Allow me to begin with an aside, as I'm frequently consulted by those planning their first golf trip to Scotland.... the issue is that I'm equally frequently ignore. As just one example, a Willow Ridge member will be leaving for such a trip in a few weeks and will be playing Troon, but can't find time for Prestwick, a most unfortunate unforced error.
These thoughts are triggered by Paul Weaver's love poem to Prestwick in The Guardian (h/t Shack), which you are required under your membership agreement at Unplayable Lies to read in its entirety. Prestwick may not call itself the home of golf, though it has a strong case to do so:
A few Bubba Watson drives from Troon is the place where it all started, where the greatest golf championship of them all was conceived and born – and matured with such assiduous care it might have been the local whisky.
This is the moonscape in South Ayrshire otherwise known as Prestwick Golf Club. And it was here, on 17 October 1860, that the first Open Championship took place, with eight professionals playing three rounds on the 12-hole links course.
Ken Goodwin, club secretary, says: “They started at noon and played two rounds. Then they went up to Prestwick, to the Red Lion Inn to have lunch, and then came back to play another 12 holes. So the first Open, including lunch, was completed in four and a half hours.”
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| A scene from the 1925 Open, the last held at Prestwick. |
Want a little more history?
The whole place has the patina of legend about it. The first 12 Opens were held here, and 24 in all. “The first event was really by invitation,” says Goodwin. “The local clubs were invited to send their best man. For the following year it was decided the event would be open to all the world. So some people might argue that the second playing, in 1861, was the first true Open.”
The club had been formed in 1851 following a meeting of prospective members at the Red Lion, just a mashie niblick stroke from the club. Allan Robertson was considered the finest golfer in Scotland and in the world at that time. He was the first man to beat 80 around the Old Course at St Andrews and, it was said, never lost a match for money.
When he died, in 1859, it was decided to hold a contest the following year to find a new champion. The favourite was Old Tom Morris, who had built the course. But Willie Park won it. “Old Tom, who was keeper of the green as well as the ball and club maker for the club, won four times, the last in 1867,” says Goodwin. “He was 46 and is still the oldest winner in Open history. The following year his son, Young Tom, won, and at 17 remains the youngest champion.”
Old Tom worked for Alan Robertson in St. Andrews, until they had a falling out over golf balls.... you really should read this if the history of our game holds any interest for you, as it won't disappoint. But Prestwick, St. Andrews and Musselburgh (home of the Park family) fought for primacy in the game during this era, with Prestwick's creation and staging of those early Opens making it first among equals....for a while.
While Prestwick's days of holding majors is long in the rearview mirror, it remains a great day of golf for the club player:
Prestwick’s most famous hole is probably the Alps, the 17th now but originally the 2nd. The club thinks it is the oldest hole in championship golf. Goodwin says: “Other well-known holes are the 3rd, the Cardinal. It contains the Cardinal Bunkers, which is a system of bunkers, two very large ones and a smaller one. Then there is the Himalayas, the par-three 5th. “It’s a blind hole. There are a number of blind shots played here. If you can see the flag from the tee, you’re probably looking at another green.”
Even golfers who do not necessarily drive as badly as Ben-Hur have problems here. “Prestwick,” wrote the legendary writer Bernard Darwin, “has been the scene of more disasters that have passed into history than any other golf course. Willie Park’s catastrophe at the Alps, James Braid’s celebrated eight at the Cardinal in 1908 (I can still in nightmares see his ball glancing off the sleepers and into the burn), Mr Hilton’s eight at the Himalayas in 1898. I do not know how many shots Willie Campbell took when he sliced at the 16th.” The bunker there became known as “Willie Campbell’s grave”.
Think Pete Dye invented the use of sleepers (railway ties) in bunkers? Think again, as you look at beloved Employee No. 2 in one of those above-referenced Cardinal bunkers back in 2009:
By the way, on that 12-hole course used for the first Opens, the first hole was 578 yards.... And that was just before graphite shafts and 460cc driver heads became available. Young Tom famously made a three there in one of his wins...
Do you like your golf course features with memorable names? Prestwick has you covered here as well...
The Archive Room, with pencilled-in scores from the 1860s, tells tales of terrible traumas outside. Darwin added: “Holes and bunkers that can bring down great men with so terrible a crash deserve great names and in these Prestwick is rich; the Slough of Despond, Purgatory, the Goose Dubs, Lion’s Den, the Pill Box, the Precentor’s Desk and Sandy Neuk.” It feels friendlier in the clubhouse.
The Slough of Despond? How great is that?
Shack had his own thoughts as well, including this on the design:
As for Prestwick's architecture, the course retains its playing charm and design fascination, an astounding notion given how so many courses do not age well. The appreciation heard last week for its merits is heartening and offers more evidence that a greater awareness for design is in the game. Just like North Berwick's recent renaissance, Prestwick no longer is getting tagged with a negative "quirky" or "bizarre" labels. Instead, the overall walkability, memorability, variety and at times, audacity of the holes appeals to a broader golf audience than 20 years ago. The fun word is getting throw about too, and never in that demeaning way suggesting the course is too "easy."
The Himalayas remains such a thrill to play, and a great reminder that blind can be exhilarating. What I can't figure out: why the blindness is better received in 2016 than even 2006? Is it the awareness before arriving at Prestwick that has people prepared? Or just the overall desire to have a sense of a natural adventure that has been re-introduced by more lay-of-the-land courses? Either way...
I suspect there's some self-selection at play, in that those seeking out Prestwick go for this very thing... Though there are, as noted above, whose offense is more that they don't know that such a thing is on offer.
Shack had many great photos in his post as well, including this from the walls of the club:
Read it all, as the kids like to say. And read the book as well, you'll learn much about the game that you love...
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