Prestwick is considered the birthplace of The Open and I visited the course during the summertime. The weather was really good and I was looking forward to the course even though I had read mixed reviews beforehand.
There is no driving range at Prestwick which is not uncommon to many similar courses. However there is a chipping green to practice a bit before tee off. It is located close to town and the first hole runs along the railway as you can see below.
the golf course
Quite a short opening hole with a hidden green behind the mount.
One of better holes on the course where you need a precise tee shot to give yourself a decent chance of getting on the green in two.
A blind tee shot with an aiming disc on the mount. I am not a big fan of blind tee shots, but this was actually a fun challenge. The green is well protected by bunkers especially on the left hand side. Difficult tee shot.
A long uphill par 4 that really requires some good shots. Keeping the ball on the green can be tricky as you will most likely be coming into the green with a longer iron.
my experience
This was pretty much all the pictures I took from the course which is very unusual for me, but basically it was a disappointing experience. With all the history the course has I had higher expectations. The last part of the course is extremely compromised and all holes are very close to each other. It resulted in very long waiting times but I can live with that if the holes are good, but unfortunately they are not. 16 is ok, but the rest are just average in my opinion.
We did consider whether we should play this course when planning the trip due to the reviews. You are very spoiled for choice of good courses in Scotland, so even though it is always easy to look back in hindsight, we should have chosen differently. Anyway, for 99% of the time the courses we play are fantastic experiences, so this is the first one.
