Royal Troon will have longest hole in Open history
The Postage Stamp could play under 100 yards in July
- Published
Royal Troon will have the longest hole in Open history when the Ayrshire links plays host to the 152nd championship in July.
The sixth hole will measure 623 yards - 22 more than it did when Troon staged the 2016 Open - when it hosts the battle for the Claret Jug from 18-21 July.
Two holes later, the players could then play the shortest hole in the championship's long history.
The iconic par-three eighth, the ‘Postage Stamp’, will measure 123 yards on the scorecard but organisers the Royal & Ancient (R&A) is considering reducing that to 99 yards for one round, weather permitting.
The R&A can use a forward tee and a front pin position to create a hole that would play fewer than 100 yards.
Overall though, the R&A's preferred architects Mackenzie & Ebert have generally lengthened the links for the 2024 Open.
The creation of nine new tees means an overall increase of 195 yards to 7,385 - just 36 fewer than the record at Carnoustie in 2007.
There are new bunker positions - on the first and sixth fairways as well as next to the sixth green.
The sixth at Troon will play three yards longer than the 15th - which was the 16th before the addition of the new 17th - at Royal Liverpool last year after it was stretched by 45 yards since Rory McIlroy's win at Hoylake in 2014.
This year’s championship has sold out, ensuring a record attendance for a Troon Open of 250,000 - an increase of more than 70,000 people from 2016, when Henrik Stenson prevailed in a thrilling duel with Phil Mickelson.