Marbella promenade
good blows are required to reach the green – Himself
did it with two four irons by cutting the corner – but
not many of us can achieve that.
Which leads to the matter of how you play this course.
There are some seriously hefty par fours here, with five
over 430 yards (white tees), but the bunkers may cause
the greatest fear. Their positioning is exceptional and
that means every tee shot and every approach has to
be evaluated with the sand in mind. What’s more, as
one of Ireland’s flattest links you need to look at each
hole carefully, appreciate the subtleties of the fairway
shapes and then factor in the wind. Gentle doglegs
abound, starting as early as the par five 2nd, and
sometimes just the positioning of the tee box means
club selection and line are a mass of possibilities.
Royal Dublin is famous for its classic out-and-back
routing with the front nine heading north-east. These
are regarded as the easier nine for the wind will
typically be at your back. But then you must turn for
home and that changes everything. Even Rory McIlroy
found that his fine score on the front nine was hard
to maintain on the homeward trail. This can best be
summed up by the Index 1 10th hole, which is at the
farthest reaches of the links. This is when the wind will
typically be into your face. At 441 yards (white tees) it
is another subtly shaped hole that drifts around two
fairway bunkers on the right, before you must tackle a
narrow stream immediately in front of the green. No
bump and run means the adventurous golfer has to fly
it the whole way, into that wind. I will add that on the
day we played the wind was behind us… which made
it only marginally easier: the challenge then was how
to stop the ball on the green without falling victim to
the endless fall-offs that sweep around most of Royal
Dublin’s greens. We both failed. What the wind giveth,
it taketh away!
Royal Dublin has for a long time borne the mantle of
one of Ireland’s most formal clubs… but such things
have been shrugged off and the club is now far more
relaxed. Visitors are welcome and welcomed and with
so much to see in the clubhouse we took our time as
we wandered about from room to room. (Only the
Christy O’Connor Room requires guests to wear a
jacket.) The Pro shop has been completely refurbished,
too, and judging by our entertaining encounter with
Louis and Conor, the members are an approachable
bunch… and very happy to try and take a pint off you!
Your final act of the day should be to go and see
Christy O’Connor Senior’s Ryder Cup in the trophy
room. He should have been given ten, one for each
of his appearances, but this is the only one he
received and his family presented it to Royal Dublin to
acknowledge the abiding relationship between Himself
and this venerable club.
Visitors can play any day except Wednesday – a bonus for the
weekend warrior – and green fees are €150-€175 in peak season,
€95-€105 for early bird/twilight, and €80-€90 during winter.
www.theroyaldublingolfclub.com