He couldn't be happier with his remote locale on the North Sea. Cruden Bay, on the same latitude as lower Scandinavia, is home to perhaps 400 people. Like many village courses, there are few restrictions on visitors and it's certainly not necessary to reserve tee times more than a year in advance like at the British Open venues. It's magic, the wind, the rain, the weather changing three or four times. Actually, Cruden Bay's 18-hole course is ranked in the world's top 100 and has been cited by golf architect Pete Dye as one of his two Scottish favorites.
Members often caddie for strangers, the only other source being schoolchildren.
On the day of the Americans' visit, the club captain took a bag in one foursome, headed straight for his locker afterward and donned a coat and tie for dinner upstairs. From the new clubhouse, you can see the surf slamming against a rocky outcropping, the white cottages of the hamlet and, on a far hill, the ruins of New Slains Castle. The castle was an inspiration for a visitor named Bram Stoker, who would write about the world's most famous vampire, Count Dracula, coming to Britain's shore in search of new victims. Today's tourists also come to Scotland's North for reasons other than castles and golf, not the least of which is the so-called Whisky Trail. On the road across the Grampian peninsula to Inverness, you cross the River Spey, along whose valley and tributaries are famous single-malt Scotch whisky distilleries.