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I could wax lyrical about every hole on Royal Aberdeen's front nine and they are worthy, testing trials, every one. Suffice to say in my opinion the 1st, 8th and 9th are the best of a brilliant bunch. The 8th is a par 3 that changes its spots to suit conditions, a 3-iron one day, a pitching wedge the next. Ten bunkers surround the green like dragon’s teeth and the only way home is straight down its throat. If you come off it here and land hard up against one of those revetted bunker walls, say hello to another double bogey. The 9th curves over the burn and climbs steadily up the last part of the dunes where they continue into Murcar Golf Club’s domain. It's a stretching par 4 of 465 yards.

Royal Aberdeen is a classic links layout - out to the turn at 10 and then back home again along a plateau, an upper level that looks across the dunes to the North Sea beyond. Although much different in appearance from the rolling links of the front half, there is hidden treachery everywhere on the homeward section. Blind tee shots, hidden troughs and more difficult putting surfaces oppose you.
 
The 12th to the 15th is a string of holes each with its own set of hazards aptly hinted at with names such as Blind, Dyke, Well and Hill. With the wind picking up and no protection from the dunes, it's here players tire and are prone to mistakes. You really need to compose yourself to play a decent shot in windy conditions and composure in the face of such adversity it’s a skill all of us have.
 
Once in sight of the clubhouse your heart will gladden. These closing holes are exposed and whether it’s an easterly or the more typical southwesterly, at this stage of the game, conditions in the air and along the ground will sort out the men from the boys. The concluding three holes form an excellent 4-3-4 finish. The 16th sets up to put you over the top, a blind shot off the tee but still requiring two long, accurate shots to get home. The 187-yard, par 3, 17th is yet another outstanding example of the excellent short holes on this course. But in terms of disguised difficulty, there’s few that can top Balgownie’s 18th. From the tee it doesn’t seem so defiant but this is a par 4 to take advantage of the over-confident - or over-fatigued. If you avoid being blown into the gorse either side of the fairway, there is a dip in front of the green that will gather many balls. In a southwesterly, you would do very well to even reach this dip.

Finally, looking back from the comfort and warmth of the clubhouse lounge, a consoling glass of beer in hand, things gradually begin to look rosier and we could see that final hole, though genuinely taxing was a fitting end to one of the most challenging rounds of golf. I began to understand what Bernard Darwin was on about when he wrote that the Balgownie course "represented a huge gap in his golfing education’. This is the epitome of links golf, top of the evolutionary tree, you might say, certainly when it comes to this, the purest form of the game. Royal Aberdeen’s Balgownie course has evolved naturally with only cosmetic tweaks. Royal Aberdeen is definitely a course to test the better golfer, one who can accommodate the many variable conditions this arduous links impulsively throws at you.

Photographs & text © David J Whyte
Golf Travel Writer & Photographer