Scotland on my Mind by Dan King Friday, July 5th Murcar Golf Club Tel:0224 704345 Gents: Par-69 5,809 yards SSS-69 Ladies: Par-72 5,534 yards SSS-73 Medal: Par-71 6,241 yards SSS-71 Rate: L25.00

On Friday we couldn't play Cruden Bay. It was closed all day for a ladies tournament. So off we went to find another course. Murcar lays alongside Royal Aberdeen Golf Club in the sandhills just north of the city of Aberdeen. It sounded like as good a place as any to break up our trip to Cruden Bay.

Murcar is one of the newer links courses of Scotland. It was laid out in 1909 by Archie Simpson. After World War I, James Braid and George Smith made moderate modifications to the course, but todays course isn't terribly different than the one in 1909. While it is short at 5,809 yards, it can play much longer with the wind direction coming into play. The routing appears to be a fairly simple out and back along the sand dunes. However, there is just enough variation so that wind direction must be considered at all times. On the day we played, we figured the wind seemed to change direction constantly.

While the course has a large number of short par-4s, there is always enough on the hole to remain interesting. This is not, try to drive the green, chip close and make your birdie putt, short par-4s. Stray a little with your tee-shot and there is amble opportunity to get in trouble. Murcar is advertised as the only Scottish Links course with 150 yard markers in the fairway. I thought this would bother me after playing by feel for some time, but I ended up ignoring them after a while. The greens at Murcar were some of the truest and quickest I had played in Scotland. All in all, a fun course, but not a great course.

Some of my favorite holes on Murcar:

Hole#5 Par-3 152 yards

A tee shot to a slightly elevated green, the putting surface sits in a hollow tucked between sand dunes. It would see a tee shot up the right, would feed off the sand dune onto the green. However, two deep bunkers prevent you from pulling off this maneuver. Miss left, and you'll slide down the sand dune, further and further away and below the putting surface.

Hole#11 Par-4 312 yards

A blind tee shot, you only aim for an aiming pin in the middle of the fairway. There is much more room to the left than you assume, with the gorse field down the left ending around 150 yards from the tee. The second shot is down hill to a very small green. The green slopes away from you, back down to even more slope. A bump and run will have great difficulty staying on this putting surface. Best to try and come in with a lofted, soft shot.

Hole#13 Par-4 365 yards

The sister hole of number#11. They run parallel to each other. Once again, the tee shot is blind to the aiming point far above you. Your choice is to hit a tee shot to the top of the hill, and not beyond, 226 yards away, or to bust a drive and hope it gets over the hill to the fairway, far beyond. A drive that stays on the hill will be in rough and difficult to get to the green. 4 bunkers surround the green, but there is some yardage between the bunkers and the green, making them only see valuable for aiming.

Hole#15 Par-4 332 yards

From a tee elevated 40 feet above the fairway, you hit down to the fairway, in a gully below. There is a right and left fairway bunker, and anywhere between the two of them should leave a decent approach. The approach is to a raised green with a burn running in front of the green. The green is a good 30 feet above the level of the fairway, so extra club is a good idea. Don't hit the shot far enough, the burn waits for those shots. The green is very small and well protected by 5 bunkers on all sides.

Talk to you tomorrow.

Dan King

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