The first Open Championship was played over three rounds a 12-hole, Prestwick Golf Course in October, 1860. Just eight men played in that first challenge and Willie Park of Musselburgh beat Tom Morris by two strokes with a score of 174.

Although the following year's championship was declared “open to the whole world” the number of contestants rose to only 12, and this time Morris took the honours. He and his son, Young Tom, were to dominate the event, winning four times each by 1872.

It wasn't until 1873 that The Old Course was given it's first chance to hold this now prestigious event.  Torrential rain in the days leading up to the Open Championship on October 4, 1873, left the Old Course puddled with water and caused a number of high scores. Under the rules in force at the time, there was a one-stroke penalty for removing the ball from casual water.

The 26 competitors who completed 36 holes in one day suffered many such penalties and the winning score of 179 was the highest ever recorded until the event was expanded to 72 holes in 1892

Old Tom Morris was the course's first official superintendent with a starting salary of £5 a year. He won four British Opens and was credited with originating the tee box. His son, Young Tom Morris, was a great champion as well. Many golf piligrims visit their graves at the old church in town.

Golf historians believe the game was being played here 100 years before Columbus reached America.  The Old Course originally consisted of twenty-two holes, eleven out and eleven back. On completing a hole, the player teed up his ball within two club lengths of the previous hole, using a handful of sand scooped out from the hole to form a tee.

 

In 1764, the Society of St Andrews Golfers, which later became the Royal and Ancient Golf Club, decided that some holes were too short and combined them. This reduced the course to eighteen holes and created what became the standard round of golf throughout the world.