no wonder people hedge left off the fifth.

And when you look at the hole from above, it's no surprise that probably more golfers end up almost killing someone on the second green than hitting the fifth fairway.

While the drive is tough, the green is open in front with simple surroundings. So the hole is a bit awkward, but again, the challenge is balanced.

This is the approach if you've hit a good drive.

From short-left, we can see again that there isn't too much trouble around the front of the green.

This hole looks much more forgiving from behind the green.

I’d say the same thing for the short par 4 sixth, our next blind drive. This is the narrowest of the blind drives, with about 50 yards of width out to about 250, but then narrowing on the left. The hole is only about 360 though, so the sensible play is something you can hit 230-250. There is an advantage to driving it further because the green is narrow with a pretty good drop-off on the left. And you’ll be aided in trying to hit it past 250 by the concave slope of the fairway. But you’d better not pull it if you go for this shot…maybe you’ll find my playing partner Greg’s ball if you do.

This hole exemplifies the balance in Royal County Down. It's a short par 4, but the fairway is one of the narrowest and the green is one of the toughest to hit.

The area that you can see is the right side of the fairway. You should aim just left of that.

The fairway collects as long as you're not too far left.

The green however does not. This is the most Pinehurst-esque green on this course--more appropriate for a par 4 of this length than any of the previous ones..

Seven is a well-liked short par 3. The first part of that—obviously—is the surroundings. But I think another part is the green complex. It’s very well-conceived. It places a premium on accuracy because if you miss to the left side, your ball will roll off the green. But this shot isn’t too difficult. What you really don’t want to do is go long.

A large bunker fronts the 140 yard seventh.

Like the fourth, there's a lot of interest in the green complex without it being severe. The left third of the green slopes off to the left, but this slope will only carry your ball a few feet off the green.

The front nine closes with two exceptional par 4s. The drive on the 420 yard eighth is quite a bit more open than appears, with only about a 205 yard carry over the bunkers on the right, no trouble beyond, and about another 85 yards to the bunker on the left.

This is another hole that jogs gently to the right but you want to try to keep it center or left. The bunker on the left is reachable if not into the wind.

So the drive shouldn’t be too hard but it’s important that you hit a good one because the green, at least if you get aggressive, requires a precise shot. The first challenge is a pair of dunes that narrow the approach to about 20 yards 20 yards short of the green. Navigating these will be a challenge for a long approach. But unless you’ve bombed your drive, it’s best to hedge short because the green is otherwise open in front and narrows to the back…with drop-offs on both sides. Unless you’ve got a wedge in your hands, the target here should never be more than a few feet onto the green.

This is one of the great long par 4 approach shots that I’ve seen.

Certainly pretty, but nothing too special-looking about the approach from the landing zone.

But the final approach and the green are far more interesting than appeared. You have to be accurate if you want to run one into the green. And you're harshly penalized for missing wide if you go too deep into the green because it drops off both sides. This is about as well-designed an approach/green complex as I've seen.

Certainly the most famous hole of them all here is the 425 yard ninth. It starts with one of the most unusual-looking drives that I’ve seen. You’ve got about 150 yards up a hill then the hole just drops off to God-knows-where. It’s a bit too much to take in in one play, but I think this is an exceptional driving hole. The aiming post—just right of the caddy in this picture—is the perfect line. There’s a pretty good amount of room right of that too, but you don’t want to miss too far right because it will make the approach much longer and much more difficult.

So maybe you want to cut a little to the inside on the left? You’d better be precise if you do that because there’s a nasty, heather-covered dune just left of the fairway from 200-240. If you can carry it further than that, you should bomb away.

There's a fairway, but you don't want to aim down it because that'll put you well left of the actual landing area in the junk. The distant spire is as far left as you can go.

Here's that iconic view. You can see what I mean about a miss left... There's room much more room on the right.

Like eight, it’s very important to hit a good drive here because the approach is much harder from long distance than short distance. If you’ve hit a weak drive off to the right, you might have trouble carrying a dune and a duo of bunkers that cuts off the fairway about 30 yards short of the green. If you have hit a good drive, it’s better to miss short than wide because there are drop-offs at the side of the green.

This is one of those cases where a hole that has a reputation as one of the world’s greatest completely deserves it.

If you don't hit a good drive, it'll be tough to carry this bunker. And if you miss the fairway right, it's a very awkward approach over the dune. So there's a real premium on good placement of the drive. Like eight, it's another one of the game's great approach shots.

Appropriately, no trouble just short.

Looking back.

Ten is a bit of a change of pace—it’s all right there in front of you. Still, it’s about 190 yards and there’s some nasty stuff if you miss wide. There’s no trouble at all short.

This is more straight-forward, which is a good thing at this point.

The completely blind drive on eleven is a bit like that on six, although there’s a lot more room to miss…which is appropriate because the hole is at least 30 yards longer (and much longer if you play the whites or blacks). It’s one of the most straight-forward holes so far, with a large, receptive green.

This is the blindest drive so far. Good thing there's an aiming post.

But there isn't much complicated about the rest of it.

See, this golf course isn't so extreme.

The second nine is inland and the terrain is not as severe here as the front. But I don't agree at all that's it's vastly inferior. The course adds new challenges where the visibility is a bit better off the tee, like numerous fairway bunkers on the par 5 twelfth. This hole favors a draw although as long as you can carry it more than 220, the’s a good amount of room to miss right. Still, the green should be very much in range if you hit a good drive and keep it up the left side because it’s only about 480 from the yellow tees.

You can see the right-half of the fairway from the twelfth tee. The left side of that is best.

Several more bunkers as you approach the green, but nothing too difficult.

And the green is open for a long approach.

While the front nine gets top billing because it’s just great hole after great hole, two of the best holes of them all are on the back. The first of these is the 425 yard par 4 thirteenth, which just might be my favorite. What an exceptional driving hole this is; the fairway is very wide until about 230 yards (from the yellows), where the right side is cut off by a massive dune. But the fairway isn’t completely cut off; it turns left and continues through about a 25 yard wide opening between this dune and gorse on the left. So you can either lay up out to the right and have a completely blind (and long) approach or try to work one into the opening on the left. To those who say this course favors fades, probably the best way to do this is to sling a draw off the dune.

There's lots of safety right but to avoid having a completely blind approach over a big dune, you'll want to be between the walking path and the gorse.

It’s possible, but you have to hit a very good drive here to get a view of the green, probably something close to 300. Still, the green complex is exceptionally well-designed for a difficult approach. There’s open space everywhere (except long) and if you’ve laid up off the tee, it’s possible to run one in down the hill from the right. It’s also possible to use this slope to feed one onto the green if you’re up the left but still have a long approach.

In short, this green is perfectly designed for the long approach that most will have. This hole is on the short list of best longer par 4s that I’ve seen.

This is the view off a pretty good drive, one to the left side of the big dune.

As the green comes into view, it becomes obvious that this is a great hole.

Most important is that there's lots of open ground short and right of the green, making it possible to run one in if you're coming over the dunes.

It's even more apparent from behind the green. As is the spectacular beauty of this place.

From above.

The character of Royal County Down changes a bit for the last five holes as we play near the boundary of the property, next to farmland. The 200 yard par 3 fourteenth has an unusual backdrop of pine trees, but it’s a very nice hole in its own right with a green that has some pretty good pitch from back-right to front-left.

The green on this long par 3 is fairly receptive. You do not want to miss right.

The other truly great hole on the back nine is the very tough 450 yard par 4 fifteenth. I’m almost a bit hesitant to call this a top tier great hole because it’s so difficult, almost certainly the toughest on the course.

From the yellow tees, it’s only about 240 to run through the fairway at the gorse in the distance (the gorse is probably about 260. There’s also a bit of room at the right edge of the gorse if you go too far, but you really don’t want to go too far right as the fairway slopes off into a pretty deep hollow. The approach into the green is wide open, which again is appropriate after such a difficult drive. But there’s also much bigger trouble than around the greens on some of the other tough holes, with another deep hollow right of the green.

I think this hole might be slightly improved by widening the strip of fairway that connects the landing area and the approach. There’d still be a lot of risk in trying to drive it here because you’d have to challenge the hollow on the right. Still, the drive and the approach are both very interesting as is and enough to me to make this a great hole.

The drive appears innocuous but there's a deep hollow on the right and you can run into the gorse on the left.

You can see the awkward nature of the hole from the above. Best to hit something about 250 straight up the fairway.

It'll be long, but the approach isn't too taxing.

Again, the hedge short is best. The drop-off on the right is deeper than it appears.

The last three holes have always received a lot of criticism for being out of character with the rest of the course. I guess they must have thought the old sixteenth a really big problem because they build a completely new hole, a par 4 of about 320 yards.

I don’t know about the old one, but I liked this one a lot. First of all, there haven’t been any holes of this length so far, so it adds variety to the course. Second, it works well as a drivable par 4. It’s probably a 220-240 carry over the first (hidden) fairway bunker on the right and there’s a lot of trouble if you go for it and miss right of that. But if you lay up, the fairway isn’t so wide and you can’t fall asleep on it. The green also has some decent front-to-back slope, so you must control your approach shot. The bunkers are maybe a bit out-of-character with the rest of the course but the bones of this hole are very solid.

If you go for the green, there are two bunkers, the one you can see and one next to the fairway short and left of it that's a bit hidden. The layup requires some precision too. Very well-conceived drivable par 4.

Easier to see the trouble up close.

Seventeen, a 400 yard par 4 has always come gotten criticism for the weird hazard in the middle of the fairway about 120 yards from the center of the green. It used to be a pond but they’ve converted it into a very attractive waste bunker. It’s odd because it doesn’t really look like anything else on the course and it’s completely blind from the tee, but it’s possible for long hitter to try to go around it on the left or carry the edge (you’d have to be really familiar with the lines of the tee to do that).

​For the rest of us, it’s an easy drive followed by a short iron or wedge uphill to a large, undulating green. Maybe it was a lot worse when it was a pond but as it is now, I don’t see what the complaining is about. It’s an easy driving hole on a course that has very few of them. Why is that bad?

Definitely the easiest looking driving hole and, if you're not a long-hitter, the easiest driving hole. But you'll need to figure out the right line up the left side if you can bomb it.

Maybe the previous pond was bad, but I liked the look of the waste bunker that's replaced it.

The green is large and with some nice interior contour.

The par 5 eighteenth crosses the flattest ground on the course. So revisions (I think mostly by Donald Steel) have upped the challenge by adding fairway bunkers—18 in total, which must be 20-30% of the total bunkers on the course. It’s not a complicated drive but it is a demanding one. And I’d recommend a conservative play on the second; the fairway narrows between bunkers about 120 yards out and you might want to leave it short of this for safety. I like this hole because there’s a lot of trouble if you play it aggressively but you can really reduce that if you think your way around it and place your shots.

Some people complain about all the bunkers on eighteen but I think this hole adds variety to the course. It demands driving precision.

The visibility is poor on the approach and unless you've bombed your drive, it's probably best not to get too aggressive with your layup.

We can see from above that the fairway narrows about 120 yards from the center of the green. Just short of this is a good place to lay up unless you've hit a very good drive.

The approach to the course's only convex green.

This green, apparently designed by Colt, is similar to the eighth but with more back-to-front slope and a run-off at the front. In its own right, it might be the best on the course.

I came into Royal County Down with some doubts that I would regard it as highly as those whose votes comprise the world rankings. But I left without any doubt that it is as good as those who love it say it is. I haven’t seen enough of the contenders to make a judgment, but I’d doubt that this isn’t one of the world’s ten best courses. Among courses that I’ve played, it’s one of only two (the other being Pinehurst no. 2) that, for me, scores a perfect 10. It does it in almost the opposite way—with incredible tee-to-green variety and spectacular visuals—but it’s the only course I’ve seen whose hole-for-hole strength compares. And actually, as I’ve noted several times, there are a lot of outstanding green complexes too. The green contours aren’t too heavy, but that’s clearly a strength given all the other difficulties.

While every hole is good to world-class in its own right, Royal County Down has an additional element which, now having played a lot of the best modern courses, I’m realizing is very important for me: there’s a lot that’s unusual. There’s a lot that you’d never build this way if you could avoid it and certainly never with a blank slate. Much of it is all the blind tee shots that still work because there’s enough landing area on the other side. But it’s also the way holes work around hills and hollows (13, 15), and holes where the elements dot the landscape in almost a random way that make for something both interesting and very original (3). Plus the few holes with less natural oddness in the way fill in with interesting green complex shaping (7, 8) or turn up the challenge with a bunch of bunkers (18). The course is an almost-perfect mix of the hand of God and the hand of man.

One caveat about my assessment of this as one of the greatest driving courses: I did have what was for me a very good day off the tee. The holes going out were in a 10-15 mile-per-hour left-to-right wind, which is a very comfortable wind for me—I was able to aim left and swing soft, letting the wind carry the ball back into the fairways. There’s an important lesson there for anyone playing this course—don’t try to do too much from the tee. Pick a set of tees that’s comfortable for you and use the wind (and your forecaddie) to your advantage. A few holes will play long but for the most part, the course doesn’t require length. It’s a course where you can throttle back and think your way around. But there’s a lot that’s unknown standing on the tee for the first time, so more than any course I’ve seen, I’d recommend getting a yardage book and a forecaddie and asking the forecaddie a lot of questions about lines and distances.

The great Northern Ireland golf question is: Royal County Down or Royal Portrush. For me, it’s an easy call for the former. Royal Portrush is excellent, but it doesn’t have anywhere near the variety or unusualness of Royal County Down. It’s probably a better course for a big tournament, but that doesn’t rank to highly on my list of important factors. For me, Royal County Down is the pinnacle of big-dunes links golf. Anyone who loves golf and is near Dublin or Belfast should try to play it…but make sure you call several months in advance. As tough as the course is, it’s even tougher to get a tee time.