Cruden Bay changes to 9th,10th &16th

[Brian_Ewen]

Love this pano of a chilly Cruden Bay from today.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/m_rowland/15824209998/

[ward peyronnin]

RU

I just caught a look at your pic of the ninth tee location

Is it for sale? Fabulous

[Ru Macdonald]

This laddie owns the copyright, you'll have to ask him..

Have you managed to get up to see the changes yourself?

[Brian_Ewen]

https://vimeo.com/125370080

[Thomas Dai]

https://vimeo.com/125370080

A touch of right-handed hook or left-handed slice into a strong right-to-left prevailing wind might make for an interesting second shot!

atb

[Bryan Izatt]

I got to play Cruden Bay the day before yesterday and took some photos of the finished work on 9, 10 and 15.


The additional walk up to the new tee on the 9th was not significantly worse than to the old tee.  The view to the north towards Slains Castle is as good as ever. 







I thought the hole played better overall because the tee is higher and the tee shot doesn't seem so uphill and blind.  The bunkers up the right side give some good aiming points for a draw although they are closer than they look.  The cliff to the left certainly encourages playing out to the right. 












The second shot seemed shorter to me that it was previously, which is good.  The green is further back and to the left providing a nice infinity look.  The green itself is consistent with the others on the course.














A look from over near the new 10th tee.

[Bryan Izatt]

The new 10th tee is off to the right of the 9th green and provides a totally different looking cape type of tee shot.  Aiming far left seems like a good idea in retrospect.  Trying to chew off too much of the right side turned out to be a bad idea.   







Looking back up to the tee you can see two men on the left where the new men's tee is and two women on the forward tee in the middle of the picture.  The old tee is near the old path on the far right of the picture.  My playing partner was having some difficulty with the burn.

[Bryan Izatt]

I was less enamored of the changes to the 16th.  The green surface is visible from the tee, especially from the far left of the tee. 












The front bank has been lowered and flattened - actually a little bit of a side to side valley.  I didn't care for the shaping at all.  It looked very artificial and not consistent with the property.  The area added to the front of the green is evident at the moment as it is a different shade of green and is of a different consistency than the existing green.  Perhaps with time the new fairway will firm up and blend in and provide a run in opportunity, but it still looks bland to me.  The old hole just had more quirk in keeping with the rest of the course.

[Thomas Dai]

Thanks for these photos Bryan.


Some question for all who may have been to CB recently.


Are the 'coffins' grass depressions to the right and rear of the 16th green still there and is the old 10th medal tee on the side of the hill now completely out of use? Also, are the ladies using the new 9th new teeing areas (I can't see any red blocks in the photos) or are they still playing from where they previously played from?


I wonder what the thoughts were in putting two bunkers to the left of the new 9th green? Players, usually either consciously or subconsciously, aim away from bunkers so are they deliberately trying to get players to play away from the cliff edge, especially with the usual right-to-left wind? Just curious.


atb

[Erik Mosley]

Was the fescue/rough removed from left of 10, short of the burn?  I can't 100% tell from the picture, but it looks like it may be mowed to fairway length all the way over to number 11.  If that's the case, it takes off some pressure from that tee shot - just aim left!

[Bryan Izatt]

Good questions.

The grass coffins to right and rear of the 16th are still there.

I didn't go down the old path to the 10th fairway, but I imagine the old tees are still there although I doubt they use them.  The women in the following group appear to have played the old 10th tee blocks rather than the new forward tees in front of the new men's tees.

I don't recall seeing new forward tees on the 9th but I may have just not noticed.

Not sure why two bunkers left of 9the green - maybe to save some shots from going over the cliff.

There is still rough to the left of 10th fairway.  Same mowing lines as before I think.

[Sean Ogle]

I've gotta say, I'm a bit disappointed to hear about the changes to the 16th. The mounding that causes the blind shot was one of the quirky aspects of Cruden that makes the course in my mind.


I could see how the change will probably make the tourist playing there for the first and only time a bit happier, but I think it takes away part of what was so much fun about that hole. Loved being able to only see the tip of the flagstick.

[John Sabino]

Bryan - Thanks for posting the pictures. I played the revised Cruden Bay two weeks ago and agree with your comments, thought the changes to 9 were overall very good, on both the tee shot and the approach. I also like the changes to 10 but thought the changes to 16 were not that thoughtful. John

[Michael Tamburrini]

Agree with most of what's been said.  The changes to 9 are really nice and it's a lovely hole now.  The 10th has benefited from the new tee,and it also helps that the fairway has been extended to the out of bounds on the right.


The 16th might be better in a year or two, once it's properly bedded in.  The grass being a different colour just now doesn't help.


My only real gripe with the course at the moment is the extension at the back of the 5th green.  What used to be a lovely run off area is now part of the green.  Does anyone know why?  Pitching back from there is the obvious shot (it's a very steep slope to putt up) so the only thing I can see it doing is encouraging people to chip off the green.


Oh and I always think they should use the new 19th rather than the current 11th.  I do like the 11th but it comes very  close to the 13th so it'd stop that bottleneck. It'd do away with the current walk from the 12th green to 13th tee, which seems misplaced at the moment.  It'd prevent all the par 3s on the back 9 running in the same direction.  And it'd mean more play of one of the neatest par 3s on the property.


(I appreciate I'm along in thinking that though)

[Sean_A]

Bryan


Thanks.  Its difficult for me to tell how the changes work in practice, but a new 9 and altered 10 always seemed to make sense.  As for 16, I am bitterly disappointed in the change to what was the best short hole on the course.  Maybe one day I will make it back to Cruden Bay and have a proper grumble 


Ciao

[Michael Goldstein]

Sean,


Grumbling without seeing the property.... This has got me into trouble recently with the changes at the Machrie[size=78%] [/size]

[Colin Shellard]

Bryan


Thanks.  Its difficult for me to tell how the changes work in practice, but a new 9 and altered 10 always seemed to make sense.  As for 16, I am bitterly disappointed in the change to what was the best short hole on the course.  Maybe one day I will make it back to Cruden Bay and have a proper grumble 


Ciao

Sean - I'm sorry to have to disagree, but I have never liked 16 as it was - to me it was quite a silly par 3 - with no logical way to play the hole due to the forward sloping mounding that threw the ball forwards short of the green. The explanation that this has just built up over time and was not original built as it had played make perfect sense to me. I think I also had a problem with, what was essentially, three blind greens in a row, so at least this has removed that.


I know that Tyler is playing here today on his Aberdeenshire jaunt so look forward to hearing his opinion on the new holes.


Colin