If you are as interested in the history of golf as the playing of the game, then Prestwick, the birthplace of the Open Championship on the West Coast of Scotland, demands a visit. Here you will be walking in the footsteps of legends. Although when the Open was first played in 1860 it was over a 12-hole course of 3,799 yards, with a par in the mid-50s, the distinctive flavour of the original course remains and seven of the original greens are in same place.
Imagine all those years ago Young Tom Morris, perhaps the first superstar of golf, facing the monster of the then first which stretched to 578 yards and ponder how, using hickory shaft and a gutty ball, he managed to hole out in three on what is now the 16th green. Be prepared for a devilish test of golf, and if the wind and rain get up, the best of luck. 18 holes, 6,544 yards. Par 71 (SSS 73).
The signature hole is the third (482 yards, par 5) - With the Pow Burn running all down the right and the famous and huge Cardinal Bunker stretching the entire width of the fairway at the point of the dogleg, this is an outstanding hole.
Prestwick
If you are as interested in the history of golf as the playing of the game, then Prestwick, the birthplace of the Open Championship on the West Coast of Scotland, demands a visit. Here you will be walking in the footsteps of legends. Although when the Open was first played in 1860 it was over a 12-hole course of 3,799 yards, with a par in the mid-50s, the distinctive flavour of the original course remains and seven of the original greens are in same place.