Ultimate Guide to The Open - best bets, four players to watch and the seven holes where the major will be won and lost

The 152nd Open Championship is upon us with 158 stars driving, chipping, and putting their way round 72 holes in a bid to become Champion Golfer of the Year. 

Royal Troon, a links course on the windswept west coast of Scotland, is our venue for a 10th time with the likes of Rory McIlroy, Scottie Scheffler, and Bryson DeChambeau in action.

The prize money for the winner is a mouth-watering £2.38million ($3.1m) and it will take some earning on a challenging and varied course.

Mail Sport has compiled the guide of all guides for any golf fanatics or newbies. 

Here you'll find a guide to the course, a breakdown of the key holes, our best bets and dark horses, carefully selected by our experts. We hope you enjoy and stay for our coverage throughout. 

Royal Troon course guide 

Those who often tread the dunes and knolls of Royal Troon compare these Ayrshire links to a three-act play. A gentle first, a second full of story and adventure before a hellish finale that’s tortured many a soul for more than 100 years.

How one fares across the opening six holes will have much to say on whether their tale is one of comedy or tragedy come the final curtain.

An inviting early stretch along the Firth of Clyde beach with the prevailing wind blowing at your back provides ample opportunity for birdies so long as you avoid some canny bunkers.

Make sure you take them, though, because you may need to give a shots back as payment for passage on your path to home.

More fool the player lulled into a false sense of security after a few good early holes as the second run of six holes takes you into the furthest reaches of Royal Troon where travellers must use all their nous and knowhow to navigate the lumps and bumps and bushes and bunkers of some of the course’s most iconic holes.

Find your way through these and it will soon become clear why Royal Troon’s motto reads: ‘As much by skill than strength.’

You’ll need both to make it home in one piece, though. For the wind wasn’t your friend after all as it now stands in your way as players must club shot after shot into the stiff gales down the stretch.

When the final act comes, hold on for dear life.

Royal Troon, just Troon before given its Royal Charter in 1978, might not have the grandeur of St Andrews or the beauty, say, of Turnberry but the wisdom of this course lies in the subtlety of its banks, bunkers and bounces.

The course now plays host to the shortest and longest hole on the Open rota, having lengthened all the par 5s and added 201 yards to the loop since Henrik Stenson was crowned Champion Golfer of the Year here in 2016 after a battle for the ages against Phil Mickelson.

For a course that’s been accused of being the same hole over and over again, its ability to produce unforgettable shows over the past 101 years on the Open rota suggests its many secrets are revealed the closer you look.

If the wind blows this week, prepare for another spectacle.

The seven holes that will decide The Open 

Hole 1: Seal (Par 4, 366 yards)

Named after the chain of rocks that sit just a few yards away from the nearby Firth of Clyde beach, on which said water mammals can sometimes be seen when the tide is low.

It’s the first of three par 4s all under 400 yards so don’t be surprised to see the big hitters use the prevailing wind to their advantage and go for them in one.

Miss it on the first, though, and you could find one of the five surrounding bunkers. A first opportunity, too, to take in the glorious Ayrshire coastline down the right. Just don’t stick your ball there. 

Hole 6: Turnberry (Par 5, 623 yards)

Last year, a new record for the longest hole in Open history was set at Royal Liverpool when the 15th played at 620 yards. Not any more. The fifth at Royal Troon has been extended by 22 yards since the last time the Open was here eight years ago.

It’s named after another fellow Open course, Turnberry, one that you can see from the 6th at Troon if you know where to look.

With the wind behind you, there’s a chance of an eagle, especially if it’s dry and the fairway rolls and rolls but you’ve got to be arrow straight off the tee with bunkers in play and the dunes pinching the closer to the hole you get.

Hole 8: Postage Stamp (Par 3, 123 yards)

The most iconic hole at Royal Troon. It used to be called Aisla after the rocky islet you could see from the tee but was renamed the Postage Stamp due to the tiny green.

The high tee makes it feel even shorter than 123 yards but what is lacks in length, it makes up for in bite. If the wind is up, spectators could see the world’s best players disintegrate in front of it.

Ernie Els made a hole-in-one here in 2004, the most recent Open ace at the hole, as did a 71-year-old Gene Saranzon in 1972, 50 years after he was crowned Champion Golfer of the Year.

Spare your thoughts, though, for its many victims over the years. Bubba Watson was five-under through seven before he found the ‘Coffin Bunker’ to the left of the green and made a six, though the two-time Masters Champion got away lightly compared to Hermann Tiessies, who took a 15 there in 1950…only one shot of which was a putt.

No wonder some call it the ‘wee beastie’.

Depending on how the wind blows, expect birdies and card killers.

Hole 11: The Railway (Par 4, 498 yards)

If you think the Postage Stamp is tough, one of the hardest holes in golf lies around the corner.

What’s not difficult is realising where the hole gets its name thanks to the regular sight of the trains chugging along the Glasgow-Ayr line that runs parallel to the course and just a few yards off the right of the green.

Players will need to drive up the left, likely into the wind, but hook it and that ball is deep in the thick gorse bushes. Game over.

On his way to winning the Open here in 1962, Arnold Palmer described it as ‘the most dangerous hole I have ever seen.’

There’s going to be some horrors here this week.

If it’s any consolation, though, Jack Nicklaus racked up a 10 on here on his Open debut after driving into the gorse, then taking an air swing before putting it on to the railway line. If he can make a mess of it…

Hole 13: Burmah (Par 4, 473 yards)

A hole without a single bunker. At last, you might think, a bit of light relief. Royal Troon lures you in again. This isn’t to let you off the hook, it’s because this hole doesn’t need bunkers. Mother Nature and her wicked ways are plenty enough.

The never-ending swells and slopes mean you can hit the same tee shot every day and the bounce and roll will take it somewhere different every time.

Hitting into the wind, too, means this will play long even for the biggest hitters. Even then they must then find the small raised green.

This marks the start of the last six-hole stretch, the brutal final act, where Troon really begins to bare its teeth. Good luck.

Hole 15: Crosbie (Par 4, 502 yards)

This one will take it out of you. A par 4 that stretches longer than 500 yards and that’s before you factor in that players will likely be hitting straight into the prevailing wind.

Troon member Colin Montgomerie tells the story of how in 2016 he hit driver twice and still couldn’t reach the green.

Bunkers either side of the fairway, a blind second shot to the putting surface that feels lightyears away with more sand protecting the left side of it. Down the right there’s more bibbly-bobbly fairway, another bunker and an out-of-bounds towards the practice grounds.

Stenson holed a 50-footer on here eight years ago but, for most, just take your par and get out of there.

Hole 18: Craigend (Par 4, 458 yards)

More hell to finish. Players walk back from the 17th green for what seems like miles before teeing off on a hole named after the farm that was demolished to make way for Royal Troon’s Old Course and Portland Course.

The drive has to be straight. Three bunkers about 25 yards apart line the left of the fairway. Anything slightly right runs into another trap. More bunkers lie up ahead and if anyone finds the traps just short of the putting surface, the out-of-bounds behind the green suddenly comes into play if you knife it out the sand.

It’s enjoyed some drama over the past 101 years. Arthur Havers holed from the bunker here to win the first Open at Troon in 1923. Mark Calcavecchia beat Wayne Grady and Greg Norman in a four-hole play-off, finishing down the 18th where Norman got in all ends of trouble in the bunkers.

If it’s close come Sunday, don’t be surprised if Craigend throws up more theatre.

Mail Sport's Open predictions

Riath Al-Samarrai 

Best bet: Tommy Fleetwood

As with Scottie Scheffler, he is immense from tee to green and seems best placed to break the 32-year curse of Englishmen at The Open. No one loves the tournament more than Fleetwood, who hails from the links hotbed of Southport and was runner up in 2019 and top 10 each of the past two years. Troon will place a premium on accuracy between the traps and he has the game to do it.

One to watch: Aaron Rai

Mostly known for playing in two gloves and never higher than 19th in a major. But the Englishman has gone 2-7-4 in his past three PGA Tour starts and has won in Scotland before.

James Sharpe

Best bet: Collin Morikawa

Collin Morikawa became only the fifth player since the Second World War to lift the Claret Jug on his first Open outing when he triumphed three years ago at Royal St George.

He’s missed the cut in his two Opens since but is, to use the worst phrase in golf, ‘trending in the right direction’.

Tied for third at the Masters and for fourth at the PGA Championship, though both were let down by poor final rounds.

Laser-guided off the tee with rock-solid irons and a short game to set your watch by, all crucial this week if you’re to master the perils of these Ayrshire links.

He knows how to win a Claret Jug too. Don’t underestimate that when you’re fighting the course, the wind and your nerves down the stretch.

One to watch: Aaron Rai

Aaron Rai only secured his place at Royal Troon on Sunday, thanks to his storming final-round 63 to clinch fourth place at the Scottish Open, and now he’s one of the best outside punts in the field.

His performance at the Scottish Open, where he showed his links prowess to beat Tommy Fleetwood in a playoff to win in 2020, was his fifth straight top-20 finish and his third top 10 in a row.

He’s been the most accurate driver on the PGA Tour this year, which will be key to threading the Troon needle, while just three players have gained more strokes on the PGA Tour this year than the 29-year-old Englishman and they’re named Scottie Scheffler, Xander Schauffele and Rory McIlroy.

Not bad company to keep.

Joe Bernstein

Best bet: Collin Morikawa

The Open is devilishly open in terms of contenders but Morikawa ticks a lot of boxes; in excellent form, putting well which will be even more important than usual this week and he's won over the links before, albeit the other side of the country when winning the Open Championship in Sandwich in 2021.

Morikawa has performed well at the three previous Majors this year and looked good at last weekend's Scottish Open. Approach play into the greens could be more significant at Troon than pure power play and that will suit the 27-year-old who won't be short of incentive having seen his U.S. peers Scottie Scheffler, Xander Schauffele and Bryson DeChambeau lift the major prizes so far in 2024.

One to watch: Adam Scott

His only major came back in 2012 but older players do good things at The Open and the 44-year-old Aussie is showing a pleasing return to form with his runner-up position at last week's Scottish Open. An early tee-time on Thursday should also help with wind expected to pick up later in the day.

Any kind of momentum will get the galleries rooting for Scott who is very popular and competing in his 93rd consecutive Major. Though he hasn't won a tournament since 2020, Robert MacIntyre had to play exceedingly well to stop him ending the drought last Sunday. Scott's holing out with a spectacular bunker shot suggests the Troon sand shouldn't hold too many fears.

Dominic King

Best bet: Xander Schauffele 

The USPGA in May was the moment he proved to the world he could be a winner at the highest level. He arrives here on the crest of a wave, his game is impeccable and he ticks every box in terms of looking for the credentials for a potential Open winner. He will go very close.

One to watch: Tommy Fleetwood 

It was frustrating to see him slip quietly out of contention at Royal Liverpool 12 months ago and what a story that would have been had been able to win so close to where it all started for him. 

He’s a proper player, he’s been in high spirits all week and looked good on the range. Follow his progress closely.