Birthplace of the Open Prestwick Golf Club Held the First 12 Open Championships, and 24 in All

GOLF ILLUSTRATED Birthplace of The Open Prestwick Golf Club held the first 12 Open Championships, and 24 in all. It is also one of the most eccentric, traditional and revered links in the world. Words Jock Howard Photography Iain Forrest, Mark Alexander and David Cannon 20 GOLF ILLUSTRATED he great British golf course lauding Prestwick than in singing the praises architect, Mackenzie Ross, of any other course in Christendom,” he famously said that a great golf wrote. “One might almost say that Prestwick hole is one which ‘puts a has no enemies. To say of a human being Tquestion mark into the player’s mind when that he has no enemies is almost to insinuate he arrives on the tee to play it’. I can’t think that he is just a little bit colourless and insipid; of a course which has more question marks but those adjectives have certainly no than Prestwick Golf Club. application to Prestwick, which has a very As if to illustrate this point, it is a childish decided character of its own.” but hugely enjoyable exercise to witness a In many ways, Prestwick is the most classic group of Americans, who have never played of all the classic courses in the British Isles. It Prestwick before, arrive for the first time on is old-fashioned, eccentric, traditional links the tee of the 3rd, otherwise known as golf at its very best, with all the inherent Cardinal. This is that extraordinarily quirks and characteristics which this implies. eccentric par 5, which bends around to the Many of the fairways look like moonscapes; right, following the line of the Pow Burn, and with humps, bumps and hollows all over the features the devilish, sleeper-faced Cardinal place. At 6,910 yards, it is certainly not long bunker. A lot of observation, discussion and when compared with modern behemoths; contemplation ensues; but it soon becomes ‘Prestwick is the and yet if you stray from the straight and abundantly apparent that none of them have narrow, the penalties are very severe; as the the remotest idea of where they should be prototype from myriads of golf balls in the formidable, hitting. The outspoken American player- which everything coarse rough, heather and briars will testify. turned-commentator, Johnny Miller, was There are also blind shots galore; a thinking along similar lines to Mackenzie else originated...’ particular problem for modern-day Ross when he – slightly less delicately – professionals apparently, who regard these as suggested that every great course needs a impossibly narrow; and a bail out left seems ‘unfair’. Poor diddums! A century-and-a-half hole which “puckers your rear end”. suicidal due to thick heather. ago, blind shots were all part of the In case you didn’t know, Mr Miller, A man has enough trouble striking it ‘challenge’ of the game. Prestwick has a bunch of these; and they start straight and true in such circumstances, The greens on many of the holes are the rather early in your round. without the added threat of the public size of thumb-nails and have slopes on them address system at Prestwick station (no more which are knock-me-over-with-a-feather The Course than a mashie niblick from the tee) astonishing. “The greens at Prestwick are There can be few more intimidating places announcing that the 10.19 to Glasgow there all right,’ comments the great American to stand than on the first tee at Prestwick. A Central has been delayed because of leaves writer, Dan Jenkins, “but you never see them couple of yards behind you, you can feel the on the line! until you are on them, which is usually eight gaze of the Secretary, boring into the back of Despite the difficulties, I once heard or 10 strokes after leaving the tee”. your head from his office; and however hard Bernard Darwin witnessed a two at this For those who know about golf courses and you try to ignore it, you cannot help but see glorious 346-yard par-4 opener (not golf course architecture, Prestwick is the the Ayr-Glasgow railway line, running tight surprisingly called ‘Railway’) by someone prototype from which everything else (very tightly) all the way down the right side who hit the railway line twice, his first shot originated. I happened to be playing golf at of the hole. rebounding into the middle of the fairway, Prestwick (where I am a member) the day If you are going to build a stone wall to and his second rebounding into the hole! after Brenna Cepelak took exception to being stop golf balls shooting out of bounds onto a The romantic in me wants to believe this is dumped by Nick Faldo, attacking his Porsche railway line, then you need to build it 33 feet a true story, but the fact that Darwin never 959 with a 9-iron and causing £10,000 of high rather than three-and-a-half feet. The wrote about it may suggest it is more folklore damage. The story was all over the front latter construction provides little obstacle to than reality. page of the tabloids, which I had glanced at the nervy first-shot-of-the-day-played-when- Darwin loved Prestwick, probably more over breakfast. As I climbed the hill to the ‘Lunch at Prestwick is arguably you’re-a-touch-stiff slice. From the first tee, than any other course in the world. “A man 2nd tee, I spotted a figure with a camera, the fairway is only just visible and looks is probably less likely to be contradicted in taking pictures of the huge bunker in front of the finest golf lunch in the world’ Previous page: The red leather Championship Belt, and the illustration for its original design; together with an early card from the Open Championship. 14 20 GOLF ILLUSTRATED PRESTWICK the 17th green and then noticed it was Faldo “The first Open, which took place on (who I knew a bit having ghost-written his October 17, 1860, was arranged to tie in column in Golf World for several years). He with the Autumn meeting,” says Andrew saw me and made it plain he’d rather not Lochhead, the Club archivist. “Eight talk; perhaps nervous I wanted a quote from Scottish professionals played three rounds of him. This was not the first time I had been 12 holes in a single day, and Willie Park Snr shown a cold shoulder by Faldo, so I beat Old Tom [Morris] by two strokes. A persevered and asked him what he was up to. year later, it was open to amateurs as well; He replied that he was doing research for and two of them joined 10 professionals. some big design jobs, trying to get some ideas There was no prize money in the first three about bunkering. Opens, and then in 1863 a prize fund of £10 Faldo, in my opinion, designs golf courses was raised, and shared between the second, nearly as well as he used to play them. He third and fourth players. The winner, of told me that if you wanted to get some course, won the famous red leather Belt with original design ideas, there was nowhere the silver buckle.” better to go than Prestwick – better even Quite what Willie Park and those seven than the Old Course at St Andrews. This professionals who teed it up in 1860 would was only a couple of years after he had won make of this year’s Open at Royal Lytham, his sixth Major. Can you imagine Jack ‘Prestwick is an with its huge tented village and £5 million Nicklaus, or Greg Norman, traipsing around prize fund, is open to conjecture. The fact some dunes, with a camera and no golf clubs, incredibly special remains that for a small Club of gentlemen a couple of years after they had won a Major? Club, quite unlike to start something such as the Open Looking back, it is not that surprising Championship is quite an achievement. At Faldo sees Prestwick as a breeding ground any other’ this point, the R&A of course, had no for original design ideas; and yet a modern involvement at all with the Open. architect would never dare build the greens stuck mid-iron will suffice; and more often Young Tom won the Belt for the third year at the 13th or 15th holes, for example, for fear than not you scamper up the dune, full of running in 1870, and so was allowed to keep of being rushed off to the funny farm! And hope at seeing your ball on the green, only to it forever. That meant there was no prize to there are whole holes which fit into the same discover it has been devoured by the horribly be played for in 1871, and so no category. The 5th (the original ‘Himalayas’ deep and deeply horrible Sahara bunker. Championship took place. This sparked an from which so many other courses have Like all the hazards at Prestwick, this alliance between Prestwick, Musselburgh borrowed the name for one of their holes) is a bunker has seen a lot of history, and it was and the Royal & Ancient, who agreed to blind 205-yard par 3, played over a massive from here that Freddie Tait played his commission a Claret Jug, and start a rotation dune, to a well-bunkered green. miraculous ‘water’ shot in the final of the system to host the Open. In 1882, Old Tom At the 15th, ‘Narrows’, (the first hole of 1899 Amateur Championship, when his ball was called back from St Andrews, to extend the final ‘loop’, often used in after-dinner was floating in the flooded bunker, and he the course at Prestwick, from 12 to 18 holes.

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