I had the pleasure of playing Bude and North Cornwall during my visit to England for Buda Cup this year. I played it the day after I played Saunton, and I found it to be much more pleasurable than playing Saunton East in particular, but also than playing Saunton West.
In evaluating a course, I have found that Alister MacKenzie's preferences from The Spirit of St. Andrews match my preferences to a high degree, some more than others. I have made a synopsis of his preferences and assigned a rough relative weight to them below.
1 Two loops of nine holes
3 Large proportion of good two shot holes and 1 at least four one-shot holes
1 Short green to tee walks
3 Greens and fairways should be sufficiently undulating.
3 Every hole different in character.
1 Minimum of blindness in approach shots.
2 Artificial features should be indistinguishable from natural features.
2 Sufficient number of heroic carries from the tee, but always with alternative route for the high handicapper.
3 Variety of strokes to play various holes, i.e., every club.
3 Complete absence of the need to search for balls.
2 So interesting the best will be motivated to develop shots not previously capable of.
2 Should allow wide detours for high handicappers to avoid hazards.
2 Consistent presentation throughout year with approaches having the same consistency as the greens.
As viewed from Google Earth, one can see there will be a problem with some green to tee walks. What cannot be seen from such a view is the positive brought by the undulations present in the course, and the negative from some blind approaches.
![](https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4262/34958515953_d125efe2a6_c.jpg)