Prestwick is a pilgrimage. This is where the Open Championship was invented, and the course is still, in large part, the one they invented it on.
The Red Lion Inn, 1851
On 2 July 1851, fifty-seven gentlemen met in the Red Lion Inn at Prestwick and resolved to form a golf club. They bought two cottages opposite the tavern, elected the 13th Earl of Eglinton as their first Captain, and needed someone to build them a course.
James Ogilvy Fairlie recruited a 30-year-old from St Andrews named Tom Morris as Keeper of the Green, Ball and Clubmaker. Morris moved his family west into a cottage the club bought for them — his son Tommy was two months old at the time — and laid out twelve holes across the links.
It was the first course Old Tom ever designed, and he went on to lay out a great many more. He stayed until 1864, when he returned to St Andrews as Custodian of the Links.
How the Open started
Allan Robertson of St Andrews, widely held to be the finest golfer alive, died in 1859. The question of who was now the best player had no answer, so Prestwick decided to settle it.
In 1860 the club staged a competition over three loops of its twelve holes — 36 holes in a day. Eight players entered. Willie Park Sr of Musselburgh beat Old Tom Morris by two strokes.
There was no prize money. The Earl of Eglinton had suggested a trophy, and Park won a belt of red Morocco leather — the Challenge Belt — which he kept until the following year.
The next year amateurs were admitted, which is what made the championship genuinely open, and gave it its name. Prestwick ran and hosted the event alone for the first twelve years.
The Morrises, and the birth of the Claret Jug
Old Tom won the Belt four times — 1861, 1862, 1864 and 1867 — and at 46 remains the oldest Open champion in history.
Then his son took over. Young Tom Morris played his first Open at 14 and won it at 17, still the youngest champion ever. He won in 1868, 1869 and 1870 — and under the rules, three in a row meant the Belt became his property outright.
Which left the championship with no trophy. So there was no Open in 1871.
The solution, agreed two days before the 1872 championship, changed the game permanently: Prestwick, the Royal and Ancient, and the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers would each contribute £10 towards a £30 silver claret jug, and would take turns hosting. The Claret Jug and the Open rota were born in the same conversation.
Young Tom won again in 1872 — four in a row, a record never equalled — though the jug was not ready and he received a medal. Tom Kidd was the first man actually handed it, in 1873.
The course grows up
The first fifteen Opens were played over twelve holes, three times round. In 1882 the club acquired land to the north and extended to eighteen, which by then had become the standard, and the cross-routing was eliminated. Old Tom came back from St Andrews to help.
1884: Jack Simpson won the first Prestwick Open over two rounds of eighteen. 1893: the first over 72 holes, won by Willie Auchterlonie for £30. 1908: James Braid reshaped the bunkers on the 4th and 10th ahead of the championship — and then won it.
The day it ended: 1925
Prestwick's 24th and last Open is remembered for the crowd rather than the golf.
Macdonald Smith, a Carnoustie man who had emigrated to America, went into the final round needing roughly a 78 to win. Anticipating a home victory, a gallery variously estimated at ten to fifteen thousand engulfed him. Contemporary accounts say he was jostled and hustled round the links, given barely room to swing, and never once saw where a long shot finished.
He shot 82 and finished fourth. Jim Barnes — a Cornishman, also living in the States — won, for £75.
Bernard Darwin, the leading golf writer of the day, filed a verdict that effectively closed the matter: a thoroughly exciting championship, he wrote, but hardly a pleasant one, with altogether too many people, and he gravely doubted whether a championship should be played there again.
It never was. The course was simply too compact to hold modern galleries, and Troon inherited the Open for south-west Scotland. Prestwick has hosted the Amateur Championship eleven times since — a smaller crowd on the same holes.
The holes
Six of the original greens are still in play, and three of Old Tom's holes survive: today's 3rd (Cardinal), 13th (Sea Headrig) and 17th (Alps).
- 1st, 'Railway'. You tee off a few paces from the pro shop window with the Glasgow–Ayr railway line hard against the right, separated from the course by an old stone wall. Driver is rarely the play.
- 3rd, 'Cardinal'. A reachable par five defined by the Cardinal bunker — an enormous sleepered trench across the fairway — with the Pow Burn waiting beyond.
- 5th, 'Himalayas'. A blind par three over a dune. They do not build them like this any more.
- 16th, 'Cardinal's Back'. Split by Willie Campbell's Grave, a bunker named for a player whose championship died in it.
- 17th, 'Alps'. The oldest hole in championship golf, essentially unaltered since 1860 — a blind approach over a vast dune to a green guarded by the Sahara bunker, so deep it has two sets of steps. Check the pin marker, play your shot, and ring the bell to tell the group behind that the green is clear.
Expect not to see several greens as you play to them. That is the point.
2026 green fees (from the club's published tariff)
| Period | Mon–Thu | Fri & Sun | Wednesday 'Prestwick Experience' |
|---|---|---|---|
| May – September 2026 | £340 (36 holes £440) | £380 | £390 incl. 3-course lunch |
| October 2026 | £275 | £340 | £325 |
| November 2026 – March 2027 (winter rules/mats) | £175 | £205 | — |
| April 2027 | £295 | £360 | £345 |
| May – September 2027 | £360 (36 holes £470) | £395 | £410 |
| Ayrshire resident rate (KA postcode, photo ID) | £105, Mon–Thu from 3pm, Apr–Sep, 7 days' notice | — | — |
Payment in full at booking. The Ayrshire resident rate of £105 is the great secret of Ayrshire golf — a KA postcode and photo ID will get you round the birthplace of the Open for less than a third of the visitor fee.
The Prestwick Experience on Wednesdays pairs an early tee time with lunch in the Members' Dining Room afterwards, or lunch first and an afternoon time. There are 32 places around the long table; gentlemen wear jacket and tie, ladies a change from golf wear. Kümmel is traditionally taken before the afternoon round.
Visitor tee-time windows
- Monday 08.00–09.00, 10.20–12.10, 14.40–15.30
- Tuesday 08.00–08.32 (two-balls), 10.58–12.28, 14.44–15.30
- Wednesday 10.18–12.28 (plus Prestwick Experience times)
- Thursday 10.10–11.30, 14.44–15.32
- Friday 10.38–11.58, 15.12–15.42
- Saturday members only · Sunday 10.58–12.28, 15.26–15.56
Book online via BRS or by email or phone. A handicap is preferred but not required — the club asks for 'regular golfers who are aware of etiquette and able to get round in good time'.
Caddies and hire
- Caddie £70 plus gratuity — at least one per group is strongly recommended, and book a week ahead through the club. Independent caddies are not allowed. Fore-caddie £100 per group plus gratuity.
- Pull trolley £10 · electric trolley £25.
- Carts — two double-seaters, medical certificate required, £30, and a caddie must drive.
- Hire clubs — Titleist, right- and left-handed, £65 including three balls.
- No storage for shipped clubs, and there is no driving range to warm up on.
Dress code and clubhouse
Suitable golf attire on the course — no jeans, trainers, round-neck T-shirts or non-tailored shorts anywhere on the property.
Jacket, collar and tie for gentlemen in the Dining Room and Smoke Room, or a change from golf wear for ladies; smart casual in the Cardinal Bar and Lounge, where a snack lunch is served Sunday to Friday, 9.30am–5pm in summer. Clubhouse opens at 7.15am, closing around 8.30pm in summer and 5pm in winter; no bar or catering on Mondays in winter.
The clubhouse is genuinely half the experience — the lockers are still in use, and a stone cairn west of the building, erected in 1977 and unveiled by Sir Henry Cotton, marks the tee of the original first hole and the spot where the first Open shot was struck.
Accommodation and packages
The club's own Number 17 has eight en-suite rooms within walking distance of the first tee. Girvan is 27 miles and 40 minutes south for a cheaper bed, and Prestwick Town station is a mile away.
The Ultimate Links package (Dundonald, Prestwick, Western Gailes) is booked through Dundonald; the Open Links of Ayrshire (Ailsa, Bruce, Prestwick, Royal Troon, four nights at Turnberry) through Trump Turnberry.
Who it suits
Golf historians, architecture students and anyone who enjoys eccentricity. Blind shots and quirk frustrate players who want everything laid out in front of them; everyone else leaves grinning. A caddie transforms the round — on a course with this many hidden greens, it is close to essential.
