Turnberry Ailsa Golf Course

Scotland golf course Turnberry Ailsa, ayrshire.

The Ailsa course at Turnberry has not hosted as many major championships as the other British championship courses, but it is a spectacular, much photographed course which is a pleasure to play on.

It was remodeled after the war by Mackenzie Ross, the great golf-course architect, and the 9th hole, where the golfer drives across the sea to the fairway, is the epitome of seaside golf at its most terrifying.

It was here that Watson and Nicklaus staged an epic encounter at the 1977 Open. Locked in head­to-head combat on the last day, they went round respectively in 65 and 66 with Watson winning by one shot. They finished ten strokes ahead of the third-placed Hubert Green who was the only other player in the field to beat par. It was, without a doubt, the greatest contest for the famous old claret jug. Greg Norman won the Open when it was staged here in 1986. For visitors, the second course, the Arran, is less demanding.