After an early breakfast at Piersland we headed off on a short taxi ride to Prestwick Golf Course just down the road in the village of Prestwick.
Historic Prestwick dates back to 1851 when a group local golfers met at the Red Lion Inn in the village and decided to create a golf club. Old Tom Morris relocated from St. Andrews to lay out the original 12 hole course. The first Open Championship was held at Prestwick a few years later. Overall, some 24 Opens were held on the course with the last being played in 1925. One of those ‘must do’ courses.
Prestwick is a great links course which played as advertised. Good fun with blind shots, massive bunkers, and rollercoaster greens – six of which are original to the 1850’s!
Our forecaddie for the round was a local chap – ‘Mark’. Worth every quid. Things started off lively with a stone wall and train tracks (and busy train schedule) tight to the right side of the fairway. The most famous hole is the long, blind par 3 5th, ‘Himalayas’. Well named. At the top of a massive dune hiding the hole is a stone wall for extra protection. Bill hit the green, Don hit the stone wall. ‘Alps’, number 17, features another blind approach that requires an approach that clears the hidden, massive ‘Sahara’ bunker. It’s a honker. Amazingly, we all avoided Sahara. Worth noting – our trip’s 1st birdie was by Dick on number 18!
Back in 2020 we had booked the ‘Prestwick Experience’ package which allowed us to dine in the members lounge for lunch. See the next post.
While in Prestwick, we walked down to the aforementioned ‘Red Lion’ for a pint. Just, you know, to tip our hats at history.
To cap off the day, we took the local bus down to the town of Ayr for a pub meander. Good stuff – dinner at the ‘Smoking Goat’, a quick stop at ‘West Kirk’, finishing up at ‘Wellies’ (the Wellington Pub) where we were trounced by the natives at the pubs weekly trivia game. They were gracious in victory.
Daily Team Stats:
- Lost Balls – 4 (amazing)-
- Sand Traps – 11
- Low Gross – Bill
- Low Net – Dick,
- Birdies – Dick #18
- Dram O’ the Day – Balvenie Double Wood