Town in Ayrshire, Scotland
Troon
Troon's most famous hole is just 123 yards long, yet it has wrecked Open Championship dreams since the 1900s. The town behind it has a bigger story.
Key information
- County
- Ayrshire
- Nation
- Scotland
- Population
- About 15,000 (2011 Census)
- Known for
- Royal Troon Golf Club and the Postage Stamp 8th hole
- Famous people
- Colin Montgomerie (grew up here), Willie Fernie, the 4th Duke of Portland
About Troon
The hole that fits on a postage stamp
Troon's 8th hole is only about 123 yards, one of the shortest in championship golf. It is called the Postage Stamp, and it has a savage reputation. The green is tiny, bunkers yawn on either side, and the wind off the Firth of Clyde can turn a wedge into a gamble. In 1973, Gene Sarazen, then 71, holed his tee shot there during the Open. He had won the Open at Prince's in 1932, so he was returning to the stage four decades on. Willie Fernie, who helped design the course, shaped the early links. He succeeded George Strath, Troon's first professional, in 1887. Over a century later, the Stamp still draws more attention than any par-five on the course.
Open champions and Stenson's record-setting duel
Royal Troon held its first Open in 1923, won by Arthur Havers. The Open has come back many times since, and the winners include Bobby Locke (1950), Arnold Palmer (1962), Tom Weiskopf (1973), Tom Watson (1982), Mark Calcavecchia (1989), Justin Leonard (1997) and Todd Hamilton (2004). The 1989 Open was the first to be settled by a four-hole play-off, with Calcavecchia beating Greg Norman and Wayne Grady. In 2016 Henrik Stenson and Phil Mickelson played one of the great head-to-heads. Stenson won on 264, the lowest 72-hole total in Open history. The course runs out along the shore for the first nine holes and then turns back towards the clubhouse, which is why the wind matters so much. The 11th is known as the Railway, with the track running beside it. The club was founded in 1878 and received its 'Royal' title in 1978, its centenary year.
Golf for everybody, not just members
Troon is as much a golfing town as a golf club. Besides the Old Course and the Portland course at Royal Troon, there are public courses at Lochgreen, Darley and Fullarton, so visitors and locals can play the same sort of windy seaside golf. Colin Montgomerie, who grew up in Troon, learned the game here. His father was the secretary of Royal Troon, and Monty went on to captain Europe's Ryder Cup side and win eight European Tour Order of Merit titles. If any town can claim to have shaped a golfer's accent, it is this one.
A coal port with a pioneering railway
Troon was a small place until the Duke of Portland, who owned the land, saw its potential as a port. The 4th Duke built a harbour and in 1812 opened the Kilmarnock and Troon Railway to bring Ayrshire coal down to the coast. It was one of the earliest railways in Scotland, and its trains were first horse-drawn. Steam locomotives were tried on it later. The name Troon is thought to come from an old Brittonic word for a nose, because of the headland that sticks out into the Firth of Clyde. That headland shaped the harbour as well as the name.
Ships, sea views and a long beach
In 1885 the Marquess of Ailsa founded the Ailsa Shipbuilding Company at Troon. For much of the next century the yard built and repaired vessels, giving the town a working side that sits alongside its golfing image. Today the harbour also holds a yacht haven and a ferry history of its own. Out on the long sandy beach the view stretches across the water to the peaks of Arran, with the rock of Ailsa Craig further down the coast. It is a popular place for walkers on a clear day. It is also a good place to see how a Clyde-coast town can be a working port, a seaside resort and a golf capital at once.