The oldest of the four majors, The Open Championship was first played in 1860 on the weathered terrain of Scotland's Ayrshire coast. 

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Over the years, Turnberry's Ailsa course came to welcome, challenge, disappoint and thrill illustrious players and their devoted fans in a variety of tournaments that culminated in the hosting of The Open for the first time in the late 1970s.

 

Four of the most spellbinding Opens have been played at Turnberry:

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• the 106th in 1977,

• the 115th in 1986,

• the 123rd in 1994 and

• the 138th in 2009.

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The strategically situated lands of Turnberry, favoured with vast views of portentous seas since before recorded time, have beheld a thousand tales;  

 

• The birth of a legendary leader, Robert the Bruce.

• Wars against ancient kings of England and the two World Wars of the 20th Century.

• The favourite new game of golf, played on naturally occurring courses.

• The first purpose-planned golfing resort in Britain, with an iconic hotel that houses travellers on romantic getaways to its therapeutic shores to this day.

• Epic links that were built, destroyed and rebuilt again.

 

Originally commissioned by the Northern Lighthouse Board to warn passing vessels away from nearby Bristo Rock, the lighthouse is the oldest man-made structure on the Turnberry premises-with the exception of the remains of the 13th-century castle of Robert the Bruce that it marks.

 

The initial plan to erect the lighthouse on the Rock itself proved too dangerous so instead Turnberry Point was chosen. The foundations of the lighthouse stand in what was the moat of Turnberry Castle, thought to be the birthplace of Robert the Bruce in 1274.

 

Modern golf dates back to 1751 in Girvan, the birthplace of the game, less than ten miles from Turnberry.

 

Along Scotland's Sunshine Coast, the links between land and sea were nature's own courses, and the pastime was well loved.

 

However, a lack of formal transportation made travel difficult and contests informal, local affairs. Without any permanent settlement to support the game at Turnberry, golf would remain absent in those parts for another 150 years.

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Archibald Kennedy, the Third Marquess of Ailsa (Lord Ailsa), owned Turnberry's 76,000 acres and denied two attempts to establish a formal club on his land.

 

It wasn't until 1896 that Lord Ailsa, a keen golfer and an active member of the South-Western Railway board, saw the financial opportunity of building a course at Turnberry and a train line from Ayr to Maidens, Turnberry and Girvan.

 

Since the Trump Organisastion has bought over Turnberry the course has been transformed from a great course to an absolutely majestic layout and with the attention to detail synonymous with the Trump brand the hotel and lodges offer the finest accommodation anywhere.