Royal Troon’s tiny ‘Postage Stamp’ hole is pure theater – and sometimes terror

TROON, Scotland – The fans groaned, and Justin Rose spun around to face them, his face a cartoonishly pained wince.

The fans broke up laughing.

Rose, with a pitching wedge, had just pulled his tee shot into the back-left Coffin bunker at the Postage Stamp, the 123-yard, par-3 eighth hole, the shortest at Royal Troon and the shortest hole in the entire Open Championship rota.

It is also, by far, the best theater, the most talked-about hole, and the much older ancestor of the island par-3 17th hole at the Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass. Both holes require little more than a pitching wedge, and both feature a remote-controlled TV camera suspended on a wire that zooms silently between tee and green.

“No. 8 is a good little way to almost step back in time and control your ball a bit more,” said world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, who already has six wins this season. “You don't have to make a par-3 230 yards to make it a great hole. It can be 120 yards. I think holes like 12 at Augusta and 17 at Sawgrass – the best par-3s in the world are short par-3s.”

It’s a throwback, Scheffler clarified, because the narrative in golf is usually longer, longer, longer. Case in point: Troon’s 623-yard, par-5 sixth will be the longest hole ever used for an Open. Alas, almost no one is talking about it.

The Postage Stamp, conversely, is Troon’s calling card. From the elevated tee, players can hear the waves lapping up against Troon Beach and the Firth of Clyde to their left while the Glasgow-to-Troon train clatters past on the right.

There have been four aces at No. 8, most recently by Ernie Els in 2004. Gene Sarazen was 71 when he made a hole-in-one there in 1973 with a 5-iron. The oldest to make an ace at The Open Championship, Sarazen was asked if he could describe the shot.

“No,” he said. “I can’t see that far anymore.”

If four aces in nine Opens sounds paltry, keep in mind most players aren’t aiming for the pin as much as they are aiming away from the three exceptionally penal pot bunkers – two on the left, one on the right.

“There's a huge amount of acceptance that goes into not trying to stiff a 100-yard shot,” said world No. 12 Tommy Fleetwood, who is 25th in the FedExCup standings.

But make no mistake: Acceptance is the better part of valor.

“I hit 9-iron and a pitching wedge the last two times I played it,” said Tiger Woods, who finished T9 in the 2004 Open Championship and T24 in ’97, both at Royal Troon. “I’ve hit as much as a 7-iron. But it's a very simple hole; just hit the ball on the green. That’s it. Green good, miss green bad.”

Or, erm, very bad. Steven Bottomley made a record 10 at the Postage Stamp in the second round of the 1997 Open. But even he fared better than German amateur Hermann Tissies, who made a 15 at No. 8 in an Open qualifying round in 1950.

The eighth tee features a green-and-gold Rolex clock, three brass tee markers embedded into the sod, a water dispenser, and a small cup sunken into the left edge of the tee marked “Broken tee.”

Two narrow walkways of what looks like roofing paper corrugated by wooden dowels come to a V at the tee, one coming up from the seventh green, the other leading to the eighth green. They look like roller-coaster tracks, which is fitting because the Postage Stamp, especially in the wind, is a thrill ride.

“The best par-3s in the world, there’s very few that are over 150 yards,” Fleetwood said. “I think the Postage Stamp is probably one of those. It should be a simple wedge shot, but it doesn't always work out that way. The punishment for lack of concentration or a slightly bad shot is obviously very severe, but I think that's what makes it so – you know, one of those unique holes and one of those that will keep people talking all the time.

“Yeah, I think it's a fantastic hole,” he added.

Rich Beem, the 2002 PGA Championship winner who works for Sky Sports, was playing nearby Prestwick when his caddie asked him which he considered the better par-3, the blind fifth hole at Prestwick or the Postage Stamp at Troon.

“I said, ‘Are you crazy?’” Beem said as he stood on the tee at No. 8 while Fleetwood, Francesco Molinari, and Sam Hutsby teed off. Each hit two balls; only Molinari missed the green.

“I can hit at a blind target all day and not give a s--- where it ends up,” Beem continued, shaking his head, “but on this hole, you add a little wind, and I’m scared to death.”