Destination Golf Ireland 2017 * | Page 151

Royal County Down
There is no experience in the world – let alone Ireland – to compare with Royal County Down . Revered and feared in equal measure the course sits under the gaze of the Mourne Mountains and alongside Dundrum Bay . It boasts several terrifying blind shots , heather and gorse strewn dunes , bearded bunkers , greens like velvet , and a terrain of ever shifting surprises . It is magical and it is monstrous . The hands of many of the greatest names in golf have left their imprint here . Old Tom Morris , Harry Vardon and Harry Colt have influenced how this course has come to be known as the world ’ s greatest links and , while the course has evolved slowly , it still feels as if nothing has changed at all . It is timeless .
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