Friday At The Postage Stamp
The dynamics, oddities and the brilliant fun surrounding golf's craziest little hole during a windy Open day at Royal Troon.
Postage Stamp By The Numbers
8th: hole
123: Scorecard yardage
33 paces: Green depth
19: Flagstick location from the front
120: Friday yardage
118: Thursday yardage
3.097: Friday scoring average
3.097: Thursday scoring average
3.187: 36-hole scoring average
59: birdies through two rounds
1460: grandstand seating capacity
5: bunker face-embedded cameras
3: Remote-operated cameras (Flycam included)
4: Human-operated cameras
1: Beer stand
The Quad will resume normal full-field coverage tomorrow when Shane Lowry takes a two-stroke lead into the weekend over Daniel Brown and Justin Rose. Today I thought it’d be nice to look deeper into the dynamics and fan experience elements surrounding the Open rota’s most iconic one-shotter.
The Coffin bunker at Royal Troon’s Postage Stamp has already won the week even if only two tee shots have found the deep pit through two rounds. But given the lengths golf’s best go to in avoiding the casket-shaped pit, you’d think the cruel trap houses a Colosseum-style and tiger-infested floor opening under those beachy bunkers.
After a few hours of watching the tense second-round action at Troon’s infamous one-shotter, a volunteer marshal spotted me scribbling from the grandstand’s top row reserved for press and corporate dignitaries. He approached to complain about how the players—especially the one-dimensional ‘Mericans—were not dealing with the stubborn non-prevailing southeastern winds. With, as is the case with all the Scottish marshals, noble intentions.
The gentleman working the huge grandstand with colleagues from nearby Troon Links was shocked at the steadfast refusal of Open contestants to acknowledge the obvious impact of the wind. All they had to do was aim left of the flagstick. While not wrong, at least the early second-round numbers suggested players learned from Thursday’s dreadful play when the hole ranked fifth and produced a 3.276 average, including 18 double bogeys and two others. On Friday, playing two yards longer with the same wind but round one’s experience under their (mercifully) non-white belts, the Postage Stamp ranked 16th thanks to the double bogey tally dropping to five with two others. However, five fewer players birdied the 8th Friday compared to Thursday. Go figure.
In defense of the players humiliated by fumbling a 120-yarder where only wedges are hit, the huge grandstand acts as a windscreen. And the R&A opps team curiously placed none of the Open-branded flags atop the elaborately constructed arena stands enveloping the 8th tee like they did everywhere else on property. However, a trio of flags on the 7th fairway grandstand are in view for both players and spectators to clearly see the direction and ferocity of the green. The Claret Jug-logoed flags are the primary source for guiding discussions before the tee shot. The grandstand cove effect becomes evident as soon as the player looks to the green and sees the Postage Stamp’s flagstick never matching what’s going on with the 7th hole’s flags. The lefthand dune really does slow down the wind.
Add it all up and there is a resemblance to Amen Corner’s agonizing wind dynamic. Minus pine trees and ghosts of disasters past over-complicating things.
Anyway, after the marshal lamented the player alignment and start-line issues, the first player up was 2015 Open Champion Zach Johnson. He struck the lowest-flighted ball I’d seen to that point. It started slightly to the left of the hole, and the slight difference of a few feet produced a shot of three feet, nine inches from the cup. Johnson turned to the crowd, tapped his heart three times, and let out a relieved gasp. He’d survived the cauldron. The crowd roared with delight in contrast to the variety of oohs, oh-dears and other immediate reactions to shots headed for dreadful outcomes.
After the nine previous Opens at Royal Troon, this is the first time the Postage Stamp tee has been surrounded by a massive steel-girded grandstand complete with spectator toilets, a beer stand and one unfortunately placed scoreboard between the 7th and 8th. Construction of the arena started in April. The 152nd Open is also the first time veteran attendees of prior championships remember two days of a non-prevailing wind coming from the direction of Prestwick and not quartering from the west.
Blend the whole glorious meeting of befuddled players, modern infrastructure and architecture where everyone can easily see the result—unlike the other par 3s at Troon—and it’s as captivating a spot as there is in all of golf (even if the wind dynamics still pale compared to the mysteries of Augusta National’s Amen Corner.)
One of the few players to pull off a dreamy shot Friday was amateur Jasper Stubbs. The Asia Pacific Amateur champion at Royal Melbourne opened with 80 in round one but birdied three of his first five holes out on Friday. He arrived at the Postage Stamp with slim hopes of making the cut.
“As soon as you start thinking about hitting one of those bunkers you’re doomed,” the 22-year-old Melbourne native said. “You’ve got to pick a good line and trust that the wind is going to take it. Because it’s definitely up there you don’t quite feel it back up there on the tee. Simon [Clarke his caddie] and I chose a number and I tried to play it to that number as best as I could.”
Stubbs’ ball started low and rose just enough to get a push from the wind. After one bounce, the Coffin’s upslope took over. Stubbs’ ball funneled down to within 2 feet, 2 inches of the cup. Stubbs made the putt for birdie.
“I knew the Coffin was there in case the wind didn’t push it back and knew it was better to push it off the Coffin a bit than let it slip down into the deep bunker on the right. So yeah, I guess it was a little bit of the plan.”
Besides reminding me how benign the wind seems when players stand on the tee elevated 15 feet above the green, Stubbs and Clarke said the short distance means few players can draw a shot and hold their ball against a stiff breeze.
The vibe at the 8th tee is also different than any other at Royal Troon. Most holes here feature small, elevated box-shaped grounds tightly encircled by signage, marshals, gallery rope, launch monitors and spectators. The Postage Stamp has one 34-yard-long hour pad shaped like a Hershey’s Kiss. Access is tightly controlled. Only players, caddies, referees, scorers and a world television feed spotter are allowed on the grass surface cut at .8mm each day. Beige—excuse me Hugo Boss “camel” brown—position themselves out of television view at the back edge. They still lift Quiet Please signs at the full stands even if the focused fans don’t really need the reminder. Long lines at three entrances to the stand mean the seats are usually filled, though the marshals appear to excessively control how quickly many people are allowed to fill the empty navy blue seats.
One of the world feed spotters working a pair of three-hour shifts each day is Calum Gibson. A young London resident and knowledgable golf fan, Gibson drew the plumest of assignments for his first Open thanks to a “friend of a friend.” His job walking onto such a large tee while caddies and players cope with a wicked little shot requiring a quick and nearly invisible touch. It’s no easy task.