Philip Reid sketches the evolution of Troon, one of the great courses and host to this week's Open Championship

Inside what are called the public rooms of the clubhouse at Royal Troon, safely tucked behind a glass barrier, is a set of what appear to be antique clubs.

In actual fact the clubs aren't relics of the past, but replicas of the real thing - dating back to 1741 - which are believed to be the oldest golf clubs in existence. Troon Golf Club does own the genuine clubs, but they're housed, fittingly enough, in the Golf Museum at St Andrews. The replicas, among the other artefacts on display, serve as a reminder of Troon's links with the past; and such memories are many.

The club itself dates back to its formation in 1878.

Originally, the links were composed of rough pasture ground and sand dunes and hillocks and a great deal of marshy land. By 1888, under the guidance of the club's first professional, George Strath, the course was extended to 18 holes, and in 1904, it received its first championship when it held the British Ladies. But it was only when a redesign was drawn up in 1909 that the most famous short hole in golf, the eighth, was born.

Originally called "Ailsa" - on account of the view of the Ailsa Craig rock some 30 miles away that can be seen from the tee - the eighth hole was renamed "The Postage Stamp" when Willie Park, writing in Golf Illustrated, described it as "a pitching surface skimmed down to the size of a postage stamp".

The hole, all 123 yards of it, making it the shortest hole on any British Open course, has caused grief to many down the years. "The biggest compliment I can pay the Postage Stamp," observed Colin Montgomerie, "is to say that it is a bit like the Road Hole at St Andrews, the 12th at Augusta National and the 17th at Sawgrass . . . in a competition, your score is never safe until you have got through that hole."

In truth, there is no hiding place once a player stands on the eighth tee, with the wind a factor in deciding whether the club is anything from a soft sand wedge to a hard-hit six-iron. The green is protected by five bunkers. There was a time when players could hit a shot onto a sand hill to the left of the green but James Braid, the five-times British Open champion, regarded that as too soft an option and it was on his recommendation that the two bunkers were built at the foot of that hill.

Now, miss the green and you're in trouble. Anything short will be caught by the front bunker, anything left by Braid's bunkers. To the right are two near-vertical-faced bunkers that are not visible from the tee but the players well and truly know they are there.

Overshoot the green and there is the prospect of a nightmarish pitch from heavy rough.

"It's probably my favourite hole of all," opined Tom Weiskopf, the 1973 champion. "It's a classic example of not needing length to make a really difficult hole. It's a classic hole."

The hole's designer is unknown, but there was a man-made contribution from the British Coal Board. At one point in the course's history, a water hazard developed south of the green, the cause of which turned out to be the collapse of mine workings below in the Glenburn Pit. The coal board brought in earth-moving machinery to raise the ground. It later transpired that the whole green was on the move and the back end was required to be jacked up by almost three feet.

As an old professional, Aubrey Boomer, once described it, "the green is garrisoned by an archipelago of bunkers and looks even smaller that it actually is as you stand uncertain and trembling on the tee".

So, what of the disaster stories associated with this famous old hole? Well, the worst score recorded was by the German amateur Hermann Tissies in the 1950 British Open. As a report in the Scotsman of the time reported it, he "ping-ponged" his way from one greenside bunker to another in running up a 15. And in the 1997 British Open, Tiger Woods ran up a triple-bogey six - he found the back right bunker, the smallest of the traps strategically placed around the green, and took two shots to escape before going on to three-putt - which effectively ended his title hopes.

Of course, it hasn't all been doom and gloom. In the 1973 championship, Gene Sarazen - then aged 71 - had a hole-in-one there and, incredibly, followed up in the second round by holing out his bunker shot for a two.

In the British Open of 1997, the hole averaged a score of 3.17, although Sweden's Dennis Edlund managed a hole-in-one with a nine-iron in the second round. In all, there were 80 birdies, 252 pars, 87 bogeys and 28 "others", including Tiger's triple bogey.

While the "Postage Stamp" is one of the most famed par threes in golf, it's not the only hole that has caused grief down the years and most of this misery has been the result of players finding one of the many bunkers that dot this course. There's the story of how Gary Player once approached the course greenkeeper, a man by the name of Norman J Ferguson, to inquire how deep the sand was in the bunkers. "I told him as far as I knew it stretched from here to Australia as I had never seen anything to prove different," said Ferguson.

Justin Leonard, remarkably, managed to stay out of a bunker during all 72 holes of his win in 1997; but others have found the road to glory a more difficult one. Bobby Clampett had a huge lead after five holes of his third round in the 1982 Open only to visit three bunkers as he negotiated a route up the sixth and finished up with an eight on his card. That was to prove the end of his challenge.

Nick Price took two shots to escape a pot bunker on the 16th green and allowed Tom Watson to slip in for the fourth of his five British Open wins.

Seven years later, Greg Norman, who had opened with six consecutive birdies on his way to a remarkable 64 on the final day, would lose a play-off to Mark Calcavecchia after driving 350 yards to a hitherto unreachable bunker on the 18th hole.

Since the 1997 Open was staged here, some changes have been made. New tees have been built on the first (adding six yards), the sixth (adding 24 yards and making it, at 601 yards, the longest hole on the Open rota), the 11th (adding 27 yards) and the 15th, which has been lengthened by 26 yards. Also, 10 bunkers have been added, three on the first hole, two each on the second, fourth and seventh holes and one on the 16th.

All of which are designed to add some extra bite to the links as it plays host to the 133rd British Open, the eighth time that Troon will have held the championship.