One of the most beautiful golf courses in the world, the Royal County Down Golf Course is a picturesque piece of paradise nestled in the foothills of the Mourne Mountains on the Irish Sea coast.
But the conditions are also extremely tough, tough enough to host the British Open year after year – although this may cause mental breakdown among tour pros, which happens more often than we think.
Still, the Championship Course in Newcastle, Northern Ireland, will welcome the best players on the DP World Tour this week for the Amgen Irish Open, which returns to Royal County Down for the first time since 2015. That year, Denmark’s Soren Kjeldsen defeated Bernd Wiesberger and Eddie Pepperell in a play-off, with all three players finishing 72 holes at 2 under.
Shane Lowry, who won the 2009 Irish Open at County Louth Golf Club as an amateur, believes his score will be even higher this week.
“I forgot how hard this is. It's going to be an incredible test,” Lowry said Wednesday.
“I think this could be one of the highest winning scores in European Tour history this week. Am I going to shoot even par and sit here and wait? Probably. It's going to be tough.”
Indeed, shooting even par 71 on the Royal County Down Championship Golf Course for four days in a row would make any professional golfer feel satisfied and smile. Even in mild weather conditions, even par is a good score. But you never know when the rain will rush down from the mountains and interrupt a good day. Rain can come in the blink of an eye and the wind can change in an instant. Of course, this only makes the Royal County Down Golf Course more difficult.
“It seems like you just have to try to hit the leading edge of every green and try to make par on every hole, and I think if you do that, you’ll be fine,” Lowry added.
“I think this course is going to be about misses and misses in the right places. I tee it up in about 24 hours. So I have 24 hours to figure out where the misses are on each hole and try to be pretty good on the course because I think this week, it's not about your good shots. It's about your bad shots and making sure they're not too bad and don't cause you too much trouble.”
Trouble can happen at any time at the Royal County Down course, which is full of gorse, deep rough and tricky bunkers. The course features huge sand dunes, but these are also a must-go. They also cause dozens of blind shots, which makes any player, even a professional, very uncomfortable.
“Look, it’s just a tough golf course to play,” Lowry added.
“It's a tough test that requires a high level of golf, a lot of patience and a lot of par putts. It's going to take a lot of good performances to get a good score this week.”
Jack Milko is SB Nation's Playing Through golf columnist. Be sure to check out @_PlayingThrough for more golf coverage. You can follow him on Twitter @JackMilco Same here.
