|
|
 |
 |
As a
host to the Open Championship, Ayrshire unique, even in Scotland. It
was October 17, 1860 when the Open first came to Prestwick on
Ayrshire’s links-fringed coast. In fact, this was the inaugural Open
Championship, the first to be held anywhere in the world. The 12-hole
course at Prestwick, laid out by Old Tom Morris in the 1850s saw the
instigation of this great event and hosted it for the following twelve
years. The line up of players gracing the turf at Prestwick through
these years and on into the 1920s reads like the "Who’s
Who" of golf’s early days: Willie Park, the two Tom Morris’s,
Willie Auchterlonie, Harry Vardon and James Braid, to name but a few.
What
had begun as a simple competition between eight of Scotland’s
leading players turned into the greatest of golf’s championship
events in the world. The event was subsequently shared with
Musselburgh and St Andrews on a rotating basis until Muirfield was
included in 1892. Prestwick Golf Club continued its reign as an Open
venue until 1925 when, because of the growing popularity of the event,
it was unable to accommodate the ever-increasing galleries. Although
it no longer features on the Open rota, Prestwick is still a unique
and challenging experience that keen golfers from around the world
long to play. Once renowned for its blind shots into "deep
dells", the present-day course is not quite so
"sporty". But it still reflects a bygone era as it dips and
winds amongst the ancient sand dunes of the Ayrshire coast.
The
most memorable holes begin with the 1st where the railway line and,
indeed, Prestwick Station are only a thin wire fence away to the
right. Once safely off with the inaugural drive, most players sigh
with a deep sense of relief. The 3rd is noted for the massive and
elongated Cardinal Bunker with subsequent danger in the nearby burn or
the tall railway sleepers that loom above the bunkers. Should you
tangle with any of these hazards it will no doubt be costly The
greatest hole on the course for many golfers, though, is the 17th.
This venerable "antique" has remained unchanged since the
1850s with its blind second shot, its high ridge of dunes and the
great Sahara Bunker that awaits just in front of the green. To enjoy a
round at Prestwick Golf Club, please bear in mind that there is no
play for visitors at weekends or on Thursday afternoons. It is a very
busy venue right through the season, so telephone well in advance.
To stay
and play at Turnberry Hotel, Golf Courses and Spa is an
experience to be cherished. Everything about the place is set at a
level of quality and comfort you could very easily get used to.
Looking over the wide reaches of the Clyde Estuary to the Island of
Arran and the great pudding-shaped Ailsa Craig, this sumptuous hotel
has gained some of the world’s most prestigious awards.
Built
in 1906, the hotel was designed to service a growing influx of golf
enthusiasts who travelled by train to play the renowned courses of
Ayrshire such as Royal Troon and Prestwick. The Ailsa Course
had been laid out some years before the hotel by the Marquis of
Ailsa, a captain at the Prestwick Club who, fatigued from travelling
up the coast for his golf, decided to build a private course on his
Culzean estate. The development quickly grew in popularity and the
Marquis finally agreed to its take over and running by the Glasgow and
South Western Railway, who then built the hotel.
Turnberry is the most recent course to enter the Open rota when the
event came here in 1977. It was then that the event saw perhaps one of
its most dramatic contests, a head to-head encounter between two of
the game’s greatest figures, Jack Nicklaus and Tom Watson.
The
Ailsa course, host of three Open Championship events to date, is one
of the best examples of Scottish links, set out on land between the
sweeping dunes and the stolid rise of the Ayrshire hills. It opens
with a "soft" par four that has been criticised in the past
as being a little too easy for tournament standards but the same
can be said of many Scottish venues such as St Andrews and Royal Troon.
The course, in fact, eases players into their game with a relatively
straightforward first four holes before the inevitable challenge warms
up. By the 6th the heat is turned up full with a deceptive, long par
three of over 200 yards that can be a killer in a headwind. And so it
goes, hole after hole of contrariety and trial. The 9th, Bruce’s
Castle, with the famous Turnberry Lighthouse to its left, is one of
the most photographed tees in the game perched on a chunk of
igneous rock sticking out into Turnberry Bay.
The
homeward holes do not commence, psychologically at least, until the
12th where the course turns away from the water and back towards the
welcoming, distant hotel that glints like an impossible mirage.
Generally the wind cuts across these inward holes from the south-west
so there is little respite. The Ailsa is as good a course as nature
and man have conspired to create and so it needs full respect. There
are two courses available to hotel guests. The Arran, a par 68,
6,014-yard layout that would be highly considered if it were not set
next to an Open Championship venue. |
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
