Royal Dublin

I shuffled down the steps of the clubhouse to bear the bad news: “The ball went straight into the ditch by the bridge.”

The player in the day’s Royal Dublin Golf Club members' Saturday competition was crestfallen. He had struck his approach to the famous 18th with gusto but had lost sight of his ball.

While noshing on a rather splendid lunch, I had seen it dive into disaster and then watched as he shrugged in dismay at not being able to find it just beyond the green, where he had hoped it had landed.

His trudge 40 yards backwards was a sad sight.

We saw the 18th played several times during an hour with varying results. These certainly helped guide our strategies a few hours later.

Royal Dublin was founded in 1885 and originally played on a site in Phoenix Park.

Seeking a links challenge, the club relocated to its current home on Bull Island four years later.

Royal patronage from Queen Victoria followed in 1891, and it became The Royal Dublin Golf Club.

In 1914, the British military took over the clubhouse and the links for use as a firing range and telegraphy training base. By the end of the First World War, the course was essentially a wasteland of trenches and barbed wire, so the club turned to Harry Colt to resurrect it.

In recent years, the club has returned to the great man’s designs during restoration projects, so, as a result, bunkers feature prominently.

Unfortunately, we didn’t experience optimal conditions, as a strong wind was blowing in the opposite direction to normal during our visit.

This made the opening holes much more intimidating—at least, that is my excuse for some dreadful early scoring.

With the breeze in our faces, opening drives pulled up 50 yards short of their expected landing zones, as staying upright became as much of a challenge as weaving between sand traps.

We had been advised to drive over the mound on the left side of the third fairway, but my ball ballooned 50 yards wide towards another one by a tee box on the back nine!

However, a moment of good fortune sparked my game into life on the par-five sixth.

I thought I had faded the ball around a blind corner towards the green, only to find it in a greenside bunker.

Fortunately, it was ground under repair, allowing me to putt and knock it in from close range for par.

The par-three seventh, with its green beside a pond, was downwind and therefore a much friendlier proposition than usual.

The drop-offs around the greens are often dramatic—none more so than on the par-four eighth, where any shot to the left is punished, as my podcast partner discovered.

Hole nine is the prettiest of the par threes, with bunkers guarding the front and bright yellow gorse bushes to the rear.

The back nine features much wider fairways because the holes usually play against the wind.

They offered us some relief, although holding the greens with the breeze at our backs presented a different challenge.

The tenth—a long par-four with a stream in front of the target—is one of Royal Dublin’s best holes. My tactic of laying up before the hazard worked perfectly.

The greens were running beautifully, and having judged the pace, I wasted far fewer shots on the inward half.

The course has a fascinating finish, beginning with the very short par-four 16th, which even we should have reached from the tee.

The 17th lures drives down the right towards the stream and road, whereas the left-hand route is longer but remains the smart play. I lost a ball attempting the ‘Tiger line’.

A ferry entering Dublin Port sounded its horn as we stood on the 18th, as if to acclaim the finale of our round.

The hole we had watched so many times over lunch is a 90-degree dogleg, offering players the chance to carry an out-of-bounds area of undergrowth, ironically dubbed “the garden”.

My tee shot was too short to consider such an adventure, so I took the circuitous route on the way to two Stableford points.

PP was in a better position and went for it, narrowly falling short of the green.

Fortune favoured the brave, and you certainly needed courage on this tough but enjoyable day at Royal Dublin.