TROON, SCOTLAND | The sixth hole at Royal Troon, home of the 152nd Open, is getting longer and losing a bit of width at the same time. On the one hand, the R&A announced last week that it has turned it into the longest par-5 in Open Championship history, at 623 yards. On the other, coastal erosion has been clawing away at the hole’s right-hand flank.
Into a fierce wind, Open contenders will struggle to get anywhere close to the green in two at the same time as the landmark sand-dune short and right of the green quakes in its roots. Indeed, If Open spectators wonder why this major mound is no longer serving as one of the finest natural viewing points on the links, it is because its far side has given way to an ominous hollow. What’s left of the hillock has been declared unsafe.
Billy McLachlan, the course manager who has been tending the Troon links since 1981, has been keeping an ever more wary eye on the situation. “It all started with the flow of the Pow Burn,” he said of the river which crosses between the sixth and seventh holes. “It used to flow straight into the sea but not anymore.”
Over the last couple of winters, it started to weave its way in a more northerly direction. For a while, it seemed to settle, only then it did the same again, hugging the coastline a little more closely. When it happened for a third time, the problem could no longer remain on the back burner. At some point, the Firth of Clyde was going to win its battle with the mound and its neighbouring dunes and have a clear path to the fairway. “Though you can have a period of 10-15 years when things improve,” McLachlan said, “it only takes one bad winter to set you back again.”
He had seen it all before. Back in 1990, the waves came over the second tee and filled the bunkers around the first green with seaweed and wood. On another such occasion, a fish took refuge in one of those hazards.
“We’re talking well over a million pounds [about $1.255 million] ... The sad thing is that not all the Scottish courses which are fighting coastal erosion at the moment can afford the high prices.”
Stephen Anthony
Already, consultants have prepared solutions for each of the short-, medium- and long-term requirements of Royal Troon. It is the medium solution which includes the protection of the sixth, and club officials are seeking permission for what they have in mind from the relevant authorities. Work will start in the autumn.
What will it cost? “We’re talking well over a million pounds [about $1.255 million],” said Stephen Anthony, the club secretary. “If it’s going to be done, it has to be done well. The sad thing is that not all the Scottish courses which are fighting coastal erosion at the moment can afford the high prices.” (In April, BBC Scotland reported that 34 courses in Scotland are suffering because of the rising sea levels, with plenty more said to be at risk.)
For Troon, the long-term solutions include raising the height of the first, second and third holes, with the committee building the expected cost into a forward plan.
It goes without saying that this is all happening behind the scenes at a time when the links are looking magnificent as they lie in wait for the Open. McLachlan likes what he sees. Though he has never been one to court praise, he spoke shyly of the pride he had felt when he saw Justin Leonard sitting on his own on the second tee after he had won the ’97 Open. The American was eating a pizza as he stared contentedly across the links. “That was enough for me,” the 60-year-old greenkeeper said with a chuckle.
His own love of the links is such that at 5 o’clock on a summer’s morning, he will sit down on the grass on the elevated 11th tee. “It’s when the birds are singing and the sun is coming up,” he said. “I switch off for 10 glorious minutes in the knowledge that everything has already been sorted out for the day.
“I’m surrounded by good people,” he added of the staff at Royal Troon, its members, and his own on-course flock. “They all love what they do, and it’s obvious.”
If there is one thing to take away from the members’ pre-Open excitement, it is the parting of the ways between themselves and the players. No longer will the Rory McIlroys and the Scottie Schefflers of the golfing world be operating from Royal Troon’s handsome clubhouse.
As happened for a first time in 2019 at Portrush, the players will be based in their own tented establishment, one which will cover their every requirement. What with ice baths, gym equipment, physiotherapists, family set-ups and special foodstuffs, the arrangements will be the same as those they know week in, week out in America.
One way and another, it’s as if they cannot take their eye off the proverbial ball on or off the course. Day and night, everything has to be geared to what they feel they need to do to win, with that old Walter Hagen line, “Don’t hurry, don’t worry. And be sure to smell the flowers along the way,” no longer coming into the equation.
“It’s sad for the members,” said Anthony, the club secretary, “but I can see how it’s right for the players.”
At last week’s Open media day, there were members who talked of how they had dined out on stories of mixing with the players during past championships. As applied at most of the other venues, they would hand over their lockers to the stars and, more often than not, the latter would leave behind a dozen golf balls or some small gift by way of saying thanks.
In connection with Royal Troon’s lockers, all four of the most recent winners – Henrik Stenson (2014), Todd Hamilton (2004), Justin Leonard (1997) and Mark Calcavecchia (1989) – were awarded a locker apiece when they were made honorary members not so long ago.
The committee felt, quite rightly, that players with just one major would appreciate their honorary memberships rather more than those for whom winning majors was common practice. How right they were on that score, and how right they were again when they bestowed the same privilege on Sophia Popov, who won the AIG Women’s Open over the links in 2020.
Popov’s locker, would you believe, is in the men’s changing room and bang next to Stenson’s. Not everyone will approve, but – to this writer, at least – the fact that Popov is getting the same treatment as the men at this once all-male bastion comes across as flattering and fun.
E-MAIL LEWINE
Top: Coastal erosion won't stop the sixth at Royal Troon from becoming the longest par-5 in Open Championship history.
DAVID CANNON, R&A VIA GETTY IMAGES