TROON, Scotland — In truth, it’s a simple little thing.
This is a handicap 18 hole at Royal Troon and is considered the easiest hole on the course to get par with.
But the 123-yard par-3 eighth hole, affectionately named “The Postage Stamp,” strikes fear into the hearts of the best players on the planet.
The course is extremely dangerous and if a player makes big numbers, it could jeopardize his chances of winning the British Open this week.
Like the 17th hole at TPC Sawgrass with its famous island green, the 12th hole at Augusta that is the heart of “Amen Corner” and the iconic 7th hole at Pebble Beach that juts into the Pacific Ocean, if there’s one hole to watch at this week’s British Open it’s the “Post Stamp” hole.
If you are a spectator lucky enough to be in Troon to watch the match, I highly recommend taking a seat at the “Postage Stamp” and enjoying a beer or two.
If you’re watching at home, consider it must-see TV.
“Stamps” are like small dogs that appear docile at first glance, but depending on their mood, will bite off your leg and draw blood.
“It’s a pretty easy hole,” Tiger Woods said before the first round on Thursday. “You just hit the ball on the green. That’s it. The green is good. If you miss the green, it’s bad. It doesn’t get any easier than that.”
However, this does not include cases where the green is removed.
The tee boxes are perched on top of sand dunes and the long, narrow green is set into the side of one of them, with five intimidating bunkers waiting like hungry animals waiting to prey on any golf ball that gets blown astray by cross winds.
One of the world’s most famous bunkers, “The Coffin”, guards the left side of the green and this steep rectangular trap has ruined many a player’s round.
“It’s an easy hole, but one little mistake can be very costly,” Woods said. “It doesn’t need to be a 240-yard par 3 to be a difficult hole.”
Bryson DeChambeau called the 8th hole “definitely nasty,” but he hasn’t even played it yet; he was simply talking about the hole’s reputation.
The hole’s name comes from a 1922 Golf Illustrated article which described the green as “a pitching surface reduced to the size of a postage stamp.”
Woods played in his first Open as a professional in 1997 and after shooting 64 in the third round, he fell into a bunker on Sunday and shot a triple-bogey six to drop him out of contention for the championship.
That same year, an Englishman named Steve Bottomley shot a four-stroke bogey seven in the first round and a ten in the second.
Not everything that happens on the eighth hole is disastrous. In 1973, Gene Sarazen, then 71, recorded the fourth hole-in-one in Open history on this hole. Afterward, when asked to describe what he saw, Sarazen famously replied, “Oh, I can’t see that far.”
Jim “Bones” MacKay, who caddied for Phil Mickelson when he finished second in 2016 and is working this week as a course reporter for NBC Sports, called Postage Stamp one of the top five spectator holes in golf.
“And I might be underestimating it,” McKay said. “Maybe one or two. If I’m a regular there this week and the gates open, I’ll run out there and put in a day. As the week progresses, I think we’ll see quite a few twos and maybe even a few fives and sixes. It’ll be interesting to see how this year plays out, especially if we get a little bit of wind.”
“If you were to make a top 10 list of the best par-3 holes in the world, I don’t think anybody would leave out Postage Stamp Hole as one of the best holes in the world, maybe even No. 1,” said Brad Faxon, a former PGA Tour player who also works for NBC this week.
Reigning PGA champion Xander Schauffele called the hole “exhilarating.”
“It’s amazing how it’s so short and has such scary holes,” Schauffele said. “When the wind picks up from the left, I think it’s going to be a lot of fun.”
Colin Montgomerie, who grew up playing at Troon, called the Eighth a “potentially card-destroying course”, adding: “It’s amazing that a course designed in the 1870s can still stand the test of time today. Nearly 150 years on it is still capable of generating excitement and drama.”
“It’s frustrating sometimes when the solution to a distance problem is just to make the holes farther and farther away,” world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler said.
“The eighth hole is a good one where you kind of go back in time and get a little more control over the ball. You don’t have to hit a 230-yard par-3 to have a great hole. Great short holes like that are fun.”
Until it isn’t.
