How you can play a version of Royal Troon’s “Postage Stamp” hole in your home state.

Famous for its name, and infamous for the havoc it has wreaked during the Open Championship, the charming par-3 eighth at Royal Troon is one of the most celebrated holes in the world of golf. At 112 metres, the “Postage Stamp” is officially the shortest hole on any of the courses on the Open rota. Many golf fans would not know the eighth at Royal Troon was originally longer before being shortened to its current length. It was also called “Ailsa”, after the granite rock in the neighbouring North Channel that’s visible from the tee on a clear day. Only later in its timeline did two-time Open champion Willie Park Jnr describe the hole as, “A pitching surface skimmed down to the size of a postage stamp.”

The name stuck, and developed notoriety when it began to torture some of golf’s greatest players. At the 1989 Open, Greg Norman posted an incredible final-round 64 to join a playoff with Wayne Grady and Mark Calcavecchia, which the two Aussies lost to “Calc”. The only hole Norman bogeyed that final day was the Postage Stamp. Eight years later, at the 1997 Open, Tiger Woods took two swipes to escape one of the Postage Stamp’s bunkers and then three-putted for a triple-bogey 6. At the 2016 Open, Bubba Watson was five-under-par after seven holes of the first round when he was licked by the stamp. One of the longest hitters in the world took a triple-bogey on The Open’s shortest hole.

This month, TV coverage for the opening rounds at the 152nd Open Championship (July 18-21) will begin at 3:30pm, AEST, with the first groups teeing off at 6:35am, UK time. That means they’ll be reaching the Postage Stamp at about 5:15pm, when you can crack open a pre-dinner beer and watch the fireworks the Postage Stamp will no doubt offer up.

If you find yourself wanting to experience the magic of the Postage Stamp without having to travel to the other side of the globe, we’ve compiled a selection of Australian par 3s measuring less than 140 metres from the tips that ask similar questions to the Postage Stamp and are almost as fun. The courses include acclaimed private clubs and fun and quirky public layouts. We enlisted the help of course architects Mike Cocking (from the Ogilvy Cocking Mead firm) and Mike Clayton (Clayton DeVries Pont), as well as American golf media personality, Todd Schuster, co-host of the “No Laying Up” podcast and self-confessed fanatic of Australia.

Queensland

Royal Queensland 17th, 125 metres
This incredible hole came back unanimously among everyone’s favourite short par 3s, including Cocking and Clayton. Clayton renovated the old eighth at “RQ”, moving the tee to the left by 50 metres, creating a sandy waste area in front of the tee and completely rebuilding the green. A fantastic hole seen during the Australian PGA Championship each year.

Lakelands 14th, 133 metres
This sinister little beast often plays into the breeze, which makes judging the shot across the chain of rock-lined ponds fronting the green all the more difficult. The green is wide but not overly deep, especially on the left side.

New South Wales

Boomerang 7th, 90 metres
The seventh at Boomerang Golf Club, a $33 public course near the Illawarra Escarpment, tips out at 90 metres, although the tee markers are usually laid out at about the 75-metre mark. It’s lob wedge, or gentle sand wedge, over water to a tiny, heart-shaped green that tilts to the right. A small, terrifying and beautiful par 3.

Bondi Golf & Diggers 3rd, 121 metres
A wedge or short iron slightly uphill to an oval-shaped green with two bunkers, and the bedazzling Pacific Ocean and rocky cliffs to the right of the tee. Magnificent and tricky.

Says Schuster: “Numbers two and three at Bondi are both ‘sick’. One playing to the cliffs, the other away from and along them. Really neat interplay between the two, because they’re vastly different shots, different wind directions and different questions being asked.”

Bonnie Doon 15th, 120 metres
Tee shot over a sandy waste area to a three-tiered green. Wildly fun par 3 on a great course.

Elanora 17th, 122 metres
Thoughtful par 3 with bush left and a deep bunker right, but with a bailout fairway area short of the green.

Northbridge 17th, 109 metres

This hole has one of those quirky features loved by regulars at a metropolitan course, with a tree positioned short and left of the green. An incredibly fun hole, and not always an easy par.

Magenta Shores 15th, 119 metres
Magenta’s signature hole faces east and is well bunkered to the left and right. A fantastic oceanside par 3.

Narooma 3rd, 141 metres
Iconic par 3 with a tee shot over an inlet, where a crew in the 1970s filmed a cigarette commercial with comedian Paul Hogan, hence the nickname “Hogan’s Hole”. “Absolutely spectacular setting and often playing 130 metres for the members,” Cocking says.

Victoria

Kingston Heath 10th, 127 metres
The tee shot at No.10 is awe-inspiring, over dense vegetation to a narrow green guarded by bunkers on the front entrance, left and right.

Kingston Heath 19th (spare hole), 110-135 metres
Tiger Woods’ favourite hole in Australia. Tee shot over a sandy area to a green flanked by bunkers.

Lonsdale Links 7th, 120 metres
Tee shot plays uphill and over an easement referred to as Gill Rd hence its nickname, “Gill’s Carry,” to a tabletop green surrounded by short grass.

Schuster: “So many different tees and holes here ask you to hit different shot shapes, whether you’re using the slope, flying it in or trying to run one up. It’s a cool way of combining short and redan, on an otherwise unremarkable piece of the property.”

Royal Melbourne (West) 7th, 135 metres
World-class par 3 up the hill with a hidden bailout to the left and devilish bunkers short and right of the green. Tiger chipped in here for birdie during the 2019 Presidents Cup.

13th Beach (Beach) 16th, 112 metres
The small, raised green sits on top of a sand dune and is surrounded by bunkers with severe runoffs towards rugged fescue grass.

Peninsula Kingswood (South) 17th, 120 metres
Rustic, Australiana bush backdrop, sweeping fairway from the tee to a magnificent green with a cavernous greenside bunker left. One of Cocking’s favourite par 3s in Australia. As its architect, he says: “An average golfer can make birdie with a good swing and a good player can walk away with bogey.”

Schuster: “A thrilling shot on PK South’s penultimate hole. You can salvage a bad round and leave a great taste in your mouth, or wreck a strong round with some greed.”

The Dunes (Cups course) 1st, 125 metres
Testing tee shot across a native area to a shallow green with a lone bunker.

Western Australia

Joondalup (Quarry) 3rd, 134 metres
A beautiful and daunting tee shot across a quarry of native vegetation with three bunkers, one of which sits majestically on an outcrop below the surface of the green.

Lake Karrinyup 12th, 135 metres
A stunning, downhill par 3 with the gentle ripples in the fairway that Cocking has been known to use in his contouring. Usually a wedge, it taunts golfers with gorgeous but tricky greenside bunkers on the left. The green is the smallest at Karrinyup.

Tasmania

Barnbougle Dunes 7th, 112 metres
Heroic tee shot over thick fescue to an irregular, tiny green with the beach in the background. Greg Norman once hit a 5-iron on this hole into a biblical headwind. Might be Australia’s best par 3 – long or short.

Barnbougle Lost Farm 4th, 124 metres
The green droops like a hammock between two sand dunes with rugged fescue completing the feel of being on the coast of Ireland.

Ocean Dunes 4th, 131 metres
Dramatic tee shot over an inlet of Bass Strait to a wide yet shallow, bunkered green with the rocky Tassie coastline and ocean in the background. “A wildly fun shot,” Schuster says.

South Australia

Grange (East) 15th, 118 metres
A long green for a hole so short, yet one with ‘greens within the green’, depending on the pin position. Grange members have been known to use a putter from the tee when the flag is located at the front, while a pin in the rear section is downright scary – even with a wedge in hand.

Links Lady Bay 15th, 126 metres
Uphill tee shot to a heart-shaped green surrounded by handsome, fescue-lined bunkering to the left and behind the green. 

You must be ‘this’ tall to ride…

One selection from the 140 metres-plus division is the seventh hole at The Lakes. This delightfully sandy, uphill par 3 with fairway bailout left of the green tips out at 160 metres but is among Sydney’s best par 3s.