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Club information | |
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Location in Scotland Location in South Ayrshire, Scotland | |
Coordinates | 55°31′55″N4°39′00″W / 55.532°N 4.65°W |
Location | Troon, South Ayrshire, Scotland |
Established | 1878 |
Type | Private |
Total holes | 45 |
Events hosted | The Open Championship, The Amateur Championship, The Senior Open Championship The Women's Open Championship |
Website | royaltroon.co.uk |
Old Course | |
Designed by | George Strath and Willie Fernie, 1888; James Braid, 1923 |
Par | 71 |
Length | 7,175 yards (6,561 m) |
Course rating | 75 |
Portland Course | |
Designed by | Willie Fernie, 1895; Alister MacKenzie, 1921 |
Par | 71 |
Length | 6,289 yards (5,751 m) |
Course rating | 71 |
Craigend Course | |
Par | 27 |
Length | 1,191 yards (1,089 m) |
The Firth of Clyde beach and Royal Troon are separated by raised sand dunes |
Royal Troon Golf Club is a links golf course in Scotland, located in Troon, South Ayrshire.
The club, which now has a total of 45 holes, was founded in 1878, initially with five holes. It lies adjacent to the Firth of Clyde. George Strath was appointed in 1881 as the club's first golf professional, [1] and together with 1882 Open champion Willie Fernie, designed the original course, expanding it to 18 holes by 1888. [2] The two were assisted by Charlie Hunter, greenskeeper of the neighbouring Prestwick Golf Club, in Troon's formative years. [3]
When Strath left the Club's employ in 1887, Fernie became head professional, and served in that role until his death in 1924. He laid out the club's Relief course, on the site of what would become Troon's New course, designed by Alister MacKenzie; Shortly after opening the New course was renamed in honour of the 6th Duke of Portland, an essential early Troon Golf Club patron and facilitator, who was one of the region's largest landowners. [3]
The Club's property lies between the Firth of Clyde on the west, a caravan park on the south (slightly further south lies Prestwick Golf Club), the railway line and main road on the east, and the town of Troon on the north. Glasgow Prestwick Airport is located slightly to the south and east of the club, and low-flying aircraft are nearest its southern section.
Just prior to Royal Troon hosting its first Open Championship in 1923, the Old Course was redesigned, lengthened, and strengthened by James Braid, a five-time Open champion, one of the era's top architects, and a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame. Other than having new back tees on several holes, six completely re-sited greens, much narrower fairways, (when not changed entirely for the re-positioned greens), and vastly different bunkering, the current Old Course is essentially very similar to Braid's finished work. [2]
Troon was granted its "Royal" designation in 1978, during its centenary. [4] Its clubhouse, designed by Henry Edward Clifford and built in 1886, [5] is richly decorated with historical golf artifacts. James Montgomerie, father of Colin Montgomerie, served as Secretary in the 1980s.
Its Old Course is one of the host courses for The Open Championship, one of the major championships on the PGA Tour and European Tour. The Club most recently hosted in 2016 and will host in 2024 for a tenth time. It also hosted The Women's Open Championship in 2020, a year when The R&A only organised an Open Championship for women but not for men.
Past Open champions at Royal Troon include Justin Leonard, Mark Calcavecchia, Tom Watson, Tom Weiskopf, Arnold Palmer, Bobby Locke, and Arthur Havers. Six consecutive Opens at Troon were won by Americans, from 1962 through 2004, ended by Henrik Stenson of Sweden in 2016.
German golfer Sophia Popov's win in the 2020 Women's Open was regarded as one of the greatest upsets in major championship golf.
The Old Course begins alongside the sea, running southwards in a line for the first six holes. This opening section offers full visibility and plenty of space, but does still require accuracy to avoid deep bunkers. Many good rounds have been fashioned through low scores here, often aided by prevailing downwind conditions.
Beginning with the seventh, the Old Course turns further inland, while simultaneously changing direction, on each of its next six holes, among hillier dunes and thicker vegetation, including gorse and whins, to severely punish offline shots. This sector, with two blind tee shots on the tenth and 11th, marks a sharp rise in difficulty from the opening holes.
With the 13th hole, the player turns northwards for a long, very stern finish, running parallel to the opening stretch. This comprises three long par 4s, two tough par 3s, and a challenging par 5 (the 16th) with its fairway bisected at the halfway point by a ditch, which can only very rarely be carried from the tee. The player very often has to face a strong prevailing wind.
Royal Troon is home to the shortest hole in Open Championship golf. Regarded[ by whom? ] as one of the top holes in the world, the par-3 8th hole ("Postage Stamp") measures a scant 123 yards (112 m), but its diminutive green measures a mere 2,635 square feet (293 sq yd; 245 m2). [6] [7] [8] Two holes earlier, the par-5 6th ("Turnberry") extends to a lengthy 601 yards (550 m) and until the championship at Royal Liverpool in 2023 was the longest hole in Open history. [9]
The 11th hole ("The Railway") is one of the most difficult holes in major championship golf. [10] Now[ when? ] a long par-4, a blind tee shot has a long carry over gorse with out of bounds all along the railway on the right. The lengthy approach shot is to a small green that falls away, with nearby out of bounds. [11] [12]
On 1 July 2016, Royal Troon members voted overwhelmingly to admit women into the club as members, avoiding a potential controversy that could have overshadowed the 2016 Open Championship and the club being removed from the Open rota. [13]
The Old Course is the championship layout at Royal Troon. Its second course, the Portland, also an 18-hole layout from 1895, but significantly shorter than the Old Course, was redesigned in 1921 by golf course architect Dr. Alister MacKenzie, a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame. The Portland is also of very high standard. It is located slightly further inland and further north than the Old Course, with no holes bordering the Firth of Clyde; it has its own clubhouse.
The Craigend Course is a nine-hole par-3 course.
The Club is private; guests are allowed at certain times, under advance booking, with a handicap certificate establishing proficiency.
The Old Course has four tees – "Ladies", "Short", "Medal" and "Championship".
For 2020 Women's British Open:
Hole | Name | Yards | Par | Hole | Name | Yards | Par | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Seal | 357 | 4 | 10 | Sandhills | 385 | 4 | |
2 | Black Rock | 381 | 4 | 11 | The Railway | 421 | 4 | |
3 | Gyaws | 371 | 4 | 12 | The Fox | 427 | 4 | |
4 | Dunure | 522 | 5 | 13 | Burmah | 411 | 4 | |
5 | Greenan | 194 | 3 | 14 | Alton | 175 | 3 | |
6 | Turnberry | 544 | 5 | 15 | Crosbie | 436 | 4 | |
7 | Tel-el-Kebir | 381 | 4 | 16 | Well | 533 | 5 | |
8 | Postage Stamp | 123 | 3 | 17 | Rabbit | 210 | 3 | |
9 | The Monk | 387 | 4 | 18 | Craigend | 374 | 4 | |
Out | 3,260 | 36 | In | 3,372 | 35 | |||
Source: [14] [15] | Total | 6,632 | 71 |
Lengths of the course for previous Opens (since 1950): [16]
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Opens from 1962 through 1989 played the 11th hole as a par-5.
The Open Championship has been held at Troon on nine occasions:
Year | Winner | Score | Winner's share (£) | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
R1 | R2 | R3 | R4 | Total | |||
1923 | Arthur Havers | 73 | 73 | 73 | 76 | 295 | 75 |
1950 | Bobby Locke 2nd | 69 | 72 | 70 | 68 | 279 (−1) | 300 |
1962 | Arnold Palmer 2nd | 71 | 69 | 67 | 69 | 276 (−12) | 1,400 |
1973 | Tom Weiskopf | 68 | 67 | 71 | 70 | 276 (−12) | 5,500 |
1982 | Tom Watson 4th | 69 | 71 | 74 | 70 | 284 (−4) | 32,000 |
1989 | Mark Calcavecchia | 71 | 68 | 68 | 68 | 275 (−13)PO | 80,000 |
1997 | Justin Leonard | 69 | 66 | 72 | 65 | 272 (−12) | 250,000 |
2004 | Todd Hamilton | 71 | 67 | 67 | 69 | 274 (−10)PO | 720,000 |
2016 | Henrik Stenson | 68 | 65 | 68 | 63 | 264 (−20) | 1,175,000 |
The Women's Open Championship has been held at Troon once:
Year | Winner | Score | Winner's share (US$) | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
R1 | R2 | R3 | R4 | Total | |||
2020 | Sophia Popov | 70 | 72 | 67 | 68 | 277 (−7) | 675,000 |
The Open Championship, often referred to as The Open or the British Open, is the oldest golf tournament in the world, and one of the most prestigious. Founded in 1860, it was originally held annually at Prestwick Golf Club in Scotland. Later the venue rotated between a select group of coastal links golf courses in the United Kingdom. It is organised by The R&A.
Prestwick is a town in South Ayrshire on the west coast of Ayrshire in Scotland about 30 miles southwest of Glasgow. It adjoins the larger town of Ayr to the south on the Firth of Clyde coast, the centre of which is about two miles south, and the small village of Monkton to the north. It had a population of 14,901 at the 2011 census.
The Women's Open is a major championship in women's professional golf. It is recognised by both the LPGA Tour and the Ladies European Tour as a major. The reigning champion is Lilia Vu, who won at Walton Heath Golf Club in 2023.
Turnberry is a golf resort on the Firth of Clyde in Ayrshire, southwest Scotland. It comprises three links golf courses, a golf academy, a five-star James Miller-designed hotel from 1906, along with lodge and cottage accommodations.
The Royal Liverpool Golf Club is a golf club in Wirral in Merseyside, England. It was founded in 1869 on what was then the racecourse of the Liverpool Hunt Club. It received the "Royal" designation in 1871 due to the patronage of Prince Arthur the Duke of Connaught, one of Queen Victoria's younger sons. Robert Chambers and George Morris were commissioned to lay out the original course, which was extended to 18 holes in 1871. Harry Colt, one of the world's leading golf course architects, redesigned the course early in the 20th century, and it has since been tweaked periodically, mainly as a response to advances in equipment.
Prestwick Golf Club is a golf course in Prestwick, South Ayrshire, Scotland. It is approximately 30 miles (50 km) southwest of Scotland's largest city, Glasgow. Prestwick is a classic links course, built on the rolling sandy land between the beach and the hinterland. The course is near the Prestwick airport, and some holes run along railway tracks on the eastern side of the course.
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Carnoustie Golf Links is in Carnoustie, Angus, Scotland. Carnoustie has four courses – the historic Championship Course, the Burnside Course, the Buddon Links Course and a free-to-play short, five-hole course called The Nestie. Carnoustie Golf Links is one of the venues in the Open Championship rotation and has hosted golf's oldest major on eight occasions, as well as the Senior Open Championship in 2010 and 2016 and the Women's British Open in 2011 and 2021.
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Kilmarnock (Barassie) Golf Club is a golf club and course in Barassie on the west coast of Scotland. Formed as Ossington Golf Club in 1887, the first course was at Holmes Farm in Kilmarnock. The Club quickly became Kilmarnock Golf Club. The club moved to Barassie in the 1890s.
The 1973 Open Championship was the 102nd Open Championship, played 11–14 July at Troon Golf Club in Troon, Scotland. Tom Weiskopf won his only major championship by three strokes over runners-up Neil Coles and Johnny Miller, the winner of the U.S. Open a month earlier. Weiskopf was a wire-to-wire winner and his four-round total of 12-under-par 276 matched the then-existing Open Championship record set by Arnold Palmer on the same course in 1962.
The 1914 Open Championship was the 54th Open Championship, held 18–19 June at Prestwick Golf Club in Prestwick, South Ayrshire, Scotland. Harry Vardon won a record sixth Open Championship title, three strokes ahead of runner-up J.H. Taylor, the defending champion. Entering the championship, Vardon, Taylor, and James Braid had five Open wins each. This was the sixteenth and final Open title for these three, the Great Triumvirate. Due to World War I, it was the last Open for six years; the next was in 1920.
The 1925 Open Championship was the 60th Open Championship, held 25–26 June at Prestwick Golf Club in Prestwick, South Ayrshire, Scotland. In the final Open at Prestwick, Jim Barnes captured his only Open title, one stroke ahead of runners-up Ted Ray and Archie Compston. It was Barnes' fourth and final major title; he won the first two PGA Championships in 1916 and 1919, and the U.S. Open in 1921.
The 1950 Open Championship was the 79th Open Championship, held 5–7 July at Troon Golf Club in Troon, South Ayrshire, Scotland. Defending champion Bobby Locke of South Africa won the second of his four Open titles, two strokes ahead of runner-up Roberto De Vicenzo of Argentina. His total of 279 was a record for the Open Championship, beating the previous best of 283. It was the second Open Championship at Troon, which had previously hosted the Championship in 1923; it became "Royal Troon" in 1978.
Burnham & Berrow Golf Club is a 27-hole members golf club in Somerset, England which has hosted many of the leading amateur golf tournaments in Britain, including the Brabazon Trophy and English Amateur.
George Strath was a Scottish professional golfer and golf course designer of the late 19th century and early 20th century. He was born in St Andrews, Fifeshire, Scotland. As a young lad he worked as a caddie, carrying the clubs of Old Tom Morris at St Andrews.
The 2020 Women's British Open was played from 20 to 23 August in Scotland at Royal Troon Golf Club. It was the 44th Women's British Open, the 20th as a major championship on the LPGA Tour, and the first at Royal Troon Golf Club. The tournament was played behind closed doors due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom. It was the first championship held under a renewed sponsorship agreement with AIG; the deal involved the rebranding of the championship, removing the word "British", with the event titled as the 2020 AIG Women's Open.
The 2007 European Amateur Team Championship took place 3–7 July at Western Gailes Golf Club in Irvine, Scotland, United Kingdom. It was the 25th men's golf European Amateur Team Championship.