Cruden bay golf club - 18 POINTS

Just thirty minutes drive north of Aberdeen lies Cruden Bay. 

The course has a pretty impressive lineage. Old Tom Morris and Archie Simpson laid the course out in 1899 before Tom Simpson and Herbert Fowler redeveloped it in 1926. There is no definitive account telling us exactly what work was carried out by whom in the course we see today. We know that around ten of the original greens were kept and much of the routing but there were significant changes too.

There has been some tinkering since - most noticeably when Tom Mackenzie moved the 10th and 11th tees in 2014 - but the course still plays true to its roots. 

Tom Doak uses Cruden Bay as an example of a routing that a walker would follow by just wandering the property - i.e. it has a very natural flow to it. The course isn’t impervious to criticism - 9 and 10 are definitely more average holes - but the layout in totality works very well.

The welcome I got in the club itself was warm. I was there on a June afternoon and the place was busy with golfers young and old, literally from eight years old to eighty. The pro shop staff were very helpful and gave me a few pointers before sending me on my way.

I won’t attempt to describe every hole on the course, but here are few of my highlights, and hopefully you’ll get a flavour of why I enjoyed the course so much.

The first couple of holes are really just designed to get you out on the course. The first is a fairly nondescript 400 yard+ par 4 followed by a fun, short par 4 second hole with a big climb up to the green. 

So far, so good. But it’s at the third that you start to see you are in for something special. In fact, I would say that the stretch from the third to the seventh is about as good as anything you will find in Scotland.

The third is a short par 4 - driveable if the conditions are right - up a slope to a fairway that cascades down, over humps and hollows to a green nestled down in front of a river. With the fishing village of Port Erroll behind this is an idyllic setting.

You will then be faced with a thrilling par 3. The 4th hole is 196 yards from the back and you need to get it over a chasm - with the river left and dunes right - in order to find the putting surface. Into the wind this will be everything most mid handicappers have in the bag. It really is an exhilarating hole.

The sixth is 517 yards par 5 from the white tees, if you get the ball in play, you will have a decision to make for your second shot. There is a burn cutting in front of the green which requires a lot of thought before you decide whether or not to try to get up in two. I, however, was struggling to get waterproofs on at the time and didn’t look at the strokesaver so ignorantly laid up directly into the burn!

I loved the seventh hole. It’s a dog leg to the left but you really are rewarded for as getting far down the fairway from the tee as you can. You want to be hitting as short a club as you can for your approach up the steep fairway cut into the dunes. It reminded me in some way of the approach to the second at Gullane 1. It’s not a fancy hole, but a really memorable one. Sometimes you don’t need tricks and gimmicks to make a hole stand out!

I really should have done some research again ahead of my tee shot on the eighth. Or just looked at the scorecard maybe? It was a 250 yard hole to a perched green. I flayed my drive to the right, never to be seen again. I had assumed the hole was a par 3 but in fact it was a short par 4. Would my decision from the tee have been different had I realised this at the time? Maybe, maybe not. There is definitely something about the psychological impact of par. 

There is then quite a hike up to the 9th tee, but the views you get back over the holes you have played, and the closing stretch to the north are magnificent. I defy any first time player not to take out their camera and start clicking away!

While the next couple of holes didn’t really do much for me, a little breather was no bad thing! The par 3 11th, with a steep bank and stream short, is another good par three but it’s the 13th which really gets the pulse racing again.

13 is a long par 5 and there’s lots to like on this hole. Winding across the fairway towards the end of the landing zone lies one of the most unusual burns you will find on a Scottish links course. It snakes back and forth on itself and longer hitters will need to think carefully before hitting a driver, especially if the wind is behind. From there it’s all about positioning as you play up the hill. Stick to the left hand side and you will get a view of the green, to the right and you will be hitting a blind shot over a large mound.

The 14th is a hole to be savoured. The tee shot is a tough one as the fairway is semi-blind and the marker takes you to the left hand side of the fairway. Go too far left though and you will find sand or rough. Too far right and you bring the dunes and the beach into play. Your second shot is over a mound to a sunken bathtub green. You can run one onto this rectangular green from the front or play off either of the sides. Having the group in front of you standing on the next tee a few paces away just adds to the pressure!

The 15th is a polarising hole - in fact it was nearly axed from the course a few years ago! Thank goodness it wasn’t though as it is an essential part of what makes this course so special.

It’s hard to know what to do from the tee on first play on this blind, long 195 yard par 3. Pay attention to the diagram of the green on the tee - there will be a tee peg showing where the pin is placed that day. If you are planning to hit it over the dune you need to make sure you get the ball high enough to clear it, I bailed out a little to the right instead. It’s not a bad place to be as there were no hazards down there and it was one of the more straightforward greens on the course.

There’s another par 3 in the dunes at the 16th (I would direct anyone wondering about the sense of having back to back par 3s so late in the round to the Monterey Peninsula). There is a view that the last two holes are rather a let down but I’m not too worried about that. They are strong holes, both par 4s over 400 yards, and you have to keep your wits about you still. 

The 17th has a large mound running down the middle of the hole which means you need to make a decision on the tee about which side to pick. Keeping it to the left hand side on 18 is a sensible idea as the green sits perched on a slope, but too far left and you will be risking ending up in gorse or a bunker.

I thoroughly enjoyed Cruden Bay. Set in dunes of a scale you rarely see in Scotland and full of quirk, in many ways it reminded me of Lahinch. 

Many hold it in as high esteem as the greats of Prestwick and North Berwick. It shares many of the characteristics of those courses - there are holes which probably wouldn’t be built today such is their eccentricity. Every hole rewards imagination and skill over brute force. And the sum of the parts is even greater than those individual elements. To visit the North East and not to play Cruden Bay would be a travesty - this is golf of the very highest calibre.

BOOKING THE COURSE

Compared to the £400+ charged by near-neighbour Trump, the green fee at Cruden Bay is pretty fair! It ranges from £75 in the winter (playing off mats) to £180 on a summer weekend. You can play 36 holes on a summer weekday for £220 which is worth considering. They also run various fourball deals at different times so it’s worth looking at their website and social channels for what’s available at any time.

They say on their site that ‘We don’t offer an online booking system as we firmly believe it is important to strike up a relationship with our visiting golfers’, Hmm, to be honest I find that a bit of a pain when planning a trip and wanting to piece together various different courses and times. They are very responsive though when you contact them on +44 (1779) 812285 or email elaine@crudenbaygolfclub.co.uk.

Prices correct as of July 2023.

TOUR TIPS

Cruden Bay is about 30 minutes north of Aberdeen and most visitors will stay in the city centre and using a car to get out and about. Aberdeen is dominated by the oil industry and students so there are plenty of diversions to find there.

However, if you would like to stay close to the course I would encourage you to have a look at The Dunes self catering accommodation at Cruden Bay. Owned by Scottish Golf Podcast host Ru Macdonald this really is perfect for golfers who want to roll out of bed onto the tee!

In Aberdeen itself, you will get the normal Premier Inn/Travelodge options but I would recommend the Sandman hotel if you can get a good price. It is a recent renovation and the quality of the beds, room and general service was really good. Prices will depend on how many business people are in town at any time but it’s worth checking out as there are good deals to be had. Here you are close to a plethora of good restaurants, pubs and clubs and on the right side of the city for getting to the golf courses which mostly lie to the north.

When it comes to golf there are two top-drawer options to consider. Trump Aberdeen is a modern interpretation of a links course, on a grand scale and it is a stern test. It’s close to Cruden Bay and would make for a pretty intense 36 hole day!

Closer to Aberdeen itself is Royal Aberdeen (ranked 75th in the world). This is old-school Scottish golf. A formidable links that has hosted both the Walker Cup and Scottish Open.

Next door to Royal Aberdeen is Murcar. While not quite in the same league as the other three courses it is a very good links course (top 50 in Scotland). If you are looking for a slightly cheaper round to add to your itinerary you may consider heading just south of Aberdeen to Stonehaven which is a good value course.

Aberdeen may seem a long way from anywhere but if you are based in the south of England, or flying in internationally, there are regular flights, so for many it will be just as easy to as getting to Edinburgh or Glasgow. If you are looking for a longer trip then it’s a just a couple of hours drive up to Inverness where the delights of Castle Stuart, Royal Dornoch and many others lie - make sure you stop off at Moray on the way!

CONTACT DETAILS

Cruden Bay Golf Club,
Aulton Rd,
Cruden Bay,
Peterhead AB42 0NN

Web - crudenbaygolfclub.co.uk
Phone - +44 (1779) 812285
Email - elaine@crudenbaygolfclub.co.uk 

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