For the first time in eight years, the Open Championship is back at Royal Troon Golf Club this week, in a small, charming seaside village in southwest Scotland.
Locals are eager to see the game’s best players battle Troon’s humps and bumps, root on homeland hero Bobby MacIntyre and bid farewell to Tiger Woods in what will surely will be his final Troon Open.
They’re also hopeful this week will help erase a minor stain on the course’s history.
The last Open here, in 2016, culminated in a riveting duel between Sweden’s Henrik Stenson and Phil Mickelson. In near-perfect conditions, the players matched shot for shot and birdie for birdie as they methodically picked apart the storied course in front of a huge global audience. It was a stirring display of shotmaking for many viewers but not so much for at least some of Troon’s proud locals.
“It was like pitching darts out here,” a Troon caddie named Billy told me during a recent visit.
“Disgraceful,” said another.
“Very regretful,” added a third.
Scottish caddies are nothing if not direct.
The week was, of course, still a proud one for Troon’s loyalists; you’ll find Stenson’s photo in the clubhouse hall of honor. What stuck in some craws, though, was the manner by which Stenson prevailed: 20-under, 264 for 72 holes, an Open Championship scoring record that still stands.
Despite Scotland’s reputation for fearsome weather, its summers can be mild. Pair warm conditions with little wind — i.e., what the players faced on that Sunday in 2014 — and even the toughest links courses are gettable. When Mother Nature turns, though, look out. There was decidedly dodgy weather at nearby Dundonald for the final Open qualifying last month, and this championship always brings to mind the wind and rain that hammered Muirfield in 2002, leading to a third-round 81 for Tiger Woods.
Likely most classic links courses, Royal Troon largely runs straight out and straight back, with a few zigs and zags for good measure. The first two holes, a pair of par-4s, are nearly driveable for the field’s biggest hitters.
Other than the weather, Troon’s biggest defense is its fearsome bunkers: 98 of them in all.
Unlike the bunkers at most PGA Tour venues, Troon’s pits are deep and hollow with sodden walls — true penalty areas to be avoided at all costs.
Troon has the longest and short holes in Open Championship history. The par-5 6th stretches 623 yards and may give even the Brysons and Rorys in the field a chance to use their longest clubs more than once on the same hole. The shortest hole is the famed par-3 8th, which can play a mere 99 yards; it’s called the Postage Stamp for the size of the putting surface. Gene Sarazen added to the hole’s lore when he made an ace there at the 1973 Open, at age 71. (This reporter was not so fortunate on a recent visit, recording scores, in three loops around the course, of 4-6-4.)
