Where it all started
Prestwick Golf Club was founded in 1851, and Old Tom Morris took up the post of "Keeper of the Green, Ball and Club Maker," a role he'd hold for thirteen years. In 1860, this course staged the very first Open Championship, then just 12 holes, three laps making up the full round, the winner claiming a red leather belt with silver clasps and eight professionals making up the entire field.
Prestwick hosted the Open 24 times between 1860 and 1925, second only to St Andrews, and the Morris family name runs through every part of that history. Old Tom won four times. His son, Young Tom, learning the game here as a boy, won four in a row from 1868 to 1872, a run that's never been matched since. By 1925, crowd sizes had outgrown what the course could safely manage, and the Open moved on, but what happened here never stopped mattering.
The course today
Now stretched to a full eighteen holes, par 71, just under 7,000 yards, Prestwick plays out over classic sandy links ground, and it's built more on character than raw length. The third hole, a par 5 known as the "Cardinal," hides a bunker roughly fifty yards across that's swallowed more championship dreams than almost any hazard in the game. The blind approach at the par-3 5th, the "Himalayas," and the blind carry over the "Sahara" bunker at the 17th are among the most storied features in golf, and the undulating fairways have earned the nickname "Elephant's Graveyard" for good reason.
Prestwick sits between Royal Troon to the north and Prestwick Airport to the south, several holes running alongside both the sea and the same railway line that once carried the club's earliest members in from Glasgow.
Visiting as a golfer
Prestwick welcomes visitors most days of the week, and playing here is as much a history lesson as a round of golf, tracing the exact ground where the Morris family effectively built the modern game. Caddies need booking at least a week ahead, and the clubhouse keeps a formal dress code, jacket and tie for the Dining Room. It's also part of the "Ultimate Links" package alongside Dundonald Links and Western Gailes, worth a look if you're planning a proper multi-course trip.
Why it's worth playing
For anyone who takes the history of this sport seriously, Prestwick isn't optional. It's the literal birthplace of the game's oldest major, and it remains a genuinely engaging, slightly eccentric round rather than a museum piece kept alive purely out of sentiment.
Prestwick is a short drive from Blackrock House, and pairs naturally with a round at Royal Troon on the same trip, letting you cover both without changing hotels.
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