The three most difficult holes golfers will face at the Open
Thursday will mark the ninth time that the Royal Troon Golf Club will host the Open Championship, its first Open since 2004, and with this being the 145th anniversary of the event, all sorts of historical factoids and tidbits about the elusive Old Course have bubbled to the surface.
First things first when it comes to previewing courses and looking into their backstories, and that is to pick out the holes that are most likely to make golfers want to chuck their clubs into the water. Royal Troon has not just one, but multiple holes that gave golfers trouble in 2004, and are sure to invoke an angry soundbite or two out of the always vocal Jordan Spieth. Even tour titans Dustin Johnson and Jason Day aren’t expected to breeze through the old Ayrshire links without a hiccup or two.
Here’s a look at three holes where the pros are bound to run into trouble at Royal Troon.
No. 8
Enter No. 8, featuring a teeny-tiny swatch of green which has earned infamous hole the “Postage Stamp” nickname. On the plus side, it is the shortest par-3 in Open golf with a 123-yard putting surface — an alteration made in 1909 when the entire course was shortened. However, the short distance is set off by its little patch of green being flanked by five sand traps, with one deep ditch at the front right of the green ominously named the Coffin Bunker.
Many a golfer in the modern era has fallen prey to the Postage Stamp. Ernie Els became the rare exception to that trend in 2004 when he sank a hole-in-one at No. 8 in the opening round, before going on to a playoff loss to American Todd Hamilton.
How will this year’s participants meet the challenge? Rory McIlroy made his acquaintance with the Coffin Bunker in a practice round on Tuesday, telling the press afterwards “it took me five or six goes to get it out. That didn’t go too well.”
No. 11
An award needs to be given to copywriter behind the description of No. 11, better known as “The Railway,” on Royal Troon’s official website: “Walking to the tee you have time to ponder over the difficulties of this long and dangerous hole.”
Indeed the par-4 is quite long as it sprawls 483 yards from the blue Championship tee. While it only features one bunker ahead of the raised green, its stretched shape hooks right just before being flanked by thick gorse bushes on the left side and the railway for which it is named on the right. One video description of No. 11 explains the difficulty of the hole by saying that Jack Nicklaus shot a 10 there at the 1962 Open.
No wonder the Railway was named the toughest hole at the Open Championship in both 1997 and 2004.
No. 12
Not only does No. 12, aka “The Fox,” follow up the intimidating Railway, but it was also ranked the second most-difficult hole at Royal Troon when the Open was there in 2004.
While actual foxes are few and far between — compared to when this part of the Old Course was surrounded by woods and there were apparently foxes all over the place — this hole has plenty of obstacles. More thick gorse along the par-4, which dog-legs right and away from the railway. The green offers up its own trouble, with a deep looming bunker to the right of a small, tiered green.
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