|
Scotland on my Mind by Dan King
Thursday June 20th and Friday June 21th
Cruden Bay Golf Club |
This is heaven. If anyone had ever asked me before what was the most fun golf course I ever played, it would have been the Valley Club of Montecito, an old Alister MacKenzie course near Santa Barbara. The members there have made a real effort to stay with MacKenzie's original design. The Valley Club is now second place. I could play Cruden Bay every day for the rest of my life and be incredibly happy. As it was, we did manage to get 72 holes in for the two days we were here. Today I wanted to go out and play a few more holes after our 36, but it was too darn warm in the clubhouse to get out of my chair. I may come back here during my free weeks later in my trip. My caddie on the first day, Stuart, said to come on back and we'd play a game. The caddies here aren't really caddies, but just members picking up a few quid. A short relief course, called St. Olafs, is in the middle of the big course. I've been told this course is also tremendous fun with 4 par-4s and 5 par-3s.
Fun doesn't necessarily equal great. I think of them as two different things. A great course like Pebble Beach has history and outstanding holes. There are plenty of holes on Cruden Bay that you would not call outstanding. They are not what you would call a great test of golf. A fun course has a series of holes that brings a smile to your face. Every hole on Cruden Bay is fun. I was smiling the whole time around.
The weather did turn bad on us. It was cold and windy both days. The wind was a fairly constant 25-30 mph with gusts much higher, especially up on the hill. Coming up the 18th fairway on Thursday, a hard rain fell and the temperature dropped a good 10 degrees almost immediately. But it came and then went within minutes. We all had our goretex and warm weather gear so none of us felt much of the cold. Besides how cold can it be when you're having the good time we were having.
This evening after our round, my mates and I discussed what made Cruden Bay our favorite so far. Each hole on the course was mentioned for some aspect or another. What I think made it fun was the variety. Not many courses have holes such as drivable par-4s of 258 and 225 as well as a blind par-3 of 239. It has Par-4s of 462, 428 and 416 to go along with the short par-4s. No two holes even come close to resembling each other. Even with that, the course just fits together well, and is not just a collection of holes.
It's also fascinating how the designation of par can change how we feel about a hole. A 258 yard hole will always be a 258 yard hole. Designate it a par-3, and we will be disappointed in making a bogie-four and just satisfied with our par-3. Make it a par-4 and now we are very happy making a birdie-3 and satisfied with our par-4. The hole itself didn't change, just the numbers on the card. I personally try to set my own par, taking into account weather conditions. Going into 17 at Cruden Bay, from the tee I decided it was not a par-4. Make a 5, I'll be happy. It let me play the hole differently, working to set myself up for the third shot approach.
The routing of the course is wonderful. It's just a fairly simple figure eight design, but you don't realize it as you play it. You have to think back on your round to realize how the routing worked out that way. As Tom Doak says, if there was no golf course there, the route it takes would be the same one you'd take if you were out exploring the dunes. There is a forced walk between the 8th green and the 9th tee, something I normally would hate. It's a hike of some 500 yards climbing up about 80 feet above the 8th. It works here, perhaps because you know the view you will get is going to make it worth it. You're only on top of this hill for the ninth hole and the tenth tee, but take away this long hike, and the course would suffer.
The course was laid out by Tom Simpson and Herbert Fowler during the 1920s, after the war. The eccentric Tom Simpson is becoming one of my favorite architects. We don't hear much about him in the states, since he was busy in the British Isles most of his career. He hated to go anywhere he couldn't get to in his silver chauffeur driven Rolls-Royce. He understood maintaining the naturalness of the terrain. Another feature you find in his courses is the element of luck. Too often modern architects strive for fairness in course design. I like the strange bounces you can get on a course like Cruden Bay. Add the blindness of many of the shots with the luck factor, and we are talking fun. Walking over a hill to see if your ball bounced the way you hope adds to the delight. One of us would hit a poor shot, the other pure it right were they wanted. When you finally were able to see the green, there was still no way to be sure who owned which ball.
As I mentioned, our caddies were members there also. They knew the course, and came into the clubhouse to have a pint or two with us after the rounds. 3 of the 4 caddies were with us during both rounds we used caddies. The fourth would have been, but he was in a match about an hour behind us. It wasn't un-common for the caddies to try out our clubs and show us shots by actually making the shot. My caddie didn't get that chance since he was right handed and I'm a lefty. However, I still had him putt out for me on 18 with my left handed putter. He three putted, so I was able to tell him it isn't as easy as it looks playing left handed. Perhaps now he understood better why I didn't make all those putts he lined up so well for me.
There building a new modern clubhouse at Cruden Bay. It's costing them L1.5 million. They got the money from selling off part of the land. There were pictures of it in the Clubhouse. It's modern looking which I think will take away some of the charm of the place. It should be open next year. The back of the clubhouse will be a wall of windows that will over-look the course down below.
It costs the members L260.00 for unlimited play a year. What a deal! Makes one think how much money do you really need to survive? Could tending bar at Cruden Bay give me enough money to keep my humidor stocked and food on the table? I could buy a flat in town for L40k and be happy for the rest of my life.
Favorite holes on the course: It would be easy enough to justify putting all 18 holes here, but I'll try to keep it down to the ones I think of as extra special.
Hole#2 339 yard Par-4 (Crochdane)
I don't believe my mates like this hole as much as I did. A slip of a fairway, no more than 15 yards wide is the ideal landing area. Left of that is a hill full of bent grass rough and gorse. A little right of the ideal portion of the fairway, and the tee shot quickly rolls down to a valley below. From the valley below the shot is much tougher, needing to get up to a table top green. From the ideal fairway area it's a simple chip, from down below a good pitch to a very small green. Miss your approach short, right or long and you will roll quite a ways away from the green.
Hole#3 286 yard Par-4 (Claypits)
From the tee, the shot is blind. It looks like the aiming point is between the large sand dune on the right and a long hillock on the left. Hit directly in this direction, toward the green, and you won't make the green. Hit a little left, over the right portion of the hillock and you have a good chance of bouncing the ball on to the green. Other shots gather in a swale just short of the green that leaves a difficult chip. We each had an eagle putt at least once during the four rounds, but only Dick Gunderson made his.
Hole#5 454 yard Par-4 (The Buck)
This was played into a strong right to left wind all four times we played it. The tee shot is elevated some 40 feet up. The best landing area is right of center, which is difficult to do in the cross wind. It's tough to reach this gradual dog leg left in two. A very nasty little pot bunker, which is invisible from the fairway, waits to catch any shots short of a left pin placement.
Hole#8 258 yard Par-4 (Ardendraught)
A very accessible par-4, with the green sitting in a valley between two very large sand dunes. The green is slightly raised, but running shots up happened more often than not. Plenty of eagle opportunities, but none of them made in our group. If you were to play this as an easy par-4 you could probably play it wedge, wedge, but who would want to do that when the opportunities for a 2 is there. Many shots end up on the dune from golfers trying to get a little extra out of their club to reach the green.
Hole#13 550 yard Par-5 (Bents)
We played this into a strong wind all the times we played it. I hit driver, driver, driver, sand wedge and made the putt for my lone par on the hole. The best drive is down the ride side, close to the dunes. Second shot is best toward the 11th green on the left. Plenty of bale room left of the green, but miss right and you'll roll down off the plateued green leaving a blind pitch. The green is large and runs at a 45 degree angle from front left to back right.
Hole#14 397 yard Par-4 (Whins)
Not something you see very often. A blind tee shot followed by a blind approach. The tee is toward the beach on the right, with the fairway running from left to right, sand dunes hiding it from view. Two bunkers on the left side of the fairway help in aiming. An uphill second shot is only aided by an aiming stake in the middle of the fairway. After the stake, the hole drops quickly into the green sitting in a bowl. Lots of room for error, with any thing close to the green bounding down to it. But miss, and the chip will be tough to guess the speed going down to the green.
Hole#15 239 yard Par-3 (Blin' Dunt)
A completely blind par-3. The line of play is actually well left of what the terrain leads you to believe. There is a marker pole telling you the correct route. The yardage book says to hit one more club than you think. That would be tough for me to do, since I was hitting driver into the strong wind.
Hole#17 428 yard par-4 (Bilin' Wallie)
A very tough par-4 into the wind, made tougher with two large sand dunes in the middle of the fairway in the usual landing area. End up behind the dunes and there is no way to hit something lofted enough to clear the dunes and reach the green. Rumor is that left of the dunes is best, but I wouldn't know, having ended up behind or right of the dunes. I played it as a par-5 every time I played it and managed to make a 5. From the left you can run the shot up the green.
Talk to you tomorrow.
Dan King
Back to Scotland on my Mind Home Page