XIV: Prestwick
The year 1860 was a much simpler time for the game of golf, no arguments over hundreds of millions of dollars, no technological races to push the boundaries of equipment, and no astronomical rises in green fees challenging the accessibility of the game However, 1860 was a year which transformed the game, bringing with it the death of the world’s finest player and the birth of the sport’s oldest prize.
There's nothing quite like playing through an old Scottish town
Alan Robertson of St Andrews was a man before his time, becoming the first golf professional to make a living from the game through betting cash against competitors, building clubs and instructing others. In 1859, Alan was viewed as the undisputed greatest golfer of all time, legend having it that he had never lost a match with money on the line- golf’s first gamer. Robertson’s passing left a vacancy at the top of golf’s totem pole, sparking Prestwick Golf Club to invite eight professionals for a tournament on their 12-hole course to determine the game’s new heir to the throne. On the 17th of October 1870 the opening shot of the inaugural Open Championship was struck at Prestwick and while 2024’s Open Championship at Royal Troon features a purse of £13m, 1860’s iteration was played for a £25 Moroccan belt and the title of the world’s finest player.
An iconic view from the putting green
Today’s iteration of Prestwick has transformed the original 12 hole loop of wildly criss-crossing holes which traversed some of the game’s unimaginable landforms and its finest grounds for golf, to an 18 hole routing across the same landforms, incorporating the additional holes on the outskirts of the property.
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Railway lines are synonymous with golf in Scotland, with older courses originally routed near stations to help with ease of access in the days before vehicles were commonplace. I can honestly say however, I have never encountered a scarier railway than that which hugs the right side of Prestwick’s first fairway and green – standing over the first shot of the day, iron in hand, with the potential for my ball to be on the next train to Glasgow could best be described as an uncomfortable introduction to the quirks of Prestwick!
The train is more than in play on the first shot of the day.....
My first joyous head-scratching ‘where the hell am I going here’ moment came with the second shot into the par five third hole ‘Cardinal’. A sprawling bunker cuts off the fairway and gives rise to a blind approach to a whirlpool of rumpled fairway short of the green – the guessing game of line and distance a delightful appetiser for what was to come.
Cardinal Bunker is one of golf's great hazards
The fifth hole, stamped on the card as ‘Himalayas’ is fairly self-explanatory- a completely blind par 3 over a 40 foot tall dune, which struck me as a hybrid of the Dell and Klondyke holes at Lahinch (a blind par 3 in the vein of Dell, which prefers a ball which lands short and chases up like Klondkye).
Himalayas is the type of hole which separates golfers into categories based not on ability but their appreciation for the game, the short-sighted golfer will likely label it as a stupid, unfair circus hole, whilst the player there for the right reasons will gush over its charm, embrace its challenge and let their heart rate jump as they summit the dune to discover their fate. The game of golf in its purest, natural form.
The magical blind tee shot at 'Himalayas'
With the two blind approaches, the railway line and the outright quality of Prestwick’s front nine burned into my memory, it was the stretch of holes from 13-18 which truly solidified Prestwick as one of my favourite courses in the world. You could travel the world in search, but I’m not sure you could ever find a more compelling and memorable collection of landforms than those which the back nine at Prestwick occupies- lumps, bumps, ridges, swales, valleys and dunes combine to provide the ground game thrills which man could never replicate and golfers from all walks of life make the pilgrimage to bounce balls across. Land like this rewards creativity, imagination, strategy and a good dose of luck – the purest depiction of natural golf, and a joyride of epic proportions.
The greens at Prestwick are complex and brilliant
Loaded with variety, this stretch of golf asks every question imaginable with endless options to answer them. The beauty of the thirteenth’s bunkerless green defended only by the wild contours of the land and the semi-blind tee shot of the aptly named 15th ‘Narrows’ leaves an approach to a green with only the top of the flag in view, make for a lovely one-two punch. The driveable 16th shares a fairway with the 13th, but anything right of the green is re-introduced to the cavernous ‘Cardinal’ bunker.
The humps and hollows of pure linksland
Despite the world-class qualities and unadulterated joys of the holes gone by, many will view them as an entrée to one of golf’s most famous holes- the 17th ‘Alps’. A tee shot threaded between the dunes to a plateau short of a dune ridge is the easy part, leaving an approach to be hoisted over the dune and beyond the MASSIVE Sahara bunker to a green with a brilliant backstop. In my life I am sure that I won’t play many holes more compelling, complex or downright thrilling than Alps.
The mind-boggling 17th 'Alps'
Having hosted the first Open Championship in 1860 and an additional 24 subsequently, Prestwick’s rarely matched history alone makes it a must see, however, the course today stands as far more than an open-air museum, its eccentric layout showcases just how fun the game can be, and just how far our courses have strayed from the smile-inducing and thought-provoking principles of traditional links golf. In a similar lineage to Lahinch, golfers will exit the 18th green waxing lyrical on the joys of Prestwick’s quirks and the madness of its obstacles, too often placing it in a box of novelty courses without asking the question of why it has become the outlier.
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For its joys, for its mind-bending strategic qualities, and for my eagerness to return Prestwick sits in a tier of few peers- a nod to its brilliance and a further indictment on the golfing world for just how far we have strayed- Prestwick has my heart and my grin.