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When it comes to comparing Open Championship venues, Royal Troon often gets the shaft.
It's not the most historic (the Old Course at St. Andrews), the prettiest (Royal Portrush), the hardest (Carnoustie), the most exclusive (Muirfield), the most heavily bunkered (the 174 at Royal Lytham & St. Annes) or home to the biggest dunes (Royal St. George's). It doesn't stand out in any particular way, other than it continues to produce thrilling championships after more than century in the Open rota.
The 152nd Open Championship returns to Royal Troon for the 10th time July 18-22, 101 years after the club hosted its first in 1923. The course actually dates to 1888, but it wasn't until five-time Open Champion James Braid made updates to the routing years later that it attracted golf's most intriguing major.
Royal Troon will hold the unique distinction of challenging players with the shortest and the longest holes in championship history. While every golf fan knows about the 123-yard "Postage Stamp" by now, the par-5 sixth has been stretched 22 extra yards to 623. Overall, the links will play 195 yards longer than the 2016 setup that relinquished a pair of course-record 63s to champion Henrik Stenson and runner-up Phil Mickelson.
A lower score could be in jeopardy again, depending upon the wind and weather. Royal Troon's opening stretch is gettable by major-championship standards. It opens along the shores of the Firth of Clyde with three flat, relatively benign par 4s of less than 390 yards - the only ones on the course playing sub-400 yards.
Eventually, though, Royal Troon fights back against par as the dunes and gorse start coming into play midway through the front nine. As if its fearsome back nine wasn't already intimidating enough, five of those holes added 15-plus yards for this year's Open to boost the challenge.
Stenson set the four-day scoring mark at Royal Troon in 2016, securing his only major championship. Before that unlikely victory, Americans had taken home the claret jug six straight times at Royal Troon. The takeaway? Royal Troon remains one of the fairest, most straight-forward tests of golf in the rota. Players don't often fall victim to the unexpected bounces that happen on other Open links.
Whoever wins this year will have earned it, whether it's an underdog like Todd Hamilton or a legend like Arnold Palmer.
Let's dive deeper into the holes that will decide the 152nd Open:
Royal Troon by the numbers
Yardage: 7,385
Par: 71
Past Opens and Champions: 1923-Arthur Havers, 1950-Bobby Locke, 1962-Arnold Palmer, 1973-Tom Weiskopf, 1982-Tom Watson, 1989-Mark Calcavecchia, 1997-Justin Leonard, 2004-Todd Hamilton, 2016-Henrik Stenson.
Course Record: 63 - Phil Mickelson, Stenson both in 2016.
TV Schedule:
Thursday, July 18: Peacock (1:30-4 a.m., 3-4 p.m.), USA Network (4 a.m.-3 p.m.)
Friday, July 19: Peacock (1:30-4 a.m., 3-4 p.m.), USA Network (4 a.m.-3 p.m.)
Saturday, July 20: USA Network (5-7 a.m.), NBC and Peacock (7 a.m.-3 p.m.)
Sunday, July 21: USA Network (4-7 a.m.), NBC and Peacock (7 a.m.-2 p.m.) *All times Eastern.
Hole 1: Seal - 366 yards, par 4
The shortest par 4 on the course, named after the offshore rocks visible during spring tides, is the first of six holes directly along the water. They often all play downwind, giving players the green light to be aggressive and go low from the start. A pair of pot bunkers left, and a duo farther up the right, protect the fairway. Five greenside bunkers guard both sides of a slightly elevated green. Any bogey will be a lost shot to the field and a failure to gain early momentum.
Hole 2: Black Rock - 389 yards, par 4
Three fairway bunkers lurk in the landing zone of this shortish two-shotter named after a nearby offshore reef. Should players find one and get too bold or careless trying to get out could end up in a trio of cross bunkers closer to the green. Players who find the fairway must hit an accurate approach to avoid the four greenside bunkers, two on each side in front of the putting surface.
Hole 3: Gyaws - 376 yards, par 4
This hole is named for a traditional Scottish word meaning drain or furrow, a nod to the burn dissecting the fairway that forces most players to lay up short. The mostly inviting green slopes away from players with three bunkers catching most misses.
Hole 4: Dunure - 599 yards, par 5
Named for the nearby village and its castle ruins, the fourth has become more difficult thanks to a new back tee that adds 44 yards. A bunker on the left elbow of this dogleg right could play havoc with any second shot. As with most green complexes at Royal Troon, three bunkers leave the putting surface well fortified.
Hole 5: Greenan - 220 yards, par 3
A prevailing wind off the beach tends to knock down shots into the front bunker or shove shots into the three on the left side of the green. Only well-struck, controlled shots will hold the green on this long par 3 named after a nearby castle.
Hole 6: Turnberry - 623 yards, par 5
A new tee box adding an extra 22 yards probably ensures the sixth will be the hardest par 5 of the week. It's named "Turnberry" because golfers who know where to look can actually see that former Open venue down the coast. This dogleg right introduces the subtle dunes that give Troon its best natural playing corridors. They pinch tighter as players get closer to the green. Three bunkers within 50 yards could be in play on second or third shots, depending on whether daring players try to reach the green in two.
Hole 7: Tel-El-Kebir - 403 yards, par 4
The raised tee of this hole, named after a battle in 1882 just six years before the original links was built, points golfers away from the sea for the first time and into the most dynamic dunes on the course. The fairway twists past a quartet of bunkers to a long and narrow green sandwiched between three bunkers dug into the sides of several sand hills.
Hole 8: Postage Stamp - 123 yards, par 3
Originally nicknamed by golf writer and architect Willie Park, Jr., this devilish par 3 needs no introduction. A long and narrow green rides sidesaddle to a dune on the left. The two bunkers on this side are more forgiving than the two craters on the right with their vertical faces. Spectators are certain to witness players ping-ponging back and forth between the two sides, wrecking their chances at a Claret Jug. This hole could play as short as 99 yards one of the days of the championship.
Hole 9: The Monk - 440 yards, par 4
Playing 18 yards longer than in 2016, this hole visits the southernmost point on the property near the village of Monkton. It's usually the last of the downwind holes, so it's wise to take advantage. Tee shots should stay short of the two fairway bunkers on the left side. Although lacking any bunkers, the green falls off in all directions, shrugging approach shots into tricky lies.
Hole 10: Sandhills - 450 yards, par 4
Heading home into the wind, players must carry some dunes (hence the hole's name) to find a blind fairway that angles left. The tumultuous turf - with a gully on the right side of the driving zone and a steep drop-off right of the green - is the hole's primary defense, considering there are no bunkers anywhere.
Hole 11: The Railway - 498 yards, par 4
The course's no. 1 handicap has added 16 yards in length to make it even more demanding. The tee shot must be struck with conviction up the left side, carrying gorse bushes the whole way. A hook might as well be toast. Any flare to the right could be lost in the gorse lining the railway tracks. A single bunker short and left of the green provides just enough of a bother to throw players off.
Hole 12: The Fox - 451 yards, par 4
Twenty one added yards make this hole as tricky as ever to conquer. The fairway snakes through the gorse, providing a mild dogleg that never looks pleasing to the eye. The raised, two-tiered green is bracketed by bunkers on either side.
Hole 13: Burmah - 473 yards, par 4
The fifth par 4 in a row kick-starts a six-hole finishing stretch that etches a near straight line to the clubhouse. With no bunkers, it lets golfers bang away against the wind with little regard for trouble other than the rough. An elevated green requires an extra club to reach.
Hole 14: Alton - 200 yards, par 3
An added 22 yards have given this par 3 more teeth. Two deep bunkers catch misses to the right with another bunker hugging the left side of a green that widens as it crawls away from the tee. There's only a narrow entrance to run shots forward onto the putting surface.
Hole 15: Crosbie - 502 yards, par 4
Drives at Troon's longest par 4 should favor the left side, aiming to land short of two fairway bunkers on that side of the fairway and skirting past the two bunkers up the right. The approach must sneak past three bunkers short of the green (but not quite greenside) to funnel into a putting surface hidden in a hollow.
Hole 16: Well - 572 yards, par 5
The tee shot on the last of Troon's trio of par 5s must stay short of the burn crossing the fairway (the same one encountered earlier in the day). Seven bunkers - two short and five greenside - will make players think twice before hammering their second shots wildly at the green. Laying up might be the prudent play for some.
Hole 17: Rabbit - 242 yards, par 3
This is the longest of the par 3s and, depending upon your wedge game at the Postage Stamp, will likely be the most resistant to scoring. Five bunkers and a plateau green that repels shots around the edges won't relinquish par easily.
Hole 18: Craigend - 458 yards, par 4
The finishing hole is named for the farm that made way for Royal Troon's Portland and Old courses at the turn of the 20th century. Three fairway bunkers stack up the left side roughly 25 yards apart, catching almost anything that strays in their direction. A right-side fairway bunker closes the landing zone to only the straightest of drives. Two cross bunkers 50 yards short of the green shouldn't be in play, although anyone who enters brings the out-of-bounds behind the green into play with a bladed long bunker shot (which could have been Bryson DeChambeau's fate at Pinehurst No. 2 had he not delivered the shot of the year at the U.S. Open). Finding any of the three greenside bunkers will leave a nervy up-and-down for the chance to claim the Claret Jug.
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