Ottawa Golf Blog

Golf Digest sometimes looks past the golf courses in the United States and ranks some courses outside of the U.S. They've done this with the Royal County Down Golf Links Course in Northern Ireland, which they ranked the best in the world outside the United States. The magazine is a guide to the world’s 100 top courses published every two years. When I visited Ireland about 10 years ago I wasn't even into golf. When I see a golf course like this in Ireland it makes me think what I missed. Maybe I'll have to return.

The Royal County Down links course is one of the oldest in Ireland and has been praised by some of the biggest names in golf. The course has an appropriate setting at Newcastle, County Down Northern Ireland “where the mountains of Mourne sweep down to the sea”. For more than 100 years it has nestled on classic duneland, in the shadow of the majestic Slieve Donard Hotel Resort and Spa, which plunges 3,000 feet almost to edge of an area called Dundrum Bay, County Down.