Royal Dornoch is located in the north of Scotland. It is close to the sea and is consistently ranked on the World Top 100 Course lists. We played the course twice during a trip to Scotland where we also played Castle Stuart (link) and Carnegie Golf Club (link)
Clubhouse & Putting green
We had great weather during our visit to Royal Dornoch and started the day with some short game practice on the large green by the 1st tee.
HOLE 1
The first hole straight forward par 4 with bunkers on both sides of the fairway and by the green.
I pulled by drive into the right hand rough but only had a wedge to the green. Started with a par on the 1st hole.
HOLE 2
The second hole is a great par 3 with an elevated green that is protected by bunkers in the on both sides. A very tricky green as you do not have any good bail out options. I hit a good 7 iron and made par. Great hole with wonderful views.
HOLE 3
The third hole is a great par 4. Stunning views of the sea from the elevated tee where you hit down towards the fairway. There are well placed bunkers up the right hand side of the fairway which needs to be avoided. We all hit great drives down the fairway. I missed the green to managed to make par anyway.
HOLE 4
The 4th hole is another par 4. The fairway slopes away to the right hand side so try and stay left to avoid going into the rough which I did. I had a decent lie in the rough and hit a great approach shot to setup my only birdie of the round.
HOLE 5
The 5th hole on Royal Dornoch has some amazing views as well as you can see from the video. It is a fairly short hole so you can get close to the green if you want. We had a forward pin position just over the bunker and I came to close to the green which left a difficult approach shot. Poor judgement from the tee and led to a bogey.
HOLE 6
The 6th hole is a well made par 3. Short but yet tricky. The bunkers are deep and must be avoided. The green is small with run off areas. I came up a little short but managed to save par.
HOLE 9
Royal Dornoch 9th hole is the first par 5 on the course. It runs along the sea and is just magnificent.
BACK NINE ON ROYAL DORNOCH
HOLE 13
The 13th hole is a par 3 playing 135m. A typical links style par 3 with plenty of bunkers protecting the green. A really good challenge for the short irons.
HOLE 16
The 16th is a long uphill par 4 with bunkers on the right hand side. This turned out to be my worst hole on the course with 2 penalties and a triply bogey.
HOLE 17
The 17th is a blind tee shot with a marker in the fairway. The hole is a dogleg right to left and pending on your length of tee shot you can decide how aggressive you want to be. There is more space in the fairway than I thought. A good challenging par 4.
HOLE 18
The finishing hole is a strong par 4 where the wind was against. A long par 4 to finalize the round.
MY EXPERIENCE
Royal Dornoch is a great test of golf and a true links course. We had perfect conditions and the course was in good shape.
The hospitality was great and everybody was very welcoming including the caddie master that gave good hints and advice before the round.
I shot 77 with a triple bogey which was good. The second round we played I shot 78, so overall a couple of decent rounds of golf on a wonderful Top 100 course.
MY SCORE
