Prestwick Golf Club Key Information
Much has changed since Prestwick hosted the first ever Open Championship over its then 12-hole course in 1860. But the wonderfully natural, rumpled terrain still provides a tangible link with the challenge that those early Open competitors faced. Six original greens remain along with three original holes.
Prestwick is still an utterly beguiling place to play and still more than capable of fully testing your game. It may be historically significant, but it is also still hugely relevant.
REASONS TO PLAY PRESTWICK
- The chance to enjoy and savour where the earliest Open Championships were played
- You'll face the kind of challenge you rarely face in the modern era in the form of blind shots and vast bunkers
- There are plenty of chances to score interspersed with some tougher tests
RANKINGS
UK & Ireland Top 100 Golf Courses 2025/26 - 44
It can be easy to forget that St Andrews Old Course is not the true home of The Open. No, the first 12 were played on an Ayrshire links that was less than a decade old when eight players teed it up for the inaugural Challenge Belt in October 1860. In the 21st century, it remains a permanent fixture in the top 50 of our Top 100 Golf Courses UK & Ireland rankings.
Much has changed at Prestwick in the last 165 years, but the wonderfully natural, rumpled terrain still provides a tangible link with the challenge that those early Open competitors faced.
Six original greens remain along with three original holes and in 2022 Prestwick laid the original 12-hole course back out to mark the 150th staging of The Open Championship.
Willie Park Senior won in 1860 over that same 12-hole course, and Prestwick would go on to host 24 Opens up to 1925. Old Tom Morris oversaw the extension to 18 holes in 1882, and although The Open essentially outgrew Prestwick, it has continued to test the best unpaid golfers in the game, hosting the Amateur Championship on 11 occasions, most recently in 2001.
The overriding goal on the 1st hole is to avoid blocking or slicing it onto the adjacent Ayrshire Coast railway - there's even a sign on the tee 'suggesting' the best way to play the hole. On my last visit, I followed the directions perfectly until the end of point two, misreading ‘into landing area’ for ‘onto the train tracks’! My reload was almost identical but this time the ball miraculously ricocheted back onto the fairway, from where a 6-iron to 15ft left me a putt for the unlikeliest of bogeys. I missed.
Prestwick is one of a kind in many respects. It's also occasionally bewildering, sometimes a tad unkind, but always great fun and a voyage of discovery. Having now played it a handful of times, my discovery on that visit with a group of golf club secretaries was that threading the needle to split the fearsomely narrow 15th fairway means little if you hit a poor wedge in, and possibly relatively little even with a good wedge, such is the severity of the downslope you’re landing on.
If, unlike me, you manage to safely avoid the railway on the 1st, a couple of holes later you’ll encounter one of Prestwick's many memorable hazards as the par-5 3rd turns right after the vast, sleepered Cardinal bunker.
And before long you’ll be standing on the tee of Prestwick’s most famous hole of all – the long blind par-3 5th, Himalayas, where you fire directly over a tall dune to a big green well-protected by sand. They don’t build them like this any more… more’s the pity, some would say, while others would strongly disagree!
Coming home, the 17th (Alps) is Prestwick’s original 2nd and calls for a blind approach that must successfully negotiate the hidden, yet sizable, Sahara bunker guarding the right half of the green.
Prestwick is still an utterly beguiling place to play – a course where mere mortals can tread the same historically important turf as those early Open pioneers and find that it’s still more than capable of fully testing their games.
That is Prestwick’s charm – historically significant yet still hugely relevant.
What's new for 2025/26? What our panellists said…
Prestwick is played over the most delightful rolling, tumbling linksland. The course reminds one just how much more fun golf is played using the land rather than monotonously through the air. Using the contours to feed your ball close to the hole rather than automatically reaching for a lofted wedge is one of many joys of playing at a course such as Prestwick. Even the names of the holes, such as Himalayas, Sea Headrig, Goose Dubs and Alps, are wonderfully evocative. Somewhere along the way, the greatness of a golf course stopped being defined by how much fun it is but how difficult it is. Prestwick is as much fun as I’ve ever had on a golf course.
I find it hard to suggest a ranking for this course because there are quite a few negatives. But the positives are so great that they push the ranking up. So much of that isn’t easy to put my finger on, other than it just “feels” special when you’re there. Embrace the quirkiness, and revel in a truly special experience.
Prestwick Golf Club location
Book a tee-time at Prestwick online
Best Courses Near Prestwick
Best Places To Stay Near Prestwick
Carlton Hotel, Prestwick - Book now at Booking.com
Close to Ayr and Prestwick town centres, The Carlton Hotel has stylish rooms with free Wi-Fi, and a bar and restaurant. Glasgow Prestwick International Airport is a five-minute car journey away. Logans Bar Restaurant serves meals until 9pm and has plasma TVs and an outdoor terrace.
Adamton Country House Hotel, Monkton - Book now at Booking.com
This impressive country house hotel is set in 19.5 acres of private grounds, just ten minutes from Prestwick Airport. It offers free Wi-Fi in public areas, a bar and a restaurant. Rooms are either located in the historic main house or within the adjacent annexe wing, and some have stunning views over the grounds.
Prestwick Gallery
PRESTWICK HISTORICAL TOP 100 RANKING UK&I
- 2025/26 - 44
- 2023/24 - 43
- 2021/22 - 44
- 2019/20 - 42
- 2017/18 - 43
- 2015/16 - 46
- 2013/14 - 43
- 2011/12 - 43
- 2009/10 - 55
Frequently Asked Questions
Why did Prestwick fall off The Open Championship rota?
Prestwick hosted the first Open in 1860 and 24 in total. Up until 1881 it was played over three rounds of the then compact 12-hole course that featured some criss-cross holes. Despite expanding to 18 holes in 1882, it was still a fairly compact layout and as the Open Championship grew in stature, attracting ever-larger crowds, it was only a matter of time before the Ayrshire links could no longer cope. The last Prestwick Open was in 1925, with Jim Barnes the champion. But it remains comfortably the second most-used Open venue behind only St Andrews on 30.
Why is the 5th hole called 'Himalayas' at Prestwick?
Stand on the tee and you will see why, for the hole plays completely blind over a hill to a green that can be up to 231 yards away depending on what tees you play from. It's important to aim over the sleeper on the hill that corresponds with your tee colour and to remember that five bunkers flank the left of the green, with just one short-right.
