Cruden Bay is not only one of the most beautiful courses we have ever laid eyes on, it is also one of the most underrated, boasting the best stretch of holes you will play on your Scotland golf vacation.
Be prepared for a jaw-dropping sight from the parking lot as you gaze at the links below. There, in all its tumultuous splendor, lies one of the most awe-inspiring stretches of linksland in the British Isles.
Against a backdrop of gray-blue waters of the North Sea, the sand hills climb more than 50 feet, their shaggy slopes covered with the long grasses that swallow errant shots.
This is heroic ground, to be sure, and early on is a sequence of four magical holes, the 4th through the 7th, that are unforgettable.
It starts with a 193-yard, par-3 that points straight toward the sea. From an elevated tee carved out of one imposing sand hill, the hole leaps across a deep swale to an elevated green carved out of the facing dune. Sometimes, it takes a driver to reach it.
Next is a 454-yard, par-4 where your drive from high in the dunes floats down to the valley floor and a large but amorphous green waiting in a hollow.
The 6th is a true three-shot hole, a 524-yard dogleg left with a boldly undulating, plateau green defended by Bluidy Burn, a cavernous pot bunker and a massive dune.
On the 390-yard 7th, called “Waupshank,” a blind drive is followed by a 90-degree left turn and a mid-iron shot steeply uphill to a green complex fronted by a pair of sentinel sand hills.
If you think the course’s holes sound as whimsical and idiosyncratic as Lahinch’s in Ireland, you’re right. They are equally fun to play, to be sure, but a bit longer, tougher and a heck of a lot more majestic.
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