Ein einmaliges Golferlebnis in diesen riesigen Dnen ist es allemal. Updated On: March 07, 2023 In the seaside town of Newcastle, close to the foot of the Majestic Mourne Mountains, lies the impeccable 'Royal County Down Golf Club'. Colt, ever with an eye for finding ideal one-shot holes, must have found todays 4th without too much worry. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyse and understand how you use this website. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. Copyright The Royal County Down Golf Club. The Mourne Mountains loom to the south like something out of The Lord of the Rings, and the bunkers, which are savagely rimmed with marram grass, could be portals to another dimension. Royal County Down Golf Club was awarded a grant of 1.5m. That briefly means no denim, no collarless shirts, and only tailored shorted. Hes a Politics Graduate but far more interested in sport and travel than his graduate subject. Walk out the back door of the Slieve Donard Resort, across the parking lot, and under the sign for Royal County Down Golf Club, and you feel like you're entering a golf storybook. However, what for instance would be gained if the blind tee balls on the aforementioned holes were altered? Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. Soon afterward, the founding members of the County Down Golf Club agreed to pay Old Tom Morris "a sum not to exceed 4" to double the number of holes. If you are looking to become a member of Mourne Golf Club, we welcome applications and notes of interest and would ask you to contact us and we will get back in touch with you. The rates are subject to an annual update. Browne is a physician and a student of golf architecture. This tendency steers him toward the trouble on the left. When I left Dortmund in 1982, I was the Vice-Captain of the Club, and granted Honorary Membership. Secondly, in 2004, an entirely new 16th hole was created; a short but extremely tricky par 4, it is played into the magnificent backdrop of the Mourne Mountains and has proved to be a superb matchplay hole. This one at the 12th is 90 yards from the green and makes laying up problematic when the hole is played into the wind. The approach shot is deceiving. He played in a team event there in 2005, when he was 16 years old and had just shot 61 in a tournament at Royal Portrush, a couple of hours farther up the coast. Markham has done something that I would like to do: He has played every 18-hole golf course in Ireland, plus virtually all the nine-holersand he has written a guide based on that experience, called Hooked. It's a great course and a severe challenge buts it's 5th in my rankings of the 5 Irish courses we just played. Irish roads are narrow under any circumstances; they become narrower if your eyes are repeatedly drawn to the hills and out to seaa danger that day, because the sky was so clear that I could see the Isle of Man, halfway to the English mainland. A published writer on sport, Steve has been writing online for over a decade on various subjects, including travel articles and blogs. Annesley Links Championship Links. Peter Dobereiner may have come close to County Downs beauty when he wrote The links of Newcastle are exhilarating even without a club in your hand and Bernard Darwin too when he penned that the golf at Newcastle is the kind of golf that people play in their most ecstatic dreams. Add in its unmatched challenge by any other links and one may well conclude that he has just played the finest course in the world. The Championship Links at Royal County Down is located in one of the worlds most naturally beautiful links settings in the Murlough Nature Reserve. Although much shorter than the Championship Links, The Annesley Links is still a very testing golf course, with magnificent views of sea, mountains and duneland. He lowered the dune that obscured the green and built todays 9th green complex. (Patrick T . On Friday, Browne and I teed off at Royal County Down at 8:40, the earliest tee time that day, and played so fast that we caught up to the greenkeeper and an assistant, who were changing the cups and using a whip to sweep microscopic mower residue from the putting surfaces, all of which were virtually in mid-season condition. It has been the venue for the Walker Cup (2007), the Curtis Cup (1968), the Amateur Championship (twice), the Home Internationals (three times) and, on no fewer than nine occasions, the Ladies British Open Amateur Championship, as well as numerous other leading amateur events. Illness and then World War I saw the end of his quest for perfection. The Royal County Down Golf Club tee-times are available for visitors on the following days: Mon., Tues & Thurs mornings and Sunday afternoon. In addition, the 2nd, 3rd, 6th, 7th, 11th, 12th, 13th, 14th, and 15th general playing corridors of today were in use. I still had the course virtually to myself. Rarely does RCD appear outside anyones top 10 golf courses, and certainly never when you look specifically at links golf. Third hole, 475/455 yards; This hole stands side by side with the third at The Country Club in Brookline and the 3rd at National Golf Links of America as the authors favorite 3rd in the world. Hole 17 (SI 10) 443 yards Par 4 requires an accurate drive to a narrow fairway and good club selection to avoid all the sand further up the hole. Co Down, Northern Ireland County Down: the finest combination of beauty and challenge in golf. A perfect venue to celebrate any occasion. First hole, 540/505 yards; Voted by GOLF Magazine among the three finest opening holes in the game, the 1st has been in play in its current form for over one hundred years. I went all the way around, and returned to the club, and teed off on the championship course again. Against the magnificent backdrop of the Mountains of Mourne, the links stretches along the shores of Dundrum Bay, zigzagging back and forth to provide a different vista from virtually every hole. It opened on 23 March 1889 and is one of the oldest golf clubs in Ireland. Royal County Down Golf Club: One of the Oldest Irish Courses Thursday - morning Sunday - afternoon Please make all bookings through the Secretary's Office. In this case, Newcastle is a windy location and this hole is the only hole/shoton the course which points away from Dundrum Bay. Against the magnificent backdrop of the Mountains of Mourne, the links stretches along the shores of Dundrum Bay, zigzagging back and forth to provide a different vista from virtually every hole. Golfers play this hole for years before deciding a preferred course of action. More importantly, the bunkers are well placed. The 13th and 15th holes are among the handful of finest holes on the course. T. The Annesley Links at Royal County Down shares the same magnificent setting as the Championship Links and is full of character. 4 on Golf Digest's World 100 Greatest Courses list. Hole 15 (SI 4) 468 yards Par 4 has the fairway narrowing short of the green with bunkers behind so 15 requires good course management. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website. Mourne Golf Club and Royal County Down Golf Club are both men-only. A right to left wind can, tragically, make this one of the days most difficult holes. Browne grew up in the Belfast areawhere the vast majority of the club's members liveand discovered Royal County Down during family seaside holidays in Newcastle. Such a reference is simply not accurate as Combe and other Club members deserve the lion share of the credit. However, the back nine suffers only in direct comparison to the front nine. Once again, Harry Colts talent in building green complexes is much in evidence at the 18th as it appears as an extension of the fairway. The course and fairways run fast in all but the wettest weather so RCD demands and rewards accuracy. Blue 7186 yds can involve carries of 250 yards The 9th hole highlights a term that readily applies to County Down: appropriate blindness. The golfer has a wider margin of error for his (blind) tee ball with tighter requirements following for the (non-blind) approach. Royal County Down (Championship) - Golf Course Review | Golf Empire Then, at the first roundabout, I suddenly thought: What am I doing? Royal County Down Golf Club Championship Course: Review, Green Fees Standard Caddies 40 per round In fact, it has sharp fall-offs on either side ala the 1st at Pine Valley Golf Club, making for many a testing recovery shot at the Home hole. In more recent times the course has been less used as a professional venue, but it has always remained a supreme challenge which attracts the best players in the world; Tiger Woods, Tom Watson and many others have played it either as part of their preparation for the Open Championship or just for sheer enjoyment, and Rory McIlroy, Northern Irelands current world star, is a frequent visitor. The bearded bunkers are world famous and feature overhanging lips of marram, red fescue and heather. Covid-19 grant to Royal County Down Golf Club 'not appropriate' - BBC Thus, the pond takes away from the holes two finest playing characteristics: the approach is almost always played from a sloping stance and its gathering green complex featuring hard-to-read interior contours is among the finest on the course. Hhere Handicapper werden auf diesem Platz wohl nicht viel Freude haben, denn es gibt viele "blinde" Lcher und der Wind ist auch immer dabei. The Royal County Down Golf Club tee-times are available for visitors on the following days: Mon., Tues & Thurs mornings and Sunday afternoon. Mon 17 Jan 2022 at 22:37. Though the eight green may appear free of trouble, the first timer soon learns otherwise. The phone number of Royal County Down Golf Club is: +44 (0)28 4372 3314. Course Description. We found it, at some risk to our clothing, although it was so overgrown that we couldn't see much more than one corner. However opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience. 'Special' Royal County Down voted world's best golf course The fairways are narrow with the greens having subtle slopes and run-off areas for misplaced shots. The advent of the rubber core Haskell ball was now upon us and by 1903, the course had grown to 6,400 yards. The clubhouse at Royal County Down houses a professional's shop. The front nine occupies the prime area by the bay and the back nine lesser so that much is true. As with many approach shots, when in doubt at County Down, the miss is often straight and short. 36 Golf Links Road, Newcastle Co Down. Combe was made a honorary life member in 1909 and continued to make improvements to the course for several more years, many times at a cost out of his own pocket. The golfer has to have the opportunity to make up some lost ground. Save Royal County Down Golf Club to your bucket list. Royal County Down Golf Club is located in Northern Ireland. The course was designed by Harry Colt, who also designed Belvoir Parkpronounced "Beaver Park"a few miles away, in a suburb on the city's south side. (Belfast is closer but has fewer non-stops from the United States.) Top Dortmund Golf Courses: See reviews and photos of Golf Courses in Dortmund, Germany on Tripadvisor. Royal County Down Golf Club - Championship Course. For fear of the unknown, the golfer is tempted to play toward what he can see. In fact, this green may well have been in use over one hundred and fifteen years as it may be the 2nd green from Old Tom Morriss original layout. Colts green makes the hole and the course a test to the very end. The ideal tee ball is long down the left, yielding this view. Royal County Down - Golf Club Atlas His course started and finished by the railway station, which is to say that it played through the general area where the Slieve Donard Hotel now occupies. Following in the time honored tradition of so many of the finest, older links, the green follows the general slope of its surrounds. Also, some of its uniqueness would no doubt vanish. PO Box 2566, Southern Pines, NC 28388. (McIlroy's childhood course, Holywood, is just down the road.) On my visit in June 2018, during one of the most prolonged hot and dry spells of my lifetime, they should perhaps have renamed it Royal County Brown. Welcome to County Down the view from teh 11th tee. Ben Brasch. Dogleg holes in windy sites force the golfer to account for the wind from two different directions on the same hole, a good thing. Top 5 golf course in the world and no.1 in the UK, Royal County Down is a bucket list course. Perhaps, but the reality is that some balls that land on the green are also feed left and down into a deep pit. With world-class parties, fascinating history, and some of the, Killarney, Ireland is truly the most quintessential Irish town that you could possibly visit. From 1893, when the second Irish Open Amateur Championship was held, until the present time, Royal County Down has been synonymous with the best in amateur golf. This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. THE BEST Dortmund Golf Courses (Updated 2023) - Tripadvisor And regarding the great course which lay below the mountains, he added that it was one of big and glorious carries, nestling greens, entertainingly blind shots, local knowledge and beautiful turf the kind of golf that people play in their most ecstatic dreams. The dunes, the seascapes, the town in the distance are all magical -- not a thing out of place. The dune was lowered in such a manner though that only approach shots in the middle portion of the fairway gain a decent look at the green. Marucci played in the match in 1995 and 1997 and was best known for taking Tiger . 2. Standing on the ninth tee, the golfer is left with the disconcerting feeling of hitting his tee ball over the dune and into oblivion. GolfRange Dortmund. The Irish Professional Championship was held on four occasions, the last being in 1954 when it was won by Harry Bradshaw. This was arguably the most important phase in the evolution of the links. 1 :: Championship Links Flyover - Royal County Down Golf Club Though completely natural as it is a low point where water collects, its appearance is so unusual on this, the mightiest of all links, that the pond is ever a lighting rod for criticism. Hole 6 (SI 11) 396 yards Par 4 plays from a raised tee and has a large bunker front right of the green and two others either side of the green itself. (Nearly everyone I played with on my trip was named Kevin, Kevan, Jonny or Johnny.) The shorter drive will require an accurate second to escape the well-placed bunkers leaving an approach of 100 yards. (His Royal County Down entry is subtitled "perfection every step of the way.") Old Head Golf Links, Cork 2. Far more interesting to present the golfer with chances for heroic deeds and put pressure on the golfer to recognize when he should best strike. While there is no accommodation on-site, the town has plenty including comfortable, good value B&Bs. His passion for travel and sport have both been satisfied by regularly visiting Ireland to watch rugby and play golf. 2007 - Royal County Down - Walker Cup (On Nov. 1, the visitor's fee at Royal County Down drops from 180 to 50.) What is the phone number of Royal County Down Golf Club? 1968. He innocently raised both hands, to remind her that, in Ireland and the United Kingdom, the driver sits on the right, not the left. Royal County Down Golf Club - Wikipedia Golf Courses. Many of the holes were on the grounds that the present day No. Royal County Down Golf Club (Championship) - Today's Golfer Wilson Smyth moved Colts green (which would have been in the foreground above) back to todays current location. However, it was the development of a railway line from Belfast to Newcastle by the Belfast & County Down Railway and the emergence of Newcastle as a desirable seaside resort in Victorian times which provided the impetus for the first formal golf course. Can the golfer on the tee go long left with his tee ball to get a clear view of the green? The Royal County Down Golf Club was founded in 1889 by a group of influential business and professional men from Belfast. Find Out More Our Facilities Consider Mourne and the dedicated Founders Suite for weddings, events and family occasions. The Ardglass clubhouse is an old castle, and the opening holewhose tee box appears to be an extension of either the castle or the Irish Seais worth a trip by itself. Strategic bunkers also find wayward shots with the greens a real challenge once you arrive there. Notably, the Club in 2007 became just the second Irish venue, after Portmarnock, to host the Walker Cup. Harry Colt rerouted what is todays 8th hole to stay atop the dune as opposed to returning back down near the 1st green. We look forward to welcoming you at Mourne Golf Club. On Wednesday, when the championship course was closed to visitors, I drove 20 miles up the coast and played a round at Ardglass Golf Club with Ian Duff, a longtime member, past captain and occasional caddie. The car trip is just over an hour and a half if you stick to the motorway, but I had time so at Newry I turned southeast, onto the A2, which in that part of the country is also known as the Mourne Coastal Route. Captain in 1896 and Convenor of the Green from 1900 to 1913. Golfers should select the option most suitable to their ability, especially because there are some carries off the long tees that may be difficult to reach. A view from the tee of the long and demanding two shot 8th hold. There's also a Royal County Down Ladies Golf Club, which has a small clubhouse of its own, near the first tee of the Annesley course. An examination of this 1907 map shows that the 1st and 18th holes as three shotters and the 10th as a one shotter back away from the clubhouse have taken form. Its you against primarily natural terrain. The problematic holes are the closing ones, and although you can make a case, shot by shot, that each is a worthy companion to all the others, it's nevertheless true that the surreality of the setting begins to dissipate on the 14th tee. Write Review. Royal Belfast Golf Club, Down 1 - Adare Manor, Limerick 10. They are self-employed and to be paid separately. Newcastle, County Down. Hole 5 (SI 7) 440 yards Par 4 has a large green without much bunkering but plenty of sand before you get there. Royal County Down Golf Club - Championship Course Hole 13 (SI 2) 446 yards Par 4 is guarded by bushes off the tee with the winding fairway requiring a shot over rough for those seeking a par. The Royal County Down Golf Club (RCD) is judged by the highest standards of links golf courses and passes the test. There is some evidence to suggest that even before then a rudimentary form of golf was being played by the townsfolk on the rabbit warren at Newcastle. The longer hitter can take the left of centre line so as to shoot forward off the down slope, leaving a long to mid iron to the long narrow green. When my threesome first played it in 2000, our caddies stood at the top of the dune on the ideal line, to give us a target and to spot our drives, and after each shot they swept their arms back and forth in front of their chestsa signal that in baseball means "safe" but in Irish (we discovered) means "You'll never see that ball again." Hole 2 (SI 9) 444 yards Par 4 is the first of several 400 plus yard Par 4s on the championship layout. BBC News NI The world's golfing superstars may be in Northern Ireland this week, competing for prize money of 2.5m euros (1.78m) at the Irish Open, but the host course at Royal County Down. Royal County Down Golf Club - Tripadvisor Hole 9 (SI 5) 483 yards Par 4 demands an accurate drive to the fairway 60 feet below with only the longest hitters able to get to the lower level in one shot. Dress Standards Dress Standards For Men Players are expected to wear an acceptable standard of golfing attire when playing the Championship Course or the Annesley Links. The Annesley Links at Royal County Down shares the same magnificent setting as the Championship Links and is full of character. As they play in opposite directions, one generally affords the chance to play aggressively and reach the green ahead of regulation. Where is Royal County Down Golf Club located? This website uses cookies to improve your experience. A modern architect would either modify the dunescape or end up with a largely different routing, claiming that some of the features at County Down are anachronistic. A view just over the bunker pictured above, looking back down the graceful twelft fairway. The Irish Open Amateur Championship was held at the course on fifteen occasions, before the competition was discontinued in 1959. A drive long down the left gives the golfer the best view of the green, though at the expense of a longer approach. Thanks to the good transport links, the hotel is within easy reach of Dortmund city centre and the Westfalenhalle (Hall of Westphalia) exhibition centre via the A44 / A40 motorways and the B1 federal highway. The Royal County Down Golf Club 4. Shirts should be tucked in while trainers and track/leisure suits are not permitted. Finally, the list of best golf resorts in Europe in 2017 is out. He said he used to see old greenkeepers who had been on the job for 50 or 60 years, and had always wondered how they could stand it. (Most of the dune area to the north is now part of the Murlough National Nature Reserve.) I dont quite put it into that lofty bracket but it is unquestionably superb and rightly celebrated. "Did you play any golf at all?" The steeple of the Slieve Donard, which opened in 1897 and was named for the tallest of the Mourne Mountains, stands out like a navigational beacon, and the dunes that enfold Royal County Down are visible just beyond it. Interestingly enough, golfers frequently display worse judgment on harder courses than on the easier ones. The development of the course is described in fascinating detail in Richard A. Latham's excellent book, "The Evolution of the Links at Royal County Down Golf Club" (Radial Sports Publishing Limited, 2006). One of the golf magazines rates Royal County Down as the best golf course in the world outside the US. Coming into this green with a long club for ones third is unlikely to end the round in a satisfactory manner. When Combe began his work on the course in 1900, it measured approximately 5,150 yards. Old head near Cork, Ballybunion and Lahinch in the west, Royal Portrush which hosted the Open recently, Ballyliffin in the extreme north of Donegal, and Portmarnock in Dublin are all courses he has played in his time. In 1893, a competition boasting prize money of one hundred guineas attracted almost all the leading professionals of the day, the great Harry Vardon defeating J. H. Taylor in the final. Lord Belmont in Northern Ireland: Royal County Down Golf Club - Blogger Click to call 866 260 4409 Call 866 260 4409 ( Mon-Fri 8:30-5.30pm ET ) The point cannot be stated clearly enough: the credit for County Downs great design resets largely within its membership. On a course famed for its difficulty, the view back down the first shows the fairway to be in a natural valley that helps to collect either of the golfers first two shots, a fine attribute for a first hole. Driving the ball well is imperative at Royal County Down. Browse 3,646 authentic royal county down golf club photos, pictures, and images, or explore golf course or pine valley new jersey to find the right picture. Hole 8 (SI 1) 429 yards Par 4 has a well-bunkered fairway but the problems around the green are the run-offs and bushes on the right. Copyright 2007-2023 leadingcourses.com. More so than any other course with which the author is familiar, good driving at Country Down does further to assist the golfer play to his handicap.
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