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NCG visits... Aberdeen
Royal Aberdeen, Cruden Bay and Murcar are a justifiably celebrated trio
IT really was one of
those mornings when all nature shouted "Fore!" The sun shone, the
clouds were high and the breeze was no more than a gentle zephyr.
We had driven north of the old granite city of
Aberdeen to take on Cruden Bay, quite simply one of the most joyously wonderful
links it is possible to find on this planet.
Once a grand hotel sat towering above the course, when
Cruden Bay was transformed by the Great North of Scotland railway company into
a palace among the sand dunes.
Titled dignitaries and the country's entrepreneurial
grandees would take the night train from London to arrive at what was known
before World War II as the Brighton of the north.
They would wine, dine, dance, play cards and golf. The
latter was a glorious Tom Morris creation that has since been extended and made
even more subtly devilish by Cambridge graduate
lawyer-turned-golf-course-designer Tom Simpson.
The hotel and the railway station are both long gone.
Now all that remains is the course and the ghosts that stalk its narrow
fairways as they snake their way down to the sea before climbing back again in
a figure of eight.
The course opened in April 1899 with a grand challenge
tournament with a first prize of £30, won by six-times Open champion Harry
Vardon, and today we can still play some of those same holes where the dashing
golfer from Jersey once triumphed.
Holes such as the second, Croch Dane, where Morris's
plateau green still stands and the tiny green on Whaupshank, the seventh, where
the target area looks no larger than a lady's handkerchief idly dropped between
two huge sandhills.
Then there is the ninth, Hawklaw, climbing to the high
point of the course, which has been chopped by 60 yards to its current 462 from
Morris's original. And next up is the most visually stunning of all, Scaurs,
named after menacing rocks which can be seen way down below on the coast. A
well-struck drive here soars with the great gods of golf.
Many golfers come back to Cruden Bay simply for one
more view from the 10th tee perched up on the cliff face, but there are many,
many more reasons to return and return we most definitely must.
But not on this trip for we head south again with the
ruins of Slains Castle, home to generations of the Earls of Erroll, behind us
and take on the next golfing challenge. And what a challenge it is - it seems
only right that it just missed being called Black Dog.
But Black Dog, a local village, is recalled as the
name of the 9th hole while Seaton, an even closer call resulting in a split
decision, is now recalled on the 6th. The name of the course is Murcar Links
and its members can get a little touchy if you omit the word 'Links'.
So Murcar Links it is, especially with an astonishing
20 per cent of the membership playing off five or better.
And this is certainly no course for the novice
especially when the wind blows, as it so often does.
Slick greens and tight, tight fairways can quite
simply devour a promising round.
The first two holes, Bothy and Pond, are almost
benign, lulling the unsuspecting first-time visitor into a horrible sense of
false security.
It is like going to buy a kitten and having examined the first two
fluffy bundles of joy you are introduced to a large Bengal tiger with just a
touch of toothache.
Welcome to Ice House, Murcar Links' handsome but extremely menacing
par four third. And there is no let up, anywhere. From here on in it is just
you and the tiger.
Archie Simpson, head professional at adjoining Royal Aberdeen, shinned
over the boundary fence to lay out Murcar Links in 1909 and it is Simpson's
alma mater to which we must next pay our respects and gratitude.
Kent has Princes,Royal St George's and Royal Cinque Ports - as splendid a trio of golfingneighbours to be found anywhere - but for me the Aberdeenshire triumvirate ofCruden Bay,...
Royal Aberdeen is a phenomenon. Part Turnberry, part Royal Cinque
Ports, part Prestwick steeped in centuries of rich and deeply engrained golfing
history.
This is links golf at it very pinnacle. Exacting, thoughtful but
scrupulously fair set among rolling dunes, yellow gorse and the grey, green
North Sea.
It is hard to imagine this course being designed for it just appears
to have been there, ready to play forever.
The Aberdeen golf club was founded shortly before the Battle of
Waterloo in 1815 although a club has existed since 1780.
It moved to its present venue at Balgownie in 1886 as cricket and
football was cutting up the publicly owned links.
Prince Leopold, the fourth son of Queen Victoria who died, tragically
young, of haemophilia as a 31-year-old was the royal who first golfed at
Balgownie, although it was not until 1903 that royal status was finally
awarded.
The sea mist was swirling when we played and a chill breeze blew
through the front nine. The occasional shape of a golfer was just recognisable
ahead as we tried to avoid the precipitous traps waiting to snare anything
offline and keep in play.
You must build your score before you get to the turn at then battle
the prevailing wind.
We could have been back in 1903, swaddled in warm clothing, scuttling
balls into raised greens that fell away into ever more sand.
Coming home,
anything over 340 yards meant two full wood shots and unalloyed panic as the
second shot veered towards another sandy cavern.
We shook hands on 18 beneath the old clubhouse windows knowing that we
had achieved something. It was time for a drink, and then another one.
Time to look back on three rounds on three timelessly classical
courses. Perfect golf. Good health and prosperity to them all!
Factfile
Steve Killick was a guest of Visit Scotland, flying Flybe to Aberdeen
from Gatwick. He stayed at the Marcliffe Hotel and Spa in Pitfodels, Aberdeen.
For more information, visit www.visitscotland.com/perfectgolf, www.Flybe.com
and www.marcliffe.com
For more information on Cruden Bay, visit www.crudenbaygolfclub.co.uk
or call 01779 812 285, on Murcar Links visit www.murcarlinks.com or call 01224
704 354 and on Royal Aberdeen visit www.royalaberdeengolf.com or call 01224 702
571
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