Royal County Down is one of the most beautiful courses in the world, a picturesque slice of heaven that sits at the foothills of the Mourne Mountains along the Irish Sea.
But it is also brutally tough, so tough that it could host the Open Championship year after year—although that could lead to more mental breakdowns among tour pros than we would like to see.
Nevertheless, the Championship Links in Newcastle, Northern Ireland, welcome the best players on the DP World Tour for this week’s Amgen Irish Open, which returns to Royal County Down for the first time since 2015. That year, Soren Kjeldsen of Denmark won in a playoff over Bernd Wiesberger and Eddie Pepperell, as all three players finished their 72 holes at 2-under-par.
Shane Lowry, who won the 2009 Irish Open at County Louth Golf Club as an amateur, believes scores will be higher than that this week.
“I forgot how hard it was. It’s going to be an unbelievable test,” Lowry said Wednesday.
“I think it could be one of the highest-winning scores ever in a European Tour event this week. Would I take level par and sit here and wait? Possibly. That’s how tough it’s going to be.”
Indeed, four straight days of shooting an even-par 71 on Royal County Down’s Championship Links would leave any pro golfer satisfied and smiling. Par is a good score, even in benign conditions. But you never know when rain can race down the mountains and interrupt a nice day. It happens in the blink of an eye, and the wind can also shift at a moment’s notice. That, of course, only makes Royal County Down even harder.
“It looks like you just try to hit the front edge of every green and try to make par on every hole, and I think if you do that, you’ll be okay,” Lowry added.
“I think this course will be about the misses and missing in the right place. I tee off in about 24 hours. So I have 24 hours to figure out where to miss it on every hole and try to just manage my way around the course pretty well because I think this week, it’s not going to be about your good shots. It will be about your bad shots and making sure they are not too bad and don’t get you in too much trouble.”
Trouble in the form of gorse, deep rough, and punishing bunkers lurk all around Royal County Down. The massive sand dunes that give this course its character are absolute no-gos, too. They also create dozens of blind shots, which makes any player, even a pro, very uncomfortable.
“Look, this is just a tough golf course,” Lowry added.
“It’s a tough test, and it will take a lot of good golf, a lot of patience, and holing a lot of par putts. It will take a lot of good stuff to do well this week.”
Jack Milko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. Be sure to check out @_PlayingThrough for more golf coverage. You can follow him on Twitter @jack_milko as well.