Cruden Bay (St. Olaf)

I’d like to think that we did everything in the right order when we visited Cruden Bay in May 2015 and would recommend any first-time visitor to follow the same path we trod.

Arriving at The Club on the evening before the day we were scheduled to play we enjoyed a moment in what can only be described as a clubhouse with a view. The 180-plus degree panorama from this high vantage point is mesmerising; rollicking dunes, gorse-lined fairways, humpy-bumpy linksland, the tops of flags and the glistening North Sea can all be seen below you.

We then enjoyed a quick loop of the excellent nine-hole St. Olaf; 2,463 yards of pure delight. This is a smaller scale course that boasts a set of par threes, four of them all told, that most courses would be envious of. The seventh and ninth are simply outstanding, as is the par-four sixth which plays over a saddle in a dune before it turns sharply left to a green situated on a long shelf atop a large sandhill. From the St. Olaf you also glean glimpses of the championship course; drop-offs here, rumbling fairways there and green locations that are simply to die for.

Both of these decisions whetted our appetite for tackling the main course the following day. The anticipation was incredible.

Read the review of Cruden Bay (Championship) here.