Prestwick Golf Club - Scotland

Prestwick by contemporary standards is a particularly eccentric links, but one that exults in its unusualness. The course is located on the Ayrshire coast of western Scotland, separated from Troon by the Pow Burn that dominates the fourth hole. Prestwick is inextricably tied to the history of British golf, for the first 12 Open championships were held there beginning in 1860, when the course consisted of only 12 holes. The last Open to be held at Prestwick was in 1925, but the famous old links remains full of vitality. The third hole features the vast Cardinal bunker, fortified by an irregular ridge of wooden sleepers or railroad ties. The blind, par-three fifth is played over the sandhills known as the "Himalayas," The drive at the 16th must avoid the bunker named Willie Campbell's Grave, with the second shot over the "Alps" to the green guarded by the Sahara bunker. The railway line runs hard along the right side of the first hole, another distinctive feature of many of the old Scottish courses that is present at Prestwick.

Royal Troon Golf Club - Scotland

Royal Troon is one of the most highly acclaimed of the daisy-chain of fine links courses that stretch along the Ayrshire coast south of Glasgow. The first six holes straddle the shoreline before the course climbs into the sandhills at the seventh, with the next six holes running through the higher ground. The sixth is the longest hole in British championship golf at 601 yards while the eighth, the famous and fiendish "Postage Stamp Hole," with its tiny green, is the shortest at 123 yards. In the 1973 British Open, Gene Sarazen hit a punched 5-iron into the cup for a hole-in-one on the Postage Stamp, 50 years after he missed the cut at the Open at Troon. Founded in 1878, the course was added to the Open "rota" in 1923, when Sarazen made his maiden voyage and Arthur Havers won the championship. The course is known for its unrelenting back nine, which can become a torture track when it plays into the wind. Arnold Palmer won the Open at Troon in 1962, while underdog Todd Hamilton took home the claret jug in 2004 in a playoff with Ernie Els.