Damage made by vandals to Prestwick St Nicholas Golf Club near Royal Troon is not as bad as club members first feared, as they gear up for what should be a huge influx of visitors during The Open Championship.
Located just five miles south of Royal Troon on the glorious Ayrshire coast, Prestwick St Nicholas is expecting plenty of golfers to come and sample the stunning and historic links course while heading to The Open.
Those plans were thrown into doubt though after pictures from head pro Gareth Hardy showed vandals had attacked one of the greens, digging up several huge divots on the putting surface.
The photos led to a huge uproar on social media with locals and golf fans outraged at such behaviour, while the historic local club looked to have had its chances of a having a bumper couple of weeks seemingly ruined.
However, it looks like it can still profit from new visitors during The Open as the club has posted on social media saying the damage is not as bad as feared.
Greenkeeping staff at the club founded way back in 1851, which claims to be the 26th oldest golf club in the world, have been working overtime to try and fix the damage.
"Our greens team have done a terrific job repairing the damage," read a post on X by the club. "Thankfully, it's not as bad as first feared."
Thank you for all the kind messages. Our greens team have done a terrific job repairing the damage and thankfully it’s not as bad as first feared. We’re still at a loss why anyone would do such a thing. Enquiries are encouraging and steps have been taken to avoid a recurrence. ⛳️July 11, 2024
The club added it was still "at a loss why anyone would do such a thing" but that "steps have been taken to avoid a recurrence" of the damage that threatened to end what should be a hugely profitable week before it even began.
With around 250,000 golf fans expected to descend on Royal Troon next week, local courses such as Prestwick St Nicholas usually see a huge benefit with packed tee times from those wanting to play as well as watch the pros play just up the road.
To have crucial earnings taken away by mindless acts of vandalism would have been a massive blow, but thankfully it seems that this time the club have escaped with damage that's proved to be non-fatal to their Open plans.
