Prestwick Golf Club Key Information
Much has changed since Prestwick hosted the first ever Open Championship over its then 12-hole course in 1860. But the wonderfully natural, rumpled terrain still provides a tangible link with the challenge that those early Open competitors faced. Six original greens remain along with three original holes.
Prestwick is still an utterly beguiling place to play and still more than capable of fully testing your game. It may be historically significant, but it is also still hugely relevant.
REASONS TO PLAY PRESTWICK
- The chance to enjoy and savour where the earliest Open Championships were played
- You'll face the kind of challenge you rarely face in the modern era in the form of blind shots and vast bunkers
- There are plenty of chances to score interspersed with some tougher tests
RANKINGS
UK & Ireland Top 100 Golf Courses 2023/24 - 43
It can sometimes be easy to forget that St Andrews Old Course is not the true home of The Open. No, the first 12 Opens were played on an Ayrshire links that was less than a decade old when eight players teed it up for the inaugural Challenge Belt in October 1860.
Much has changed at Prestwick in the last 160 years, but the wonderfully natural, rumpled terrain still provides a tangible link with the challenge that those early Open competitors faced.
Six original greens remain along with three original holes and last year Prestwick laid the original 12-hole course back out to mark the 150th staging of The Open Championship.
Willie Park Senior won in 1860 over that same 12-hole course, and Prestwick would go on to host 24 Opens up to 1925. Old Tom Morris oversaw the extension to 18 holes in 1882, and although The Open essentially outgrew Prestwick, it has continued to test the best unpaid golfers in the game, hosting the Amateur Championship on 11 occasions, most recently in 2001.
The links continues to feature in the top half of our Top 100 Courses in the UK and Ireland rankings.
The main objective on the 1st is to keep your slice at bay sufficiently to avoid the highly adjacent Ayrshire Coast railway. A couple of holes later, you’ll encounter one of many memorable hazards as the par-5 3rd turns right after the vast, sleepered Cardinal bunker.
Before long you’ll be standing on the tee of Prestwick’s most famous hole of all – the long blind par-3 5th, Himalayas, where you fire directly over a tall dune to a big green well-protected by sand. They don’t build them like this any more… more’s the pity!
Coming home, the 17th (Alps) is Prestwick’s original 2nd and calls for a blind approach that must successfully negotiate the hidden, yet sizable, Sahara bunker guarding the right half of the green.
Prestwick is still an utterly beguiling place to play – a course where mere mortals can tread the same historically important turf as those early Open pioneers and find that it’s still more than capable of fully testing their games.
That is Prestwick’s charm – historically significant yet still hugely relevant.
What The Top 100 Panel Said
Prestwick is unique. The holes on the oldest part of the course (1-5 and 13-18) are played over undulating links terrain offering awkward lies, blind shots and unpredictable bounces. It's fun. The middle part of the course is the ‘newer’ addition and provides the sterner test, but these middle holes aren’t as memorable. Is Prestwick my favourite course? Not by a long way. Would I play it every chance I got? Absolutely!
It’s not a course where you just reach for the driver on all the longer holes unless you are the do-or-die type, as strategy and hazard placement definitely ask questions of your game. Okay it doesn’t have a driving range and the short game area is a little bijou, but how many golf courses on God’s green earth can boast a living museum to change your shoes in and have a pint in? And at how many can you walk around with your friends drinking in 160+ years' history of this great game?
Prestwick Golf Club location
Prestwick Golf Club Green Fees
Book a tee-time at Prestwick online
Best Courses Near Prestwick
Best Places To Stay Near Prestwick
Carlton Hotel, Prestwick - Book now at Booking.com
Close to Ayr and Prestwick town centres, The Carlton Hotel has stylish rooms with free Wi-Fi, and a bar and restaurant. Glasgow Prestwick International Airport is a five-minute car journey away. Logans Bar Restaurant serves meals until 9pm and has plasma TVs and an outdoor terrace.
Adamton Country House Hotel, Monkton - Book now at Booking.com
This impressive country house hotel is set in 19.5 acres of private grounds, just ten minutes from Prestwick Airport. It offers free Wi-Fi in public areas, a bar and a restaurant. Rooms are either located in the historic main house or within the adjacent annexe wing, and some have stunning views over the grounds.
Prestwick Gallery
PRESTWICK HISTORICAL TOP 100 RANKING UK&I
- 2023/24 - 43
- 2021/22 - 44
- 2019/20 - 42
- 2017/18 - 43
- 2015/16 - 46
- 2013/14 - 43
- 2011/12 - 43
- 2009/10 - 55
Frequently Asked Questions
Why did Prestwick fall off The Open Championship rota?
Prestwick hosted the first Open in 1860 and 24 in total. Up until 1881 it was played over three rounds of the then compact 12-hole course that featured some criss-cross holes. Despite expanding to 18 holes in 1882, it was still a fairly compact layout and as the Open Championship grew in stature, attracting ever-larger crowds, it was only a matter of time before the Ayrshire links could no longer cope. The last Prestwick Open was in 1925, with Jim Barnes the champion. But it remains comfortably the second most-used Open venue behind only St Andrews on 30.
Why is the 5th hole called 'Himalayas' at Prestwick?
Stand on the tee and you will see why, for the hole plays completely blind over a hill to a green that can be up to 231 yards away depending on what tees you play from. It's important to aim over the sleeper on the hill that corresponds with your tee colour and to remember that five bunkers flank the left of the green, with just one short-right.
