Royal Troon

The first thing I noticed walking up to Troon is the bunkers. St Andrews has larger bunkers, but at Troon they are widespread, and they are deep with lips elevated over the surrounding turf. Is this where the “cookie cutter” bunkers term originated because they are all circular and about the same size? They polkadot most of the holes. 

This was the first view I had walking up to the course on 17.

The second thing I noticed (likely because I had just been to St Andrews) is how narrow everything is. The days of double fairways feel long gone. Each hole has a clear definition and boundary. Even though it’s still mostly an out and back (holes 8-12 are exceptions) it’s not as easy to see the neighboring hole from the current one on most of the holes.

This is the first tee view with the sea on the right. It’s a much smaller target than the 1/18 fairway at the Old Course.

Additionally, the greens are tiny. Everyone knows the postage stamp hole is short with a small green, but for the others it’s common for the narrow fairway to not widen, and simply encircle an even narrower green, typically protected by several of the bunkers mentioned above. 

This is the 13th green. Taking the entire shaved area, not just the green, probably gives an area around a quarter of the size of a St Andrews double green.

In common with St Andrews are the severe slopes in the fairways (and everywhere else). Take a large drainage ditch and clear it out, no trees, no brush, etc, then grow grass and cut it down to fairway length. Then, throw it down at some random angle to the hole across the fairway. Walk 5 feet forward, and repeat the same process. I didn’t get to walk the fairways at Troon, but walking outside the ropes makes you feel like an ant walking through an empty ice tray. 

The picture could never do it justice but here is one of the bumpy fairways

On top of the larger swails are the small imperfections of the naturally shaped turf. It’s rare to take consecutive steps and have your feet land the same way both times. Unlike the large elevation changes at Augusta, the course is very flat on a global scale (I’d say it’s around sea level the whole way based on, uh, the sea) but it’s very knobby. Your legs feel like you’re walking through the woods stepping on rocks and roots, so it can be very tiring even walking short distances. 

Troon is closer to the water than the Old Course, only because the Old Course is sandwiched between other St Andrews Links courses. The weather switches impressively quickly at both. It’s shocking how warm 60° can feel with the muggy sea and direct sun, and equally as shocking how cold it can feel with wind and rain. Layers on. Layers off. Rinse. Repeat.

Looking back to the Stenson-Mickelson duel, I cannot believe the scores they shot that week. Unlike St Andrews where I could see how the good guys could play away from danger in good conditions, I don’t see how Troon is gettable under prime conditions, and I don’t know how you’d finish a round before running out of golf balls in bad weather.

The par 3s are easily as tough of a group as I’ve ever seen. The first 4 holes have tee boxes near the water, and greens slightly inland, followed by the next tee box on the water side of the previous green. Number 5 doesn’t follow this pattern. It’s 220 yards of water front. Also, there are about 10 tee boxes that could be used. There’s a huge swail left of the green and several of those bunkers surrounding the green.

5th green

Everyone talks about the postage stamp so I’ll hold my breath, but it’s very hard to access during the tournament. You can basically only get close to it in the grandstands, and the line at 7am was 30 minutes long. I never made it into those stands, but watched a few people play it from the 7th green.

Moving on, the other par 3s, 14 and 17, are long and unfriendly just like 5. 14 is 200ish and 17 can be as long as 260, but listed as 232.

Unlike 14 at St Andrews, the par 5s at Troon are long because they are long. Holes 4 and 6 can both play over 600. I saw several birdies on 4, but all were due to good play around the green. I don’t recall seeing any groups finish 6. I don’t know that I ever made it to the end of the fairway. I don’t know for sure that there is an end to the fairway.

Ok, I guess I did make it to the end of number 6

The 16th is shorter (560ish), but it has a burn across the middle of the fairway. The green is fairly tame, but it’s surrounded by the biggest bunkers I saw on the course.

This is the burn that runs across 3 and 16

Finally, the par 4s to start the back 9 are unique. 10 starts a blind tee shot where you literally only see a massive brush and rough covered hill with a bunker that should never come into play, and then a steep slope up to a hard sloping green. 11 is the “train hole” because the trains (including the ones we took to the course) run right beside it. There’s a wall similar to the road hole at St Andrews all the way down the right hand side. And then the 12 has a massive slope to bounce tee shots forward up to a fairly wide open (for Troon anyway) green. The stretch from 7-12 breaks the traditional links out and back of the course, but it features some of the coolest holes. Some pictures of those holes, and a few other course pics are below.