Photo by Lo Sarno on Unsplash Statistical analysis of amateur golf performance consistently reveals a counterintuitive finding: distance control errors on approach shots cost recreational golfers more strokes than directional errors, even though most golfers practice and worry about direction far more. The Statistical Pattern Shot-tracking data from systems used across recreational and competitive golf shows that amateur golfers are typically far more likely to miss an approach shot short or long of their intended distance than they are to miss significantly left or right of their intended line. A shot that's 15 yards short or long frequently finds trouble — a bunker, water, or simply a much longer subsequent putt — in a way that a shot 10 yards left or right of the pin, but still on the green, does not. Why This Happens Directional misses are usually caused by face-to-path errors, covered in our ball flight laws article , which tend to be relatively consistent for an individual g...
Royal Troon Golf Club, on the South Ayrshire coast of Scotland, has hosted The Open Championship ten times since 1923 — and while it doesn't always get the same headline recognition as St Andrews or Carnoustie, it has quietly produced some of the most dramatic finishes in the tournament's modern history. Here is the complete guide to the course, its holes, and its championship record.
The Course
Royal Troon was founded in 1878, originally as a modest six-hole layout. George Strath and Willie Fernie expanded it to a full 18 holes by 1888, and five-time Open champion James Braid later reworked the routing in the 1920s into the layout that would go on to host championship golf. The club received its Royal charter in 1978, exactly a century after founding. Today the Old Course plays as a par 71 at approximately 7,385 yards for Open Championship setup, running out along the Firth of Clyde before turning back — a classic out-and-back links routing that means the front nine is typically played downwind and the back nine into a headwind, or vice versa depending on conditions that week.
The Postage Stamp (8th Hole)
The most famous hole at Royal Troon is the 8th, known worldwide as the Postage Stamp — a tiny par three of just 123 yards, the shortest hole in Open Championship rota history. Despite its brevity, the green is minuscule and surrounded by deep, steep-faced bunkers that make anything other than a precisely struck tee shot extremely difficult to recover from. Gene Sarazen made a hole-in-one here in 1973 at the age of 71, one of the most celebrated aces in the tournament's history. The Postage Stamp remains one of the most popular vantage points for spectators at any Open venue precisely because so much drama concentrates into such a short hole.
The Railway (11th Hole)
If the 8th is Troon's most charming hole, the 11th is its most feared. Nicknamed The Railway for the railway line running tight along the entire right side of the hole, it played as a long par five for decades before being reduced to a brutal par four for modern Open setups. Gorse lines the fairway, out of bounds looms down the right, and the green is notoriously difficult to hold. It is widely regarded as one of the hardest holes anywhere on the Open rota.
Open Championship History at Troon
Royal Troon first hosted the Open in 1923, won by Arthur Havers — still the only British winner in the course's championship history. Bobby Locke won there in 1950, Arnold Palmer won in 1962 fresh off his third Masters title, and Tom Watson claimed his fourth of five Claret Jugs at Troon in 1982. The 1989 Open produced the first four-hole aggregate playoff in major championship history, when Mark Calcavecchia beat Greg Norman and Wayne Grady after Norman suffered a dramatic final-hole collapse, finding bunkers on consecutive shots before going out of bounds. Justin Leonard won in 1997, Todd Hamilton — a 38-year-old PGA Tour rookie — upset Ernie Els in a playoff in 2004, and in 2016 Henrik Stenson and Phil Mickelson staged what many consider the greatest final-round duel in Open history, with Stenson closing on a final-round 63 to Mickelson's own 63, finishing at a championship-record 20 under par (264 total) — three shots clear of Mickelson in second. Xander Schauffele won the most recent Open at Troon in 2024, completing a two-major season alongside his PGA Championship win earlier that year.
Course Records
The Royal Troon course record of 63 is shared by both Phil Mickelson and Henrik Stenson, both set during the unforgettable final round of the 2016 Championship. At the other end of the scale, Albert Tingey Jr holds the dubious record for the worst single round at Troon in Open competition — a 23-over 94 during the very first Open played there in 1923.
Beyond the Old Course
Royal Troon operates two further courses beyond the championship Old Course: the Portland Course, originally designed by Willie Fernie and later reworked by Alister MacKenzie in the 1920s, and the short Craigend Course. The club also holds one of golf's more unusual historical curiosities — in 1915 it was given what is believed to be the oldest surviving set of golf clubs in existence, eight clubs discovered sealed in a cupboard in Hull, England in 1898 alongside a newspaper dated 1741. They are now on permanent display at the R&A World Golf Museum in St Andrews.
Visiting Royal Troon
Royal Troon is a private club that accepts visitors on a limited basis, typically Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday, through advance booking via the club directly. Green fees for the Old Course run in the region of £300-£350 depending on season, usually as part of a package that also includes a round on the Portland Course. For anyone building a Scottish links golf trip around our guide to the UK's best courses, Troon pairs naturally with a visit to nearby Turnberry or Prestwick, both within a short drive along the same stretch of Ayrshire coastline.
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