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birthplace of the open
Prestwick Golf Club has a unique place in the game’s history for it was here that the Open Championship was first played. And 150 years later, it is still a stimulating challenge. Story and pictures by David J. Whyte
Prestwick is firmly of the old school of design and construction where you take a wheelbarrow and a couple of shovels and cobble together a golf course in between the dunes. Back in the early 1800’s it was Old Tom Morris who was responsible for this undertaking and in spite of some cosmetic surgery through the ages the craggy character of the Old course prevails.
The ‘Golf Club of Ayrshire’ (later to become Prestwick Golf Club) was founded in 1851 by a group of local gentry who met at the Red Lion Inn, a pub that still stands today. Golf was already well established on Scotland’s east coast and it was only much later that someone realised just how well suited Ayrshire’s non-arable, otherwise largely useless coastline was for the game.
Old Tom was drafted in from St Andrews to be ‘Keeper of the Green’ as well as chief ball and club maker. Club members pooled the funds to buy two cottages just opposite the Red Lion Inn, one for the Morris family and the other as the clubhouse. Both are still standing.
How Prestwick became the birthplace of the Open Championship is an intriguing tale. The idea was to invite the leading clubs of the day, mainly from Scotland’s east coast, to send their three best ‘caddies’ - otherwise known as ‘golf professionals’. But the organisers left the promotion of the event a tad late and by October 1860 only eight caddies had responded to the invite.
The competition consisted of three rounds over the then 12-hole course and Willie Park of Musselburgh beat Tom Morris by two strokes to become the first Open Champion. No prizes were awarded but the members of Prestwick once again dipped into their presumably deep pockets to buy a red Morocco leather belt, extravagantly adorned with a silver buckle the size and shape of a rugby ball.
Young Tom Morris won the Open three times in a row from 1868 to 1870 and was allowed to keep the belt, forcing the Open committee to scrounge around for another prize, and hence the Claret Jug. The original Open belt is now in safekeeping with the R&A in St Andrews, as is the original Claret Jug (the one we see hoisted and kissed each year is a replica).
Prestwick continued its reign as an Open venue until 1925 when golf writer Bernard Darwin noted: “It was a thoroughly exciting championship but hardly a pleasant one, since there were altogether too many people. So many, indeed, that despite the unselfish and valiant efforts of the Prestwick stewards, I gravely doubt whether a championship should be played there again. Golf can be altogether too popular.”
How prophetic he was! Due to the Open’s growing popularity and Prestwick’s difficulties in accommodating the ever-increasing galleries, it never hosted the Championship again.
It is with this sense of history that one enters such hallowed portals. Prestwick’s present day clubhouse is a mix of old and new, the building having been refurbished a decade ago but retaining plenty of its original character. Apart from the regulation jackets and ties, the mood is relaxed and jovial.
Renowned for its blind shots into deep dells, Prestwick dips and winds amongst the ancient sand dunes of the Ayrshire coast and is a course you really have to get to know and know well. If you don’t, take a caddy. We had one between six of us called Trevor.
Our starting hole was the 14th and so we scooped up one of the course’s most interesting challenges early on, namely the 17th. This venerable antique of a golf hole has remained unchanged since the 1850’s with its blind second shot across a high ridge of dunes and a great Sahara-esque bunker hiding just short of the green.
And then we were back at the clubhouse and lining up at the first, an incredible starting hole that is cheek to jowl with the main Glasgow to Ayr railway line. Safely away, most players let go a deep sigh of relief - but they shouldn’t have wasted their breath.
The third is probably the most difficult, complicated hole on the course, a 440-metre, par-5 dogleg across two vast bunkers with a blind shot into the green. “You see that flag there?” Trevor told me, pointing across the high, wooden battlements of the Cardinal’s bunker. “That’s not yours - but hit that way anyhow and you’ll be in good shape.” I looked at him askance, a doubting Thomas in a sea of blind drives, elephantine dunes and spiteful kicks.
Nearly every shot Trevor had me play had a twist to it. I began to realise you needed to unpick each hole in order to understand it and they were rarely as they appeared. At this stage and for that reason, with a good caddie at my elbow, the course really began to appeal. “See that greenside bunker – hit straight towards it,” Trevor gruffed. I thought I’d reach the bunker. He knew I couldn’t. The ball landed well in advance, smartly turned right and trundled onto the green. He was a damn good caddie.
We got to the 13th, a tiny, multi-tiered wedding cake green at an odd angle with barely a flat spot to stick a pin in – completely unlike every other green on the course. “Why don’t they just flatten and rebuild it?” I flippantly threw in as we rolled across the sandy waves.
We came off with the usual degree of satisfaction following any round of golf but for me there was already a growing desire to go out again and apply the new knowledge I’d just gained. I reckon you’d need to play Old Prestwick half a dozen times to begin to really enjoy it. Until then a caddy is essential.
The next time I’m here, I’m going to plot out the original 12 holes - there’s a cairn that marks the original first tee and of the original 12 greens, seven remain unchanged - have a pint in the Red Lion and look for Tom Morris’s cottage. But most of all I look forward to getting to know the course better.
at a glance
Getting there: Emirates flies from Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth to Dubai with daily connections onto Glasgow.
For more information, visit
www.emirates.com/
Prestwick is just under an hour’s drive from Glasgow.
Green fees: Until March 31, £85 for 18 holes, £110 all day. April to October 31, £125 for 18, £180 all day. Weekend rate, £150 for 18. Caddies cost £40 plus gratuity. Visitors are welcome during the week. During summer there are some times available on Sunday.
Accommodation: There are no residential facilities at Prestwick but the area is well served with hotels and B&Bs. A list is available from the club.
For more information, visit
www.prestwickgc.co.uk
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