Troon ‘refit’ completes upgrade on Open rota

The work, which includes the par-4 15th hole being re-aligned, will complete a programme by the R&A to upgrade all nine courses on the Open rota.

“There’s a lot going on at Troon,” reported Peter Dawson, the R&A chief executive. “We’ve had to get planning permission for some of them and that’s all in-work at the moment.

“The biggest change will probably be the re-alignment of the 15th hole. It has a tee on the right near the road, which is not very good for play with all the people going past it. We had a left tee we used for the last Open [in 2004] but because of the adverse camber of the left-hand dog-leg that wasn’t very satisfactory.

“Now, we’ll have a drive from the left-hand tee directly up through that valley area. It will be a very good hole.”

Changes were also made to the Old Course at St Andrews over the winter, with more to come later this year.

“Since 2004, the R&A has been engaged in programme of upgrading all Open venues,” added Dawson. “Every course has had the treatment to some extent but none of them have changed dramatically. They are still the courses they were with relatively small changes to enhance the challenge.”