[Anthony Gray]

  Cindy Crawford has a mole,Rihanna has red hair and the Mona Lisa is a man. So what about Cruden Bay?

  3- I would give more of a fiarway on the right. The wispy stuff is too penal and from the right the blind shot is pretty neat.

  7- Shave left of the green and give it a half punch bowl look.

  9- Move the hole left to the side of the cliff. The view is incredible from there and the cliff is a good lateral hazzard.

  13- Put the medal tee box above the beach. Take advantage of the view and keep balls away from preceding holes.

  14- Again move the medal tee box above the beach making more of a dog leg/cape hole.

    Anthony

[Melvyn Morrow]

Anthony

Have you played Cruden with Hickory, as it was originally designed for and if so would you still make the same comments?

Melvyn

[Anthony Gray]

Anthony

Have you played Cruden with Hickory, as it was originally designed for and if so would you still make the same comments?

Melvyn

  My clubs feel like hickory. These are all minor and take advantage of the beauty of the place. No 3's right approach my be one of the coolest shots in all of golf. I would like to see the oppertunity to come in from that angle. Left is OB.

  Anthony

[Lloyd_Cole]

When we were last there it was wet and the rough was unplayable. Really not fun. Given that several key drives involve carrying or skirting the stuff I'd say this should be addressed. I'm not talking about the fringe deep stuff. I'm talking old US Open nonsense just off the fairway.
Neither Huggan nor I were in any hurry to return after that round. Clayton, or course, was never in the rough.

[Ben Stephens]

Anthony,

I have not played Cruden Bay - I have heard all about it from a close friend. Also Frank Pont's new extra par 3 hole green at the southern part of the course is orientated from south to north with the idea of potentially having a new hole along the bay from south to north.

My friend thought that the course was awesome and great fun to play on at the beginning, he said that the closing holes were a but of a dampener to the opening holes.

A suggestion is to have 2 new holes south of the extra par 3 hole, eliminate the 15th or use it as a temporary hole and make 16th longer into a long par 3 or a short par 4. I would make the existing 17th longer turning it into the new 18th hole risk reward par 5 finish and use the existing 18th as part of a refigured St Olaf course.

This would strengthen the finish the downside from a purists point of view is the loss of the blind par 3 15th.

Cheers
Ben

[Anthony Gray]

Anthony,

I have not played Cruden Bay - I have heard all about it from a close friend. Also Frank Pont's new extra par 3 hole green at the southern part of the course is orientated from south to north with the idea of potentially having a new hole along the bay from south to north.

My friend thought that the course was awesome and great fun to play on at the beginning, he said that the closing holes were a but of a dampener to the opening holes.

A suggestion is to have 2 new holes south of the extra par 3 hole, eliminate the 15th or use it as a temporary hole and make 16th longer into a long par 3 or a short par 4. I would make the existing 17th longer turning it into the new 18th hole risk reward par 5 finish and use the existing 18th as part of a refigured St Olaf course.

This would strengthen the finish the downside from a purists point of view is the loss of the blind par 3 15th.

Cheers
Ben

  If the 18th was moved to the right it would bring the water more into play.

  Anthony

[Chris Johnston]

I love Cruden Bay just as it is.

[Wade Schueneman]

Anthony,

I have not played Cruden Bay - I have heard all about it from a close friend. Also Frank Pont's new extra par 3 hole green at the southern part of the course is orientated from south to north with the idea of potentially having a new hole along the bay from south to north.

My friend thought that the course was awesome and great fun to play on at the beginning, he said that the closing holes were a but of a dampener to the opening holes.

A suggestion is to have 2 new holes south of the extra par 3 hole, eliminate the 15th or use it as a temporary hole and make 16th longer into a long par 3 or a short par 4. I would make the existing 17th longer turning it into the new 18th hole risk reward par 5 finish and use the existing 18th as part of a refigured St Olaf course.

This would strengthen the finish the downside from a purists point of view is the loss of the blind par 3 15th.

Cheers
Ben

I think that the idea of combining 15 and 16 is a very interesting one.

[Michael Tamburrini]

I stay in Cruden Bay and love the course as it is.  Having said that, I will admit to daydreaming whilst out walking the dog about changes which could be made to the course.

Combining 15 and 16 is an interesting idea although it would make for a completely blind approach shot (not that that would be a deal breaker at Cruden Bay).  You could also move the 15th tee to the top of the dune just to it's right (which I think was the original tee?).

 I like the idea of a tee right on the beach at 14 and moving the green forward.  The winter green sits high above the fairway and is in a beautiful spot and it has made me wonder what it'd be like if that was the summer green.  Although you'd lose the bathtub green and I certainly wouldn't have the courage to do that.

The first time I saw the 9th I didn't like at all but, strangely, I know find it to be my favourite hole on the course.  I can't really explain it I just love the view from the tee and also that moment when you crest the top of the hill and look down towards the green, with the sea and far end of the course way beyond. 

I don't like the 12th.  Although this is purely because, no matter what I try, I hit my tee shot into gorse.  Every time.  So that hole could quite happily be changed.  Ideally they'd be able to make a much longer par 4 and have he new hole playing back alongside the sea - that'd be great.   And the 11th does get very close to the 13th so I could understand if they did away with it in favour of the new hole permanently.

There have been a few changes in recent years (aside from the new 19th at the far end of the course).  The 3rd has a new championship tee about 80 or 90 yards back.  The angle of the 7th has been completely changed - the tee is now to the right of the 6th.

Anyway I wouldn't be brave enough to change anything - the course is fantastic as it is.  These are just some musings when I'm out with the dog.

[paul westland]

I would mention that St Olaf is a treat, especially with winds up!

[Sean_A]

Keeping things simple, I would spruce up the 9th somehow - this is one of the worst dirge holes on any great course I know.  I would change 15 somehow.  I don't mind blind holes, but when one feels he must play a par 3 as a dogleg because its too easy to lose a ball than something is not right in Mayberry.

Ciao

[Andy Stamm]

I wouldn't do anything that required more than a mower. I consider changes to the routing (and especially eliminating 15) heretical.

Put a picture of the flag position on 3 tee.

Put a really tall flag (or a pole) on 6 green so that you can see where you're going if you're playing to the green from way back.

Mow some fairway up the left side of 7 fairway so that there's option to play a risky drive there leaving a short pitch up to the green.

And most importantly, mow an area way short right on 15 so that it's playable if you can't carry the dune to the green.

[Niall C]

I don't have a problem with any of the holes in isolation other than agreeing with Seans comments on 9. What I felt was a great let down was the stretch of blind holes going through the bottle neck and indeed the par 5 before it. (sorry, rubbish at remembering numbering). One blind hole can be good fun, two is OK but four ! Thats shite golf and I don't care if Tom Simpson was involved.

Now having decided that those holes need a shake up and decided that the 9th isn't great, is their anyway that you could feasibly eliminate the current 9th and redesign the holes in the bottleneck such that you had holes going both ways, possibly by use of double greens, par 3's at the tightest part to focus the playing area etc ? If any hole was lost perhaps the land south of Franks new hole could be taken in to create another hole. I recall suggesting this previously and Tom D rubbishing the idea but as we know Tom requires 80 yard playing areas for his corridors  . Any other gca's up for the challenge ?

Niall

[Anthony Gray]

  If you eliminate 9 then the tee shot on 10 goes away. That would be a bad thing. That te shot is one of my favorites.

  Anthony

 

[Chris DeNigris]

Why make any significant changes? CB is great because there's nothing else like it. Especially 14-16. Why try and make it less original and more like other courses?

There are thousands of more conventional holes on thousands of more conventional courses. Unless one is stuck in a continous loop where they had to play that 4 or 5 hole stretch forever...on 2nd thought, there would be worse things....

[Melvyn Morrow]

Any course can be improved but like our choice in women ‘one man’s design is another’s poison’ and boy don’t I know that.    

I wish we would leave well alone because I do question is we really do know better that past generations.

And I wish the R&A would do something about controlling the equipment as its driving many of these requests for changes.

Melvyn

[ward peyronnin]

I would not change three. It is already a very short par four so it needs some teeth. Nine is already a bitch into the wind and seeing the view popping on the way to 10 is a neat effect rather than gorging on it while waiting for someone to put

The tee location on 13 is the only change that appeals to me.

The finishing holes are fine. Watching players from above in the clubhouse play down 18 is entertaining and it is a tough driving hole. Last holes don't need to be ball busters and it was there before the driving range 

[Frank Pont]

 Cindy Crawford has a mole,Rihanna has red hair and the Mona Lisa is a man. So what about Cruden Bay?

  3- I would give more of a fiarway on the right. The wispy stuff is too penal and from the right the blind shot is pretty neat.

  7- Shave left of the green and give it a half punch bowl look.

  9- Move the hole left to the side of the cliff. The view is incredible from there and the cliff is a good lateral hazzard.

  13- Put the medal tee box above the beach. Take advantage of the view and keep balls away from preceding holes.

  14- Again move the medal tee box above the beach making more of a dog leg/cape hole.

    Anthony

Anthony,

The change you suggest for hole 13 was one of the first things we did when I started at CB, so its there already

Move the green (and actually the whole fairway) of hole 9 to the cliff is something I have suggested to the club

Hole 10 would even be better if the tee was moved to the right creating a diagonal heroic tee shot

Do not see where you could widen the fairway on 3 to right, where you can do that its to short of the tee to be in play

I like 7 as it is, always find the shot into the green very difficult to judge...

Raising tee 14 is again a good idea

[Tags:]

Tags:

[Tags:]

Tags:

Call to undefined function theme_linktree()