[Thomas Dai]

Splendid post. Great photos. Very insightful.

Comments about Cruden Bay seem to forget many of the holes highlighting instead the terrific stretch from the 3rd to the 7th before commenting on the 'unorthodox' 14th followed by giving the 15th a good slagging off. Not this tour though, which is nice.

Here are just a couple of comments about some unsung holes and a hole that gets slagged -

The 'forgotten' short par-4 11th hole. Stand on the tee thinking yippee, it's birdie time. Walk off frustrated with a 5. Happens all the time. All the time.
The much slagged-off 15th hole - Next time folk play CB view this hole from the rear of the green looking back towards the tee. I'll say no more.
16th hole - Grassy not-to-deep hollows to the right and rear of the green. Nice subtle wee features.
18th hole - Back portion of the green slopes subtly downwards towards the rear.

Cruden Bay. Great course. Great scenery. Once played, never forgotten.

Great thread/tour Sean.

All the best.

[Tony_Muldoon]

I must admitt first time at Cruden Bay I was just a little underwhelmed, I'd expected that much.

This time I enjoyed it more.

On my first visit the 15th was unplayable for a player of my then skills (17 h'cap) as the dune's funnelled a wind that became a hurricane into your face. This time is was playable and without a stong wind, strangely unremarkable. To follow it with another largely blind par 3 is not ideal and I still prefer the 16th. 

Next time I'm in the area RA will be the must play.  RA is a cert to make my top 5 in Scotland.  I supose Cruden Bay gets into my top 10.


Anyone know what is the fate of the new Par 3 just beyond the course we palyed?  Looked like the centre bunker had been filled in?

[Greg Taylor]

Sean, once again thanks for taking the time to post your pics/thoughts.

I'm totally with you on the Cruden Bay / North Berwick comparison. They are both quirky links courses, never going to be open rota type calibre due to length, infrastructure etc... For me one debate to be had is Cruden Bay versus Nth Berwick - something to mull over in another threat perhaps.

Had Cruden Bay not got the two back-to-back par 3's I would probably give it the edge.

I played Royal Aberdeen in 40 mph wind, and the back nine into the wind was very tough. However I would put the second at Royal Aberdeen as the sort of hole that Trump's place aspires to be: ribbons of green fairways through dunes with penal pot bunkers. It is great great hole.

That all said somehow Royal Aberdeen had a little more presence to it. It was more a serious test. Prolly the pick of the bunch.

[Sean_A]

Spangles & Greg

My biggest issue with RA is all the holes on the front 9 where driver is not a viable option.  Downwind, it just seems the course is trying too hard to protect par.  Good test of golf though and very picturesque.  I still take CB over it.  Next time I want to travel up to Fraserburgh for a go.  Maybe see Panmure as well.  Add in CB and the Burnside and that sounds a delightful trip.

Ciao

[Thomas Dai]

There's was a nice thread comparing Muirfield and Royal St Georges recently.

Given that the Championship courses at Royal Aberdeen and Cruden Bay are often compared here's a similar exercise, but this time comparing separately the par-3's, the par-4's and the par-5's.

Par-3's
Royal Aberdeen has 4, the 3rd, 8th, 11th and 17th
Cruden Bay also has 4, the 4th, 11th, 15th and 16th
I suggest a composite courses par-3's would be the 3rd, 8th and 17th at RA plus the 4th from CB.

Par-5's
Royal Aberdeen has 3, the 2nd, the 6th and the 12th
Cruden Bay only has 2, the 6th and the 13th.
My composite would only have 2, both of them, the 6th and the 13th, would be from CB.

Par-4's
For the sake of comparison I'm turning the short-ish par-5 6th at Royal Aberdeen into a long par-4, thus both courses are par-70. Hence in this comparison both RA and CB have 12 each.
RA the 1st, 4th, cut down 6th, 9th, 14th, 16th and 18th
CB the 3rd, 5th, 7th, 17th and 18th
(the 3rd at CB is a bit of a floater hole here. I could have included several other notable holes from either course but I wanted to include a shortish par-4)

Summary of above
RA 10 holes
CB 8 holes
(close to being 11/7 split or possibly even 12/6)

No doubt they are two wonderful courses. Which would I choose to play? As a newbee visitor to the area with only one round to be played on either course to be ingrained in the memory forever? CB. An extremely challenging, even severe course, testing every aspect of your game in a medal round against your most hated opponent when you are playing well, your opponent isn't and your playing for serious £$£$? RA every time. A member of both living half way between them? RA 7 times, CB 2 times and the St Olaf 9-holer at CB once (actually the 6th and 8th holes on the St Olaf 9-holer at CB and the 17th on the Silverburn course at RA would probably make my overall 18 composite holes at both sites).

All the best

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