After Royal Troon’s sixth hole was enlarged as part of the moderations for the 152nd major championship, this year’s Open will have the longest hole in the competition’s history. When the competition was last held on the Ayrshire links in 2016, the sixth was already a massive 601 yards; this year, it will be 623 yards.
The course will play 195 yards longer overall than it did in 2016, the year that Sweden’s Henrik Stenson defeated Phil Mickelson in one of the greatest matchups in Open history.
The famous par-three Postage Stamp eighth hole, which might measure 99 yards with a forward tee and a pin placed at the front of the green for one of the four rounds, presents one of the shortest holes in golf history to this year’s players after they had to contend with one of the longest.
Although the Postage Stamp hole is small, it will have a large spectator capacity because an L-shaped grandstand that can hold 1,500 people is being built.