September 2025 – Royal County Down (RCD) was the third and final course we played on our three-course, North Ireland trip following Ardglass and Royal Portrush. First off, I love the new AI photo tools in Microsoft. You’ll see below, on my hole-by-hole review, the carts we left in front of the tees on three that I erased from the above photo. I am so glad I retired before AI rendered me useless!
RCD is universally ranked as a top ten course. For Golf Digest, which ranks courses OUTSIDE the US, it has ranked #1 on every ranking since the first time they published the list in 2008. And for GOLF Magazine that combines US and world courses in top world rankings, RCD currently ranks 7th. Wow! Consider top ten means I would generally sell a child to play but I got to play here and still keep both daughters. So on the the latest GOLF Magazine Top 100, here’s my checklist:
Not too shabby huh? And I will play Royal Dornach at some point. The others might be a tough invite but who knows – I had an opportunity to play Shinnecock for a cool $5 large but gave it a hard no. In my own top ten, five of the above are there with Royal Melbourne dropping out. My additional five in: Cape Kidnappers, Pebble Beach, Royal Troon, New South Wales, and Pacific Dunes. Regardless, a top 10 means you are playing the best of the best of the best.
RCD is truly one of the best of the best of the best. Even in my humble, bogey golfer rankings it has everything I love in a golf course: Views. Design. Uniqueness. Conditioning. Clubhouse. Even access to booze. It doesn’t have the space to hold a major (though it has hosted the Irish Open) and like Pine Valley, it doesn’t care.
Let’s start with the clubhouse. RCD features an old school private European clubhouse.
And my own from the parking lot…
The dining room is upstairs and I believe there are areas of the club inaccessible to guests. While the dining room seems very private clubbish, we were able to get walkers (bloodies, screwies and beers) for the course and as there is no halfway house, we got walkers for the back as well. We had to come back the next day as my buddy Mike got the wrong size shirt and the club was in lockdown to guests as they had a member outing. That meant we had to check in, hope our story got us access and then Mike got escorted to the pro-shop. This is a super private club on the non-guest days.
Lastly (before I get into hole-by-hole), the pro had a sense of humor. Below is my head cover…
You can read throughout the blog my thoughts on Trump, Libturds and politics. But, beyond the head cover, I don’t really bring any of it to the golf course. So the pro comes up to me and says they are having a huge sale on head covers. Free for me (jokingly referring to the Trump head cover). That’s kind of funny but told him I’m good unless he has a “Bobby Sands Rules” head cover. This is REALLY funny unless you are a tightwad – Bobby Sands was an Irish republican, an IRA Volunteer and a key figure in the fight against British imperialism in the north of Ireland during the 1970s and early 1980s. I’m half Irish, all Catholic and the northern Protestant Irish still hate him, so you know, fuck you. It was funny.
To the course…
Like at Royal Troon the first holes hug the coast. In fact, unlike the first nine holes at Troon, they say the front nine here is the best in the world and I’d be nigh to disagree. So let’s dig in.
Hole #1 – 483 yards, par five, 13 handicap. From the green tees which measure 6,249/71.6/130. So our buddies from Singapore played the yellows (6641/73.5/134). I am so glad we didn’t tee shame ourselves into playing those tees. As it was this was a tough yet playable course from our tees and my thoughts on the first hole:
Yeah from the greens this is playable and fun. So I parred the first with the above drive putting me in prime position. The Irish sea to the right. The awe of being on one of the world’s top ten courses. Everything that should tighten you up, faded away for me as I just hit a nice few shots to the green as I soaked in the surrounds.
Hole #2 – 344 yards, par four, 9 handicap. RCD features a ton of blind shots and this is super cool. No U.S. course features blind shots like some of the classic British/Irish courses. My buddy Mike would skull a shot into the hill but hit an amazing recovery shot down the 5th fairway after almost killing some golfers on the 5th green. I bogeyed after duffing my second shot.
This is from the second tee looking back up one. Wow!
Hole #3 – 423 yards, par four, 3 handicap. Look I left the carts in on this one. You see the tight driving corridor but I will tell you a slight miss at RCD was in better shape than at Portrush. Or maybe it’s because we were playing from the right tees. Either way, I would set up a blanket and grill and just have a lobster bake here and be happy. This is beautiful.
Hole #4 – 159 yards, par three, 15 handicap. If I am doing an imitation course, this would be my short par three. I parred but more intimidating than reality. Here’s the close up…
Hole #5 – 359 yards, par four, 7 handicap. That’s the second to the left. This is the green that Mike would skull his ball over. Wow, just, wow.
From my drive on five. I would double but only because of some piss poor putting.
Hole #6 – 338 yards, par four, 11 handicap. So a lot of buddies have played Friar’s Head in NY and tell me that it is one of if not the best course they’ve played. I want to play but it looks like an RCD ripoff to me. It’s like why would I want to listen to Van Hagar when I got to hear the original Van Halen.
Hole #7 – 113 yards, par three, 17 handicap. I could’ve AI’ed the golfers out but instead zoomed in for you. Short par three.
Just don’t go in the bunker here.
Hole #8, 405 yards, par four, 1 handicap. Tough golf hole. Long! I would double but keep it in the fairway here and you can par/bogey.
Hole #9, 429 yards, par four, 5 handicap. As I am going through the photos of RCD, I am thinking about pushing it up my ranking. What a perfect golf course! I parred here for a really nice 44. This is nine from way back…
THIS is nine from the green tees. Huge difference between yellow and green tees and…
Here’s me and Mike from the edge of the teeing area, the Singapore boys would play this from nearly 500 yards.
Ninth hole from my drive.
Hole #10, 172 yards, par three, 18 handicap. We were able to load up at the turn and the 10th is an easy-ish par three. We had multiple caddies, staff, et al hovering around us here (though we were right on time and up the group in front of us). No problem, put it on the green and would par.
Hole #11, 389 yards, par four, 8 handicap. The blind of blind tee shots. Reminded me of Prestwick. The Yellows had a better look here. In retrospect, besides nine and maybe one more hole, there was no huge advantage playing greens over yellow.
Hole #12, 455 yards, par five, 16 handicap. While I would bogey here, this is a good chance to go for birdie. Mike would par.
Hole #13, 409 yards, par four, 2 handicap. While the little rough areas in front of the tees won’t impact play, it is a different look. This is a long hole with a narrowing fairway as you approach the green. There are not a lot of bunkers at RCD per se but you need to keep it straight.
Looking back from 13.
Hole #14, 195 yards, par three, 12 handicap. A great golf course has a variety of holes – especially for par threes and RCD has long, short and medium-length three. I would bogey and start feeling a bug coming on that would kill me for the last few holes and take me out for the entire night. I even passed off driving home until my buddy Mike almost slammed the guy in front of us.
Hole #15, 410 yards, par four, 4 handicap. Bandon Trails features holes in the meadows, dunes and woods, just like RCD. Another copycat course. Here’s an awesome meadows hole that plays long and tough.
Hole #16, 276 yards, par four, 14 handicap. Ok, ok, I don’t want to make excuses (but I really do), but no less than 30 minutes from this point I would throw up my guts. I think it was just a long week catching up with me but who knows, could’ve been a bug or anything else. I hooked a ball into the gorse left and would lose my first ball of the day on the way to a double, double, bogey finish.
Hole #17, 374 yards, par four, 10 handicap. Again at this point I was just happy not shitting myself.
Hole # 18, 480 yards, par five, 6 handicap. Tricky green but for the most part the greens weren’t crazy at RCD. I would bogey here before running into the clubhouse and purging. I can’t stress enough how awesome this course is and solidly in my top ten.
Golf Scrapbook 