The Open 2016: Is this the hardest 123 yard par 3 in golf?

Troon’s famous Postage Stamp has been tweaked for 2016... but that doesn’t mean it’s been made any easier

Even off the back tees Troon’s Postage Stamp is only 123 yards. It’s the shortest hole in Major Championship golf, so should be a simple wedge for the world’s most elite players. It’s not.

Throw in the ever-present breeze, the pressure of a Major, a green that’s only 10 yards wide and some of the deepest bunkers on the course, and it can be a nightmare (despite its club stroke index of 18). Just ask Hermann Tissies, a German player who, in 1950, took fi ve to get out of one of the bunkers on his way to a 15, the worst Open score ever recorded on the hole.

Former Open champion Willie Park Jnr is said to have named the hole, when he wrote in Golf Illustrated that the 8th had “a pitching surface skimmed down to the size of a postage
stamp”.

There have been some subtle tweaks this year with more mown green at the front (so the flag can be closer to the bunker) and a softer slope off the left-hand bunker. The R&A is also looking at pushing the tees a touch forward, so it could play less than 100 yards for one day.

Pitfalls of the Postage Stamp

FROM THE SUBLIME…
In 1973, 71-year-old Gene Sarazen, playing on the 50th anniversary of his fi rst Open, hit a 5-iron and watched it disappear for an ace, making him the oldest person ever to bag one in a Major. Just 45 minutes earlier, Scotland’s David Russell, became the youngest player ever to score a hole-in-one in a Major when he holed in his 7-iron there.

…TO THE RIDICULOUS
In 1997, Tiger Woods was Masters champion and world No.1 when he arrived at Troon for his f rst Open as a pro. In the final round he hit his tee shot on the 8th into a greenside bunker, left it in the sand at his first attempt and then three-putted from 15 feet for a triple-bogey. He said: “The ball was buried and I pretty much didn’t have a shot. I was just trying to get it out and didn’t hit it hard enough. The putts, I don’t know… maybe I rushed them.”

TROON LEGEND MONTY SAYS…
“It is my favourite hole in golf. It should present a challenge for any quality of player. You stand on the tee with a wedge in your hands and think you should be making a birdie, but the danger lurks everywhere. There are two bunkers on the left and three on the right. The green is close, but it is very small and you miss it at your peril. No round at Troon is secure until you have passed this hole in regulation numbers. I’ve hit the ball to one inch and tapped in for a birdie, but I’ve also had sevens and eights.”