What’s in a name? As golf holes go, the par-three eighth hole at Royal Troon is known as ‘The Postage Stamp’, although its original name was actually ‘Ailsa’.
The change reputedly came about in the early 20th century when Willie Park Jnr wrote that it had “a pitching surface skimmed down to the size of a postage stamp”. The name has stuck.
Just a couple of months ago I stood on that tee, watching as players in front struggled for what seemed an eternity. Then came my turn.
My eight-iron tee-shot into the breeze found the centre of the green. “That would have been a good shot . . . two months ago,” quipped my playing partner, grinning.
My shot had curled left onto the winter putting green that was separated from the real green by a giant dune. I never did get to make a putt on the famed putting surface.
My pitch over the sand hills ran into a bunker on the far side of the green and proved impossible to extricate before the stableford system ensured there was no point trying any further.
Six attempts
This week, though, it is for real. And Rory McIlroy yesterday got a pre-championship reminder of just how difficult the eighth hole can play when he took six attempts to escape that same front-right greenside bunker.
“There is a lot of sand in the bunker,” explained McIlroy. “So when the ball just trickles in back into the bunkers, it doesn’t go into the middle. It sort of stays. Obviously that lip there is basically vertical and every time I tried to get it out, it would go back into the same spot. So bit of a struggle at the Postage Stamp for me.”
Every player knows the challenge presented by the innocent-looking downhill hole, which this year will have a roving wired camera to bring TV viewers closer to the action on Sky Sports.
“Anyone wanting to see potential train wrecks, if it’s blowing hard off the left, that would be the place to sit and see a player struggle with that right-hand bunker. I believe it’s one of the great little par threes, quite tricky,” said Swede Henrik Stenson.
Trouble
“If you get into trouble, you feel like you’ll never get out of it,” said Pádraig Harrington. “You could easily take a six or a seven and your tournament is over.”
The cavernous nature of those sand traps is reputedly a legacy from the second World War when soldiers used the area for hand-grenade practice. In all, there are five deep bunkers protecting the green on this 123 yards par three.
“The first time I played the Postage Stamp, it was quite a nice day, just a flick of a wedge into the middle of the green. Not much to think about,” said Justin Rose.
“But then, when you get down to the green you realise how narrow it is and how it has such a steep pitch left-to-right and, if it falls off into that right-hand bunker, it’s a really, really tough proposition to get out,”
Carnage. Train wrecks. Part of Postage Stamp lore.
