Royal County Down: The Course at the Top of Most Lists Nobody Has Played

Mon, 11 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The course rankings that the magazines publish every other year do not usually settle on a single answer for very long. Augusta moves up and down. Pine Valley and Cypress Point swap positions depending on which list you read. The Old Course will always be top three on most British lists and not always top five on most American ones. There is, however, one course that has spent the last three decades sitting at, or one place off, the top of nearly every list the game has produced, and most of the people reading the list have never played it. Royal County Down, on the eastern coast of Northern Ireland, in the town of Newcastle, under a set of mountains that look, on a clear day, as if they were placed there for the express purpose of being a backdrop for a golf course, is the course that the rankings have been quietly settling on. It has not hosted a men’s major. It has hosted two Irish Opens in the last fifteen years. Most American visitors will go their entire golfing lives without playing it. The course continues, in the absence of any obvious reason it should be ranked above more famous properties, to sit at the top of nearly every credible list.

Newcastle on Pin High Press

Royal County Down: The Course at the Top of Most Lists Nobody Has Played