Royal Troon Old Course

The verdict

Royal Troon is one of the proper Open links, a course that has tested the best in the world ten times and given golf some of its most enduring images. The Old Course is laid out in the classic out and back fashion, the front nine running south along the shore and the back nine turning for home, and the genius of the place is the way the wind shapes the round. The opening holes are reachable and inviting with the breeze behind, but the closing stretch into the prevailing wind is a brutal, exacting test that has decided championships.

For the traveling golfer Troon is a must play pillar of any Ayrshire golf trip. It carries the weight of championship history, from Arnold Palmer's win in 1962 to the modern Opens, and it is anchored by the most famous short hole in the game. Access is by limited visitor tee times and demand is fierce, but to stand on the eighth tee at the Postage Stamp, or to fight the long par 4s on the way in, is to play golf at its source. It pairs naturally with the rest of the Ayrshire links for a trip built around the cradle of the championship game.

The holes worth the trip

The round begins gently by Open standards, three holes running along the shore that, with the wind behind, give a confident start. But Troon is a course of two distinct halves, and the further you go out the more the trouble gathers. The par 5 sixth, the longest hole in Open golf for many years, stretches the front nine, and then comes the moment everyone remembers: the eighth, the Postage Stamp, just 123 yards to a tiny green perched on a shelf and ringed by deep, swallowing bunkers. It is the shortest hole in the history of The Open and one of the most feared, where a perfect strike is the only safe option and a miss can run to a double bogey or worse.

The turn for home is where Troon earns its reputation. From the tenth the holes set off into the teeth of the prevailing wind, a run of long, demanding par 4s across rumpled links land where par feels like a birdie. The eleventh, the Railway, plays along the line of the old railway with gorse and out of bounds pressing the right, a card wrecker that has undone many a good round, and the closing holes give no quarter. This is the stretch that separates the contenders, a grinding, exposed examination of ball striking and nerve.

What stays with you is the honesty of it. Troon hides nothing and forgives little: the wind is the architect, the bunkering is severe and the back nine asks for your best golf when you are most tired. It is links golf at its purest and most demanding, a course that rewards the player who can flight the ball low, accept that some holes simply cannot be overpowered and keep grinding all the way to the eighteenth.

Where to stay nearby

Troon itself has comfortable seaside hotels within walking distance of the links, and the wider Ayrshire coast offers everything from grand resort houses to small village inns. Glasgow is around forty minutes away for a city base with plenty of choice, while Prestwick and the nearby towns keep you close to a dense cluster of championship golf, making this one of the easiest regions in Scotland to build a multi course trip around a single hotel.

Most golfers play Troon as part of a run along the Ayrshire links. Combine it with the modern championship test at Dundonald Links, the classic links of Glasgow Gailes and the spectacular cliff top drama of Turnberry's Kintyre course just down the coast for a trip that captures the best of southwest Scotland.

Looking for a base? See our recommended hotels and resorts around Ayrshire.