Jamie Hudson

We played this as part of a triple swing in August 2019 where we played Royal Dornoch, Trump International & Cruden Bay. Cruden Bay certainly wasn’t in the shadow of either of the other courses and outshone it in many other areas. It doesn’t quite match up to the sheer quality of condition of Trump or the superb layout of Dornoch but really is a special place in its own regard. The views you get while playing this course are second to none in the UK. Some of the early holes including the short 2nd with the elevated green, Par3 4th with the ravine and bridge to left, the long 4th with elevated tee really gets you off to a flying start and gives you a real understanding for what a treat you are in for. I couldn’t recommend this place enough and will be returning in the near future myself.

Decided to book a weekend in Aberdovey with some friends playing the 4BBB on the Saturday and Texas Scramble on the Sunday. Stopped in The Britannia Inn located on the sea front in the town which is littered with some delightful sea-facing restaurants & pubs. A fantastic town and well worth a visit. Unfortunately I feel the golf course is a little bit fortunate to be in the Top 100 as it really lacks the cutting edge you expect with a quality links golf course. Barring the Par 3 12th all the holes are quite bland and flat, there’s a real lack of use to some of the wonderful scenery around Aberdovey. The greens and course condition was also quite average in comparison to other Top 100s I visited and certainly sits bottom of the pile for me.

To play the Mecca of golf is a pilgrimage all golfers should make at least once. My friend and I was fortunate enough to get in through the ballot on a windy Saturday morning in October. Unlike most other top courses I’ve played the excitement starts to bubble the moment you click “enter” into the ballot, it feels like an eternity of a wait until the draw is published later that day. Frantically scrolling through the list of names we’d bagged a mid morning slot along with a college student at St Andrews and his grandfather. The drive into the town is probably as exciting as it gets without striking a ball, sites we’d seen for years on television, in magazines and only to be played on Tiger Woods Golf....it was finally our time to experience “The Home of Golf”. We paid a green fee of £125 that included a small goody bag that hosted tees, pencils and a pitch mark repairer. It’s was everyone’s first time on the Old Course so we made the bold decision to play it off the back pegs in howling wind. When you look at the course infront of you, you question how tricky can a flat mostly generous track really be..... well we found out pretty quickly. The outward 9 played predominantly into a howling 35mph wind and you were lucky if well struck drives passed the 180 yard mark. The 1st, 17th and 18th are tee shots you’ll never forget ..... unfortunately the holes in between don’t quite live up to the quality that’s reached of the fore mentioned holes. The standard of the fairways and greens are still of the highest quality but the holes lack a cutting edge that you get with a Dornoch. My overriding feeling is this is a 4 star golf course but a 6 star experience and one I’d advise you all to try.