Open Championship 2024: Royal Troon to have longest hole

Royal Troon will have the longest hole in Open history when the Ayrshire links plays host to the 152nd championship in July.

The sixth hole will measure 623 yards – 22 more than it did when Troon staged the 2016 Open – when it hosts the battle for the Claret Jug from 18-21 July.

Two holes later, the players could then play the shortest hole in the championship’s long history.

The iconic par-three eighth, the ‘Postage Stamp’, will measure 123 yards on the scorecard but organisers the Royal & Ancient (R&A) is considering reducing that to 99 yards for one round, weather permitting.

The R&A can use a forward tee and a front pin position to create a hole that would play fewer than 100 yards.

Overall though, the R&A’s preferred architects Mackenzie & Ebert have generally lengthened the links for the 2024 Open.

The creation of nine new tees means an overall increase of 195 yards to 7,385 – just 36 fewer than the record at Carnoustie in 2007.

There are new bunker positions – on the first and sixth fairways as well as next to the sixth green.

The sixth at Troon will play three yards longer than the 15th – which was the 16th before the addition of the new 17th – at Royal Liverpool last year after it was stretched by 45 yards since Rory McIlroy’s win at Hoylake in 2014.

This year’s championship has sold out, ensuring a record attendance for a Troon Open of 250,000 – an increase of more than 70,000 people from 2016, when Henrik Stenson prevailed in a thrilling duel with Phil Mickelson.