Re: Royal New Kent, VA
I live about twenty minutes from RNK, yet I have only played it once. Here are a couple of things you need two know:
1) Find any Mike Strantz course, and play it. Caledonia in Myrtle Beach is an absolute gem. You will never have more fun playing golf while avoiding very expensive greens fees.
2) Play RNK on a down time. Due to its difficulty/looks, some people take a vvveerrryyy long time to play. My round was 6 hours long.
3) It's tough, but beatable. If you can stay out of major trouble, you can score here. After a triple on the first, a double on 6, I limped into the halfway house with a 44. However, I drove the ball terribly and was regularly finding the fescue stuff. I hit 6 fairways on 7 greens on the back nine and shot a respectable 40 (triple on the last

). The point is, the reason why RNK is considered so tough is because of the trouble you can find. If your swing is good, it's a very fair course.
here are some pics i took of the course:
http://www.panoramio.com/user/1820796