Angus & Aberdeenshire – May 2019
A tale of the Scottish 'Summer', deep fried Marsbars, Auchentoshan Whisky, an Indian Restaurant and hustling The Donald.
‘Everything you need to know about golf architecture is in Scotland’ - Tom Doak, The Little Red Book of Golf Course Architecture (2017)
Long, long time ago, in a land far far away, the King of Adelaide had an upcoming birthday of significance, he yearned to celebrate with a trip to the home of golf, pegged onto the end of a work trip (if you’re a Qantas premium member, sure why not).
He searched high up and low down among his many, many friends, alas, none of them could commit to travelling with him. With this sad news he turned his attention to a kindred spirit, one that he had serendipitously met on a reciprocal fairway in the land of the little people (saints and scholars as well mind you). This competitive door mat was quick to commit, in a have clubs, will travel sort of way, besides I had never gowf’d in the home golf.
This whistle stop tour of Angus & Aberdeenshire would take place over the course of four days in the depths of what should have been the Scottish Summer (tbh, it was the end of May but felt like the middle of January!). In talking to the head green keeper at Murcar on the second day of our adventure, we were informed that the grass growing season had yet to start, so low were the ground temperatures!
Maybe 2019 was an anomaly, maybe not, further south may be wiser if you are after a temperature above 12C. In saying that these parts are pretty good from a golf perspective, so it may be prudent to pack a few more gilets, hats and snoods in the bag and get cracking. As the German’s say ‘there’s no such thing as cold weather….just not enough layers!’
Our ‘all-sorts’ of a tour would encompass a planned 5 course rota, this was extended to 5.5 with some surprise, last minute, silver tounged hustling by my travelling companion, who secured a great 9 hole rate with a ‘mike drop’ of a performance in a pro-shop ‘belonging to’ the 45th President of the United States.
The Aer Lingus flight from Dublin to ABN was uneventful save for the overriding whiff of jet fuel that percolated throughout the cabin, this provided an unhelpful flashback many years ago to a commuter flight, on a similar sort of aircraft, from Washington Dulles to New York La Guardia, where due to the violent turbulence I saw my life flash before my eyes.
The flight path took us up past Newcastle and Royal County Down before orientating on a northwesterly track over Ailsa Craig and Turnberry and onwards bound for the northeast coast of Scotland. Baggage and clubs retrieved, I was whisked off to my Holiday Inn accommodations by a non golfing taxi driver, more interested in talking about Munroe Bagging - that’s mountain climbing to the uninitiated.
The birthday boy was due to arrive the next day so I made a quick beeline for Royal Aberdeen to get myself acquainted with the course guide and to drink in the atmosphere. The vista that extends from the first tee is quite imposing, set as it is almost underneath a phalanx of wind turbines located in the North Sea, an ever changing array of oil platform support vessels and the almost constant whirring of helicopter blades as contractors and employees are ferried to and from the multitude of drilling platforms that are located between Aberdeen and Norway.
An early night was had as himself was due in on a red eye from LHR. Next morning with rental car in tow we were quickly motoring south to start the adventure at Montrose. Despite some road closures we eventually deciphered an alternative route enabling arrival in plenty of time to catch our allotted teetime at the 5th oldest golf course in the world.
Montrose GC - 1562 Course
A great starter to ease us into it. Montrose is everything you would imagine a Scottish links to represent, a community course with a number of separate clubs based in and around the adjoining roads, close to the first tee. That very traditional and welcome idyll of starting and finishing in the town added to our pleasure. There are two courses here at Montrose and we were to play the Harry Colt inspired option of the 1562 course.
The outward nine covers the more spectacular coastal terrain with particular mention going to the strong second, sixth and seventh.
The homeward nine plays back towards town, with the main characteristic being a lower profile inland topography with considered green sites set in gorse defined amphitheatres.
Unfortunately due to ongoing revisions to Montrose Port the dunes on the eastern boundary of the course are slowly disappearing into the North Sea, what man maketh, nature taketh away.
If you have ever had Montrose on a list of possible plays, I would suggest that you should take the plunge and quickly, before it is too late…. the end will surely certainly be nigh for the second tee box at the very least as it is quickly running out of useable real estate.
An interesting feature of golf and life in Scotland is people’s legal ‘right to roam’. This translates into a very egalitarian sharing of open spaces, this includes golf courses. Montrose is no different in this regard, where golfers interact regularly with dog walkers, runners and ramblers in a very natural and organic way.
It being Scotland, the etiquette exhibited by all comers is exemplary, we might gain a thing or two in sharing our own mud piles in a similar manner and in so doing break down a ‘them and us’ scenario as protagonists peer at each other through chain mesh fences….
Murcar - a 37 hole day and a portion of ‘lamb shanks’
Day 2 of the trip would see if AT’s notorious ‘thunder calves’ could manage a double header of 36 holes at the delightful Murcar. The club is situated on the adjoining property to Royal Aberdeen and one could be forgiven for ‘accidentally on purpose’ continuing in either direction in order to get the full coastal experience in the locker.
A social 18 as a sighter was to be the precursor to a serious matchplay session in the afternoon. Murcar represents as honest and welcoming a challenge and experience as you can find. The land may not quite meet all the highs afforded to its southern boundary, however, it is equally as enjoyable and of similar character to its near neighbour.
The opening 3 holes are crackers with the second a particular favourite presenting a plunging split level fairway and a greensite set into a notch in the dunes that pinches in making approach play difficult. Thereafter, the golfer is flung headlong through imposing valleys, with dune walls clad in marram and gorse.
The back nine is on higher ground with a good deal of topographical variety including the precipitous approach to the par 4 15th. Beware the popped second as this hole invariably plays into the wind, you’ll need plenty of stick to ensure success.
Ditches, blind drives and heroic carries are all in play so its useful to get a second go round to better appreciate how not to do it.
For those people that have read anything of my matches against my Italian looking, Australian sounding, Irish named compadre. This effort is the sledge that he keeps coming back to. Your correspondent was possibly 4 up at the turn in Murcar and coasting to an assured victory…our Australian friend is like a dog with a bone….verbals aplenty…he whittled the lead back to 1 up on 16…we halved 17 in par 3’s and headed to the 18th to settle this.
2 lamb shanks, by yours truely, later and we were heading for the 37th hole of the day. One would have thought that when AT found the bunker to the right of the fairway off the tee shot and I found the short stuff, that it would be advantage to me.
Squeeky bum time…yer man gets in with his 7 iron….you’ve guessed it….clean as a whistle and sailing towards the target, landing safely some 20 feet below the hole.
I tried to be a bit too fancy, got it on the green, but 3 jagged to his 2….victory to the Ozzies! He’d already had the temerity to beat me at home in Dublin some weeks previously, I was starting to feel like Rory McIlroy on a bad day (I didnt quite cry, but did have to pick up the dinner check again!).
Murcar is as friendly and honest a club as you will find and fits as the ideal companion to the Royal course next door. Go for the day rate…play a sighter and then play it again….play matchplay and do an impersonation of AT…. and stay away from the lamb….I hate lamb :).
Trump International Golf Links Scotland – back 9
On route to the St Olaf’s course my chauffeur took a very unexpected detour off the main road to Cruden and into the Balmeadie property of one Donald J.Trump. AT purposely strides into the proshop to inquire whether they were busy (there were two cars in the carpark and one of them was ours). The next question referred to a rate to play 18 holes, which was rebuffed as being too expensive. The silver tounged devil ended up negotiating a rate for 9 holes and to be honest I’m very glad he did.
I wanted to dislike the place for a number of reasons, however, despite the contrived appearance of the 10th hole with its strange green location, and doughnut style fairway, I really enjoyed the challenge that uses the natural contours to great effect in routing the seaward holes through the interconnecting valleys with sufficient variety provided by the upland/inland stretches.
The site that Martin Hawtree was presented with at the Menie Estate is jaw dropping. This stretch of dunes reaches northwards as far as Peterhead and Fraserburgh som 45km up the coast as the crow flies.
I would challenge the former Presidents assertion that the Balmeadie Dunes ‘are the greatest in the world’, he’s obviously not seen those even greater dunes on Ireland’s western Atlantic coast, however, setting aside the hyperbole and the hefty walk-in green fee rate, this Disneyland in the dunes deserves a crack, I would be surprised if you don’t come away with a big smile on your face.
Cruden Bay
If I’m honest, I didn’t really ‘get’ Cruden Bay, given the 9 hole pit stop encountered immediately prior, this may not be surprising. I would like to give it another go prior to formalising any lasting impression. The day in question had deteriorated somewhat, I believe the Scots would call it ‘dreich and dreary’. As a result many of the vistas were obscured by mist, drizzle, mizzle not to mention an Australian accented voice that kept banging on about ‘harr’, he was trying his best to fit in but couldn’t quite pull off the accent!
The course was initially developed in conjunction with the Cruden Bay Hotel (long since demolished). Initially laid out by Old Tom Morris of St. Andrews and was redesigned by Tom Simpson and Herbert Fowler in 1926.
Quirk abounds and I suspect the lack of definitive sight lines on some holes may puzzle some visitors.
I would imagine that had we not been stuck behind a tardy group of Americans (35 minutes is too long to play one hole) and the weather been a bit better not to mention the jarring effect that the warmup round, detailed above, we would have been raving about the place. The jury is out, I need another twirl around, so many that I admire cannot be wrong!
Royal Aberdeen - Balgownie Championship
‘Windswept and interesting’….
The Silverburn relief course proved a welcome warm up to the main event, if you have time and are waiting for the members’ Saturday competition to clear from the first tee you could do an awful lot worse than a spin around here.
The Balgownie is sublime, to my mind standing side by side with the front 9s at Royal County Down and Portstewart, most of the back nine at Tralee and all of St.Patrick’s Links, as some of the most epic golf you can experience.
It is true that the back nine is somewhat more sedate, then again it has its own character and unique interest on higher, slightly less roly poly real estate.
Holes of note include the par 3 8th with its phalanx of bunkers protecting this narrowly imposing target. The par 4 14th and the stern test that is the closing 18th , with its table top green perched under the imposing clubhouse.
Take some time to take a wander around the clubhouse to drink in the rich history that pervades throughout. This was the first trip outside of the Emerald Isle with AT and assuredly would not be the last…stay tuned for further adventures in golf.
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Best
Shane