The Championship Course at Royal Dornoch is a picturesque venue north of Inverness, and one that is constantly near the top of the NCG Top 100s: Scotland list.
It is also a golf course that has been copied around the world, thanks to some of the incredible features that Donald Ross implemented when he made changes to the layout a century ago.
For any golfer visiting the Scottish Highlands, a trip to Royal Dornoch is an absolute must – and you can also play 36 holes thanks to the venue’s Struie Course as well!
RELATED – Check out the NCG Top 100s: Scotland list
Why does Royal Dornoch’s Championship Course earn a spot on the NCG Top 100s: Scotland list?
Situated between the hills of Sutherland and the coastline of the North Sea, the Championship Course at Royal Dornoch winds its way around the bay.
It is one of the finest venues in the Scottish Highlands, and arguably the best venue in the United Kingdom to have never hosted the Open Championship.
The greens and surrounding areas at the Championship Course’s defence, with upturned saucers, pot bunkers and plenty of gorse around to make finding the putting surface even more key here than at other venues.
RELATED – NCG Top 100s: Royal Dornoch (Championship)
What do our experts think about Royal Dornoch’s Championship Course?
Dan Murphy, chairman of the NCG Top 100s Rankings, explained why people want to make the long journey to the Scottish Highlands…
“Dornoch starts very quietly, but if you say that the golf course starts properly with the 3rd – which is very unfair to the 2nd – but it is the reveal isn’t it when you stand on the 3rd tee and see everything below. It is a golf course that every golfer wants to go and play, and now I think people are getting why,” Murphy said on the NCG Top 100s Podcast.
“It is those upturned saucer greens, those proper little pot bunkers that surround holes like the short 6th. It’s got those changes in elevation, very similar to Cruden Bay in that respect, there is a climb to a hole at the top which gives you a great view, and then you get the fun of coming back down again and then you’re by the sea for a long time.
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“It doesn’t finish well in all truth but again because of its eccentricities and that, it isn’t playing by the rules. The whole thing together just makes you feel all warm and romantic, doesn’t it?”
“It is hard to know where to start. There are so many themes you can pick up,” Tom Irwin, co-host of the NCG Golf Podcast and the NCG Top 100s Podcast, continued on.
“My personal experience of it; I think it was the first ‘Royal’ golf course that I went to. I think it was the first golf course that I went to that was of that kind of stature.
“I have that feeling of ‘Wow’ about it that never leave you, because it was the first time experiencing something that is so dramatic and on that scale. The ‘Royal’ thing is interesting because you might think that you have to get your suit and tie on and it will be stuffy, but what we’ve found is the complete opposite of that.
“It is a clubhouse that is the centre of the town, with people dropping in and out, wearing what they want and with a very convivial atmosphere. That’s brilliant, going to that sort of venue for the first time, was refreshing.
“The golf course, is an architectural epicentre. You can see holes at Dornoch that [Donald] Ross has tried to transplant elsewhere. 17 at Seminole is basically a carbon copy of 6 at Royal Dornoch. A tiny little par 3 with a ridiculously long and narrow green, that has pot bunkers on either side and a table-top green. It is not up against a massive dune, but it is the same sort of thing.
“People have tried to replicate ‘Foxy’ [the 14th] a million times around the world. All of these things emanate from somewhere, and a lot of them emanate from these classic Scottish courses, and are now being reproduced on a grand scale at American private clubs and American resorts.
“It is a weird thing to experience and think that you have seen it somewhere before. We filmed there with a 10th-generation Dornoch-er, Alan Grant. He looks a bit like Billy Connolly, and he tells these amazing stories about the linksland and how it links the farmland to the sea in a very poetic way. There is something poetic about the whole thing, the way the golf course wraps around the half moon bay, the statue of Sutherland in the distance. You have to go and see it really.”
“A favourite of mine, that often doesn’t get talked about, is 5, the short par 4,” Murphy mentioned.
“It is 350 yards from a slightly elevated tee and the green is up in the air and with bunkers in front of it. The whole thing is determined by where the pin is and where the wind is.
“You can, essentially, the tee shot is your choice, but then depending on what is going on, you might decide to try and get it up near the green but you might not be able to control your shot from there, so you think about playing further back.
“It is pure strategy and then pure skill of execution of your second shot, and it is a hole where a 20 handicap can make a birdie, and a scratch golfer can drive it near the green and leave themselves with a shot they can’t really do, walking off with a 5.
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“We talked earlier about holes that are both playable and testing, and that is one that fits the brief.”
On a final note about Royal Dornoch, Irwin mentioned about a trip to the Highlands earlier this year, where he could not believe how nice the greens were for so early in the season…
“It is also worth touching on the conditioning at Dornoch. We spoke to the greens team when we were there in April, and the greens were incredible.
“Everywhere else we had gone, the greens were as you would expect in early season. We asked the greens staff what they did, and they just said they didn’t do anything. They let the natural fescues do their thing, and they were so puttable. The greens at Dornoch are something that is not talked about enough.
“The whole thing happens around the greens, where breaking 80 is manageable, but breaking 70 is a different matter altogether. It is brilliant!”
Listen to the NCG Top 100s Podcast
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Now have your say
Have you been fortunate enough to play the Championship Course at Royal Dornoch? What did you make of it? Let us know your thoughts with a post on X, formerly Twitter!
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