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The Postage Stamp: Short & Fierce

Royal Troon oozes history as most Open Championship courses do. I mean heck, they have been playing golf there for 140 years and this is the ninth Open Championship to be played there.

By far the most famous of the holes is the short par 3 eighth hole: The Postage Stamp.

Christopher Clarey of the New York Times gives us some history and a locals view of the best little hole in the Rota.

Short holes have done some major damage this golf season. Consider, with sympathy, Jordan Spieth’s Masters disaster of a quadruple bogey on Augusta National’s par-3 12th, which measures 155 yards.

As the British Open returns to Royal Troon on Thursday, it is best, then, to worry about the par-3 eighth, the shortest hole on the Open rotation at just 123 yards and one of the most famous.stamp

It is named the Postage Stamp because of its small green, even if the rectangular green is shaped more like a mailing label.

It has also been called the wee beastie; this is Scotland, after all. There have been holes in one here during Opens past. Gene Sarazen pulled his off in 1973 at age 71 with a 5-iron. Ernie Els had one in 2004 using a pitching wedge and the slightest of head winds, and then he exchanged high-fives with caddies and playing partners.

But there has also been plenty of pathos. One of the many to come to grief at the Postage Stamp is Tiger Woods, absent this year but very much present in 1997 when he put his tee shot into one of its many bunkers in the final round and recorded a triple-bogey 6.

Click here for Clarey’s article.

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