Royal Troon Golf Club (Portland Course)

Overview: The Portland Course is Royal Troon’s inland-facing links layout, with gorse, ditches, firm turf and run-off areas creating a different examination from the Old Course. Its routing circulates away from the shoreline and asks for careful positioning before the approach to its smaller, more demanding targets.

History: Royal Troon’s professional Willie Fernie designed the Portland in 1895, and Alister MacKenzie revised the routing in the 1920s. The present course therefore combines a late nineteenth-century foundation with one of the most influential design interventions in British golf.

Did You Know? The Portland’s back nine is unusually varied, with four par fives, three short holes and only two par fours according to the course account published by Golf Monthly.