The five Scottish courses that made it into the first edition of the World Atlas of Golf, published in 1976, were the Old Course at St. Andrews, Carnoustie, Royal Dornoch, Muirfield, and Turnberry. Royal Troon didn’t make the cut.
The 2008 edition, published by Hamlyn, did include Royal Troon, but the first couple of sentences weren’t terribly flattering. “At first glance, Royal Troon appeals least of the Open venues. The first holes are too straightforward, the middle ones too complicated, and the final ones just too hard.”
There may be some truth to that but, as the text goes on to say, Royal Troon is a “gem-like beauty” that possesses a number of “obviously great holes.”
Those holes (five to begin with in 1878, six by 1879, 12 not long after that, and 18 by 1883) were given names and, according to R.A. Crampsey’s 2001 club history The Breezy Links of Troon (and an 1885 article in the Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News), the majority were given their identities when they first opened.
1st hole—Seal: The original opening hole at Troon (it was Troon Golf Club until 1978 when it was given “Royal” status during its centenary year) was called the Craigend hole, but it was ploughed over when the club replaced its original clubhouse, thought to be a converted train carriage. This made “Seal” the new 1st hole by 1888 when the first known map of the course was produced. It is named for a collection of rocks that lie just a few yards from the Firth’s high water mark during spring where seals can often be seen.
2nd hole—Black Rock: A similarly short distance out into the Firth to the right of the 2nd green and 3rd tee is a ridge of ragged rocks that gives this hole its name. The Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News said this hole and the Seal hole covered “nice golfing ground that called forth much dexterous play with the cleek…”
3rd hole—Gyaws: “Gyaws” is an old Scottish word that sounds wonderful coming from a native, but which anyone from outside of Scotland will likely never get close to pronouncing correctly. It means “furrow” or “drain,” and is the name of the burn that crosses the fairway diagonally about 280–290 yards from the tee.
4th hole—Dunure: About 15 miles southwest of Troon, between Royal Troon and Turnberry, is the village of Dunure whose ruined castle dates to the late 1300s and was built by the Clan Kennedy.
5th hole—Greenan: Five miles from Dunure heading back towards Troon is Greenan Castle, built sometime in the 16th century and also owned by the Clan Kennedy.
6th hole—Turnberry: In the Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News article, “Turnberry” is described as being the “turning point of the round” and that from the “well-situated” green a “capital view of the Prestwick Links just over the Pow Burn is obtained.” The Turnberry lighthouse, built in 1873, can be seen from Royal Troon and sits on the site of what’s left of Turnberry Castle, the birthplace of Robert I, aka Robert the Bruce, King of Scots from 1306–29.
7th hole—Tel-El-Kebir: It seems quite a jump to go from naming holes after rocks, ditches, marine and small land mammals, villages, and nearby castles to battles fought in the Anglo-Egyptian War of 1882, but here we are. It’s not entirely clear why members at Troon decided to give the 7th (the 8th at the time) so seemingly random a sobriquet, but the Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News might give us a clue: “Across the links to Tel-El-Kebir is quite a desert march indeed,” it said, “the ground being wild and the hill faces steep and sandy.”
8th hole—Postage Stamp: Like the course’s other instantly-familiar hole, the 11th, this tiny par three wasn’t part of the 1888 course. It was added in 1909 by Willie Fernie (1883 Open champion and four-time runner-up, and Troon professional from 1888 to 1924) after the club had earlier acquired more land and a revision of the routing became possible. It was called “Ailsa” after the huge granite rock out in the Firth—the original “Ailsa” was a 292-yard hole whose green was located halfway down what is now the par-five 6th—but renamed “Postage Stamp” following the 1923 Open Championship, Troon’s first, during which the press had mostly referred to it as such. It seems members had been using the term for a while and, prior to the championship, Willie Park Jr. had written in Golf Illustrated that the “pitching surface had been skimmed down to the size of a Postage Stamp.” James Braid, who had been called in to toughen up the course ahead of the ’23 Open, dug two huge pits into the dune to stop players using it as a backboard. The larger of the two was subsequently filled in, but the other remains and has evolved into today’s “Coffin” bunker.
9th hole—The Monk: The 9th heads southeast toward the nearby village of Monkton and finishes about half a mile from the northwestern end of the runway at Glasgow Prestwick Airport. A little more than half a mile to the south, also on the inland side of Pow Burn, is the 7th at Prestwick which is called “Monkton Miln” after the 18th century vaulted tower windmill in the village.
10th hole—Sandhills: The dunes that need to be carried off the Championship tee may not trouble the world’s best players but would certainly get the attention of most. At the 10th, you get your first interaction with the railway line, but whins, gorse, bushes, and sand ridges mean you don’t get quite as close to it as you do at the…
11th hole—The Railway: The Irvine to Ayr section of the Glasgow, Paisley, Kilmarnock, Ayr Railway opened in August 1839 (with the entire route to Glasgow open by July 1840), became the Glasgow and Southwestern Railway in 1850, and is now operated by ScotRail. The Championship tee is hard against the track to the right and, though the drive is aimed a little to the left of it, the green sits awfully close.
12th hole—The Fox: Not a great deal is known about the origins of the 12th hole, also not part of the 1888 course and a slightly easier par four than the previous two but still no pushover. The history book(s) tells us “a wooded area nearby used to be home to many foxes,” and that “though the woods have mostly gone, a few foxes still remain.”
13th hole—Burmah: James Dickie, the club’s benevolent founding captain who apparently lent it £50 in its earliest days but never asked for it back and then demanded no interest when the loan was eventually repaid, was a businessman with connections to the southeast Asian country of Burmah (now known as Myanmar). R.A. Crampsey’s history of the club makes little mention of this, however, stating only that “The hole was designed shortly after Burmah was taken over in 1886 by Britain.” Much like Tel-El-Kebir, this name seems to have a link to the British Empire. “Burmah” is how the country of Burma was spelled in the 19th century.
14th hole—Alton: “Fullarton” the 17th hole on the club’s Portland course—which was designed by club pro and 1883 Open champion Willie Fernie, opened in 1895 as the “Relief Course,” and redesigned by Alister MacKenzie in 1921—was the name of a family that lived in the area for several centuries after being granted the land by Robert II around 1350. The Duke of Portland later lived on the Fullarton Estate and Alton was a part of it.
15th hole—Crosbie: Crosbie Castle was a 16th century fortification on the Fullarton Estate. Crosbie Road (named after the castle) now runs from the group of houses to the right of the 16th fairway past the magnificent Marine Hotel close to the clubhouse.
16th hole—Well: The names of this hole and the next aren’t terribly imaginative, perhaps, but they do the job. Gyaws Burn, which we crossed earlier on the 3rd hole, continues its brief journey northeast across the 16th at about 280 yards from the tee, but the hole is named for a freshwater well that was dug near Blackrock Cottage to the left of the green.
17th hole—Rabbit: Apparently this part of the links has long been popular with members of the Leporidae family.
18th hole—Craigend: When the club was founded in 1878, a farm named Craigend stood on ground now taken up by the club’s parking lot, Marine Hotel buildings, and the Portland Course clubhouse.
Have you played Royal Troon? Tell us the name of your favorite hole in the comment section.
