Every Hole at Royal Troon Golf Club | Golf Digest

Iona Stephen narrates a hole-by-hole flyover of Royal Troon Golf Club in Troon, Scotland, site of the 2024 Open Championship.

Narration: Iona Stephen
Cinematography: Carlos Amoedo
Script Writers: David Jones and Timothy Gallant
Editor: Nicholas Grieves
Production Manager: Kimberly Davis
Executive Producer: Christian Iooss

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[Music] in 1978 a century after its finding trun at last received its Royal status but the regality of these links on the western coast of Scotland had long been understood the club motto is as much by skill as by strength and though it looks benign at first those who know trun say it can take a lifetime to learn its infinite complex ities expanded to 18 holes in the 1880s it’s been the site of 10 open championships where Victors like Bobby lock Arnold Palmer and Tom Watson have managed to decode its Mysteries proving the course provides a canvas for the best golfers to display their genius Royal trun is sometimes described as a course of three acts mirroring Dante’s Divine Comedy the first six holes are heaven and play along the flat terrain on the property easing golfers into the round the second six Purgatory climb into a swirl of dramatic dunes and uncertain Fates lastly come hell a closing stretch of attrition across a battlefield of peril with a wind that often screams off the sea trun plays like a game of chess every hump and bump every bunker and Bush every slope and slant must be appraised and avoided Royal trun favors no particular style of play and success here isn’t always about what you can do but often about what you mustn’t do this is every Hall at Royal trun Golf Club the squawks of Seagulls you hear on the first tea just feat from the beach should be a portant of the possibility of a birdie on the first hole number one is a short Par Four measuring just 370 yards so an iron is often The Prudent play to keep balls short of the four staggered Fairway bunkers more aggressive drives will need to thread the needle between them leading to a delicate chip to a small green surrounded by several deep revetted sand traps the potting surface has very subtle movement but in firm conditions can be difficult to hold the second featur is a tight Fairway with a trio of bunkers cutting into play at 260 yards and three more at around 320 rolling ground Contours tend to funnel balls into them effectively reducing the size of what looks like a generous landing area the entrance to the green is heavily guarded so approaches must come in from the air but since the hole usually plays down wind it can be challenging to get the ball to stop especially when pins are set in the front anything missing the small Target left or right will be repelled from the putting surface a third successive Par Four under 400 yards number three is named gauze which means Furrow or drain in Scots it refers to the water hazard that cuts through the middle of the Fairway at approximately 280 yards from the tea so most players will keep driver in the bag to stay short of a watery grave though even that calculation can be tricky when the turf is running hot that sets up a pit shot of just over 100 yards The Greens at trun are among the smallest in the Open Championship routa half the size of nearby turnbury and a quarter of the size of the double greens at St Andrews and hitting and holding these targets is difficult even with a [Music] wedge next up is tr’s first par five where the prevailing Breeze will give most players the chance to get near the Green in Two Shots the penalty for a wayward Drive however is Extreme the narrow Fairway funnel shots towards the center but it is squeezed by three deep pot bunkers and anything lost to the right will find some of the choppi ground at trun three more revetted bunkers protect the narrow front section of a green that has a spine running through the center making back right pins especially tough to access but all in all this is another good chance to pick up a [Music] stroke the fifth is the first of a stellar collection of par 3s and is the most exposed to the everpresent winds that howl off the fth of Clyde the front and left sides of the putting surface are fortified with the courses typically deep and menacing bunkers and the wind can take anything but a perfectly hit t-shot and deposit it into one of these Sandy cellers truns greens tend to be pinched in front and larger in the rear so even when holes are forward it’s often better to take an extra club and play towards the center trun has both the longest and shortest holes on the Open Championship routa including the sixth called turnbury the whole was a late edition to trun created after 1900 when Club professional Willie fary combined the existing sixth and seventh holes a par four and a par three into one ferocious par five with a green nestled into a pocket of beachfront Junes this Begins the turn into the Steep Sand Hills at the southern end of the course and is the last of the scorable downwind holes hopefully you’ve stocked up Strokes going out because you’ll be spending them coming in the seventh starts arguably the finest stretch of holes at trun that play through rugged dunland the dog leg right par 4 starts from a tea set high above the Fairway giving a wonderful view of the challenge below those daring to flirt with the two Fairway bunkers on the right can shorten the hole but longer hitters need to be careful to avoid two more traps through the Fairway that can catch overly aggressive drives the green bracketed by helixs and penal bunkers is the opposite of most at trun wide in the front and narrow at the back so playing to the first third and potting to rear hole locations is the Smart [Music] tactic when Willie Farney combined two holes to create the par five6 he replaced the hole that was absorbed with a new one located in the choppy Junes south of the 7th famed player and course designer Willie Park Jr seeing the microscopic green nestled against the base of a tall Sand Hill prior to the 1923 open truns first described it as a pitching surface skimmed down to the size of a postage stamp the name postage stamp stuck any of the five ominous bunkers surrounding it can ruin a around including coffin directly left but the most catastrophic Miss is usually the Deep bunker set several Paces below the right edge of the green the postage stamp quickly became one one of the most famous and feared short holes in Gulf the swirling winds can make hitting the Deep narrow putting surface seem impossible and the elevated tea provides an all to uncomfortable view of the bunkers its victims are legion Herman tces carded a 15 during the 1950 open with one writer describing the Carnage as a horrible species of pingpong played between bunkers Tiger Woods weekend charge in the 1997 open hit the kids when he made sixth at the eighth and had Greg Norman simply parred the hole in the final round of the 1989 open instead of making a bogey the only bogey on his card he’d have shot 63 and won the cleric jug by a [Music] shot the ninth is a mid-length par 4 that plays to the far southern boundary of the property and the key is to squeeze a drive past the spectacle bunkers on the left the low green located at the farthest point from the clubhouse is one of the more inviting targets unguarded and set against hummocks that screen the course from an adjacent Holiday Park Prestwick the site of the first 12 opens and 24 overall is just 500 yards away and once a year The two clubs play a 36hole cross country match across both courses hopping from truns 9th green to preswick 9th tea stopping only for a well-earned lunch in the opposite Clubhouse the tenth turns back northward and from the championship tea the drive is blind over the course’s largest June to a diagonal Fairway the Hull’s defense relies on the Topography of the ground there are no bunkers and caution should be exercised to avoid the gors and the hillocks just off the Fairway an accurate Drive will still leave a long iron approach to a plateau green with a deep fall off to the right usually playing back into the wind it’s easy to under Club so wise players know to take a little extra for the approach try not to be distracted by any low flying airplanes coming into land at the nearby [Music] airport Railway is a long brutal par 4 and one of the most challenging holes in Championship golf in fact in both 1997 and 2016 it was the most difficult hole in relation to par The Professional played all year even the great Jack Nicholas recorded a 10 here in the 1962 open the blind Drive is an intimidating one as there is no view of the Fairway Beyond a sea of prickly gors fronting the tea to make matters worse the prevailing wind pushes shots towards the outof bounds train tracks on the right play too far left and the ball will be lost in the gors too far right same thing it’s not inconceivable that pushed approaches might even bounce their way onto to a passing train H 12 momentarily reverses the direction of play back to the South and often gives golfers respite from the prevailing headwind faced on 10 and 11 there are no bunkers framing the Fairway on this dog leg right so picking a line to avoid the rough and more of the merciless gor can be challenging the second shot is played to a slightly elevated two-tiered green that’s protected by a falloff on the left and a single bunker on the right the tiny putting surface requires a precise approach as anything on the wrong level will likely result in a three putt [Music] bogey the final six holes play back towards the clubhouse Welcome to Hell the 13th is a par 4 that features the most heavily contoured Fairway on the golf course that will leave an awkward stance for the second shot caddies often advise players to aim at the distant black rocks in the sea to favor the left side and avoid bounding towards The Wretched rough on the right though that line brings into play several shorts side pits and grassy Hollows the potting surface is relatively benign and slopes ever so slightly from Back to Front getting there is the hard part the 14th is a midlength par three playing over small humps and hillocks to a green that sits nestled in the surrounding Mounds Club selection can be critical as the potting surface is once again narrow at the front before mushrooming in the back asking for shots to be played deep into the Green in heavy winds a low penetrating ball can be run up the tongue of the green and banked off the shoulders of the flanking bunkers to set up a makeable birie pot it may be your last one the 15th Herald’s the start of one of the most testing finishes in the world of golf in preparation for the 2016 open Architects Martin ubert and Tom McKenzie shifted the Fairway 40 yards to the left offsetting the landing area onto more interesting topography the drive must contend with four strategically placed pot bunkers with the ideal line being down the left side since the green sits in a punch B Hollow behind fronting Mounds that block views and access from the right during his historic jeel with Phil Nicholson in the 2016 open Henrik Stenson came to this scen with a One-Shot lead and proceeded to haul a remarkable 51 ft Bary pot to all but seal the championship the same GS that intersects the third hole going out poses the same Dilemma on this par five coming home in the rare occasions the whole plays down wind it can be carried by anyone with a 320 yard t-shot in the bag but in reality old players will Club down short of the burn that leaves over 250 yards to the front of the green for second shots that must bypass a bunker in the landing Zone short and another one left tr’s revetted bunkers should generally be avoided at all costs especially in the fairways but hitting into them greenside in two at 16 might allow skilled players to Splash out to get one last realistic look at [Music] birdie unlike its more famous postage stamp sibling there is nothing short or sweet about this final par three played to a plateau green with a cavernous bunker on the right the 17th is named rabbit not because it’s cuddly but because the putting surface is quick and Elusive Falling Away steeply on both sides keeping the t-shot on can feel like a miracle something Nick price yasper paric and arniel’s all didn’t get when each missed the green and made bogy to lose the 82 97 and 2004 opens respectively hitting into any of the four menacing Fairway bunkers on the home Hall leaves little hope of reaching the green and two as Greg Norman learned at the end of the 1989 open playoff with Calia and Wayne Grady after his Drive found the right bunker he blasted into another bunker further ahead then sculled his third over the green and out of bounds for most others it’s a relief to finally emerge from hell and make it to the green set at the foot of the clubhouse though the pressure isn’t over until you haul out since members will be watching closely from the bar Henry lar the famous British writer and commentator said that Royal TR might be the most underrated course in Scotland subtle in its Challenge and Beauty the course must be played multiple times in multiple conditions to appreciate its complexities like the whiskey that is produced on nearby Isa trun is a course to be savored and studied it demands precision and Perfection it’s a chess match played out on a grand scale and ultimately rewards those with both the skill and strength to unlock its well-guarded secrets [Music]