Royal Dornoch Golf Club

In 2009 Golf Digest ranked Royal Dornoch Golf Club as the sixth best golf course outside the United States. Only three courses on the Open rotation were ranked higher. Yet Royal Dornoch Golf Club will never host the Open, even though the course is perfectly suited to do so. One might ask why not?

RDGC is in the Royal Burgh of Dornoch that only has a population of about 1250 people. The government district (county) of Sutherland has only 13,500 people. There are a few small hotels and some B&B’s. The fare of the local restaurants is very good, but there aren’t many from which to choose. So in spite of being one of the best golf courses in all the world, there is insufficient infrastructure to host a major championship. This is a tragedy!

I’ve not played every golf course outside the United States, and only one of the five on the Golf Digest list that are ranked above Dornoch. Now that I mention it, I haven’t played every golf course in the US. So my ignorance of world golf courses is clearly documented. However, if I weretold that I could play but one course for the rest of my life, without the slightest hesitation, I would choose Royal Dornoch. I’d choose it over all courses, Augusta National, Pebble Beach, you name it, RDGC would be my pick. I’ve played it four times. My best score is an 86, my worst a 92, never coming close to my handicap. It’s even worse when you consider that par is 70. I’ve had some sub-40 nine hole scores, but the other nine always got away from me.

My first time there was with my wife. I’ve never seen anyone so nervous when preparing to play golf. She understood the greatness of the course and felt unworthy. Her knees were knocking on the first tee, literally. The first is a straight, short par 4, only a little over 300 yards. All I can say it that wasn’t pretty. She duffed it down the fairway and reached the green after 11 swings. Thenext thing I know she blasted it past the green into the gorse bushes. I asked her what she was doing, and she responded “The starter said the 150 marker was yellow”. So was the flagstick! The second is a 165 yard par three with a treacherous green guarded by two cavernous bunkers, a much more difficult hole. She score a 3.

The third is a par four that plays to about 400 yards. The tee shot plays down hill to a fairway that is cantered left to right. It’s an incredibly beautiful view. However there is a line of fourfairway bunkers all in a row down theright side. You had better draw your tee shot into theslope. Two more fairway bunkers fame the view of the expansive undulating green that is guarded by two green side bunkers. This hole is etched in my memory, perhaps my favorite hole on the course.

Looking over old score cards I see that I’ve only parred it once, but it still one of my favorite holes at RDGC.

I think one of Suzie’s concerns during that first round back in October of 2002 was pace of play. She was so concerned about holding people up. There was an English couple in front of us and a foursome behind, two German couples. The English pulled away immediately, and once we finished the first, the Germans were left far behind. For the next 17 holes we were essentially alone on the best golf course in the world. Come to think of it, I don’t ever remember being rushed or running up anybodies tail on RDGC.

To be continued.....

DLux of Maine

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