The Postage Stamp at Royal Troon Golf Club is probably the most respected short hole on the Open Rota. Thousands flock to Scotland's Ayrshire coast each year to tempt fate on a diminutive one-shotter that can play to less than 100 yards...
Historically, the Golden Age greats agree that Eden, the 11th at St Andrew's Old, was the greatest one-shot hole in existence. The Postage Stamp is now, however, perhaps the most feared and best-known short hole in the world. (Although Pebble Beach's 7th or Cypress Point's 16th may have something to say on that matter...)
The hole itself has become synonymous with the name but it is the putting surface itself that was referred to originally as a postage stamp. It was William Park who referred to the putting surface in Golf Illustrated in 1923. He wrote referring to James Braid's changes saying: "the pitching surface is skimmed down to the size of a postage stamp."
Although William Park is given credit for the quote itself, he says in the article that it was another unknown golfer 'who was condemned to its punishments' that coined the phrase... Despite the hole now known as the Postage Stamp, it was originally just the putting surface that was so described.
The question then is, what was known as previous and why?
The hole was known before the changes in 1923 as Ailsa. Why? Largely due to the resemblance of the dune to the left of the postage stamp to Ailsa Crag, which ironically is now more closely associated with Turnberry. Before James Braid's changes for 1923, 'facile fellows used to play for a rebound' off the dune, known as Ailsa, that lent its name to the hole itself.
James Braid is credited with making the Postage Stamp the hole it is today. The dune, named Ailsa, and the putting surface, dubbed the postage stamp, hadn't inherently changed.
William Park wrote that James Braid introduced a 'pouch bunker which will keep all the softies from the tee going that way. There is nothing for it now but to get the ball on the green - or pay the penalty.' In the summary report, it was reported that only one 'new deep bunker in face of mound' was made.
The bunker became so famed, that it has earned a moniker all its own and its resemblance to another inanimate object - a coffin. Although the bunker was originally placed on Ailsa by Braid, it appears it to earned the name following its evolution into its current state...
The Postage Stamp as it stands today has five bunkers surrounding the green. Two on the left in the dune we now know as Ailsa and three more on the low side, or right-hand side, of the putting green we know as the Postage Stamp.
Early photos seem to indicate two bunkers on the right. The fronting bunker, greedily catching anything short, seems to have been a largely flat-bottomed affair in striking contrast to the pits of despair today's pots have become.
Harry Rountree's watercolour also helps us see the evolution in the design. The book, Golf Courses of the British Isles, was written by Bernard Darwin and illustrated by Rountree in 1910.
Golf Monthly reported in 1925 that two bunkers had been nestled in the face of Ailsa and credited Marr, the head greenkeeper, with 'a nice piece of work.' The two bunkers were originally situated more on the face of the dune rather than the deep pots at Ailsa's base, with their underbellies well below the putting surface.
The hole now known as The Postage Stamp is certainly greater than the sum of its parts. At least three elements have earned names: the putting surface, one of the five bunkers and the dune upon which the hole itself sits. The Postage Stamp was Ailsa, still sits on Ailsa and has added a coffin...
It is one of golf's great holes - uniquely penal, akin to Sawgrass' 17th, without the reprieve of a watery grave and the drop zone that is afforded those who fail by the smallest of margins. One must continue until they hole out... with none more unfortunate than Hermann Tissies who carded a 15 in 1950.
(A wee bit of trivia - there is also a secondary green to the left of Ailsa... to the members it is known as the 2nd Class Stamp.)
Photo Credits: Gary Lisbon & Jasper Miners
Artwork: Evalu18
