The last British Open at Royal Troon Golf Club in 2016 went down as one of the greatest duels in professional golf history. Henrik Stenson and Phil Mickelson put together two of the finest performances ever witnessed at a major, trading brilliant shots that cut through the blustery winds on the coast of Scotland.
When Stenson finally pulled out the victory with four birdies in the final five holes, leaving him at an Open-record 20-under par and three strokes clear of the American, it might have seemed like the world’s best golfers had made easy work of an iconic course that dates back to the 19th century.
But what made the tournament an all-timer wasn’t simply what Stenson and Mickelson were doing at the top of the leaderboard. It was what happened further back. While the leading pair duked it out, everyone else struggled so badly that third-placed finisher J.B. Holmes wound up finishing a whopping 11 strokes behind the runner-up.
That underlined what makes Royal Troon, which hosts the Open Championship for the 10th time beginning Thursday, such a classic host for golf’s oldest major. As Stenson and Mickelson demonstrated, it’s possible to go low. But as the rest of the field experienced, it can also be nastier than a mouthful of uncooked haggis.
“It’s a really fair test of golf,” said reigning PGA Championship winner Xander Schauffele. “If it’s really windy, it will be really fun.”
The hole that explains how Troon can be so utterly devious also happens to be the most famous. The Postage Stamp, the eighth hole and one of the world’s most recognizable Par-3s, looks like it should be a breeze. At just 123 yards, it’s the shortest hole in the British Open rota.
But, as the name suggests, the hole features a tiny green tucked into the side of a sand hill—and there’s no safe place to miss with bunkers on all sides. So managing to land the ball on the putting surface off the tee box, which stands 22 feet above the hole, gives players a strong look at birdie. If they miss, though, they’ll be thrilled to walk away with a bogey.
Look no further than a German amateur named Herman Tissies, who back in 1950 carded a 15 on the hole after going from bunker to bunker around the green. Those traps, including one nicknamed the “Coffin,” can be so deadly that when Rory McIlroy found one during a practice round in 2016, he scored what would have been a nine.
The wide range of outcomes is why it wasn’t particularly difficult for Tiger Woods to break down Troon’s No. 8 this week.
“Green good, miss green bad,” Woods said. “It doesn’t get any more simple than that.”
The Postage Stamp isn’t merely a test of precision, though. It also forces the world’s best golfers to make a risk-reward calculation. The long and narrow green is wider at the front, giving players more room to land the ball. But, depending on the pin location, that could mean sacrificing a better chance for birdie—and one gust of wind could send the ball into danger in front of the green.
That’s the type of calculus golfers confront all over the course, where scoring opportunities and potential landmines present themselves simultaneously. That was also reflected in the legendary final round in 2016. While Stenson’s blistering 8-under 63 on Sunday made the course appear tame, most of his peers found it completely ferocious. Of the 81 players in the final round, 60 shot par or worse. The average score for the tournament was 2.15 strokes over par.
Yet while players can do their best to control their irons in the seaside winds, there’s one factor beyond their control that can determine whether they thrive or flop at Royal Troon. It’s called their tee time.
The primary defense at links set-ups like Troon is the weather—Open Championships in rainy, gusting conditions are as classically British as a plate of cucumber sandwiches. Stenson and Mickelson, who fired an opening round 63, had the benefit of teeing off on Thursday afternoon when the winds were calm. That also meant they got to go out earlier on Friday, before the afternoon produced a stronger dose of rain and wind.
The difference this year is the weather has the chance to be vexing no matter what time the players go out. That’s because the forecast suggests the wind may whip in a completely different direction than the players have practiced in this week.
“You would like to play the golf course in the conditions you’re going to play in the tournament,” McIlroy said, “but sometimes Mother Nature just doesn’t let that happen.”
Write to Andrew Beaton at andrew.beaton@wsj.com
