Jason Dufner of the US plays of the 8th tee, the hole a par 3, is 123 yards long and known as the 'postage stamp' during a practice round for the British Open Golf Championships at the Royal Troon Golf Club in Troon, Scotland, Tuesday, July 12, 2016. The Open Starts Thursday. (AP Photo/Peter Morrison)

PAT WHEELER, Golf Correspondent

The original Open Championship or British Open as it is commonly called, was played in 1860 at the Prestwick Golf Club that is just down the road from where the 145th edition will be played this week at Royal Troon Golf Club.

Both courses are on the western coast of Scotland and according to historians, this area had more of an affinity for stroke play when most golf competition was match play.

Prestwick was the site of the first 12 Open Championships. The first one was 36 holes in one day that consisted of three trips around the 12-hole layout. Willie Park of North Berwick won the first one with a 174 score that sounds high but the players in those early days used hickory shafted clubs and balls made of goose feathers.

Prestwick last hosted an Open Championship in 1925 but the course remains a must-play for golfers visiting the home of golf. It expanded to 18 holes soon after that first British Open and like so many of the older courses, has some quirky holes. The first runs alongside railroad tracks and the most notable is a par-3 named The Alps since it is a long shot that is over two large hills to a blind green.

Golfers on the tee must wait until they hear a bell rung signifying the golfers ahead have cleared the green.

Troon hosted its first Open Championship in 1923 and the 2016 event will be the ninth edition.

Previous winners include Arnold Palmer, Tom Weiskopf and Tom Watson. Palmer won in 1962 to help make the tournament more popular with Americans. The last two winners, Justin Leonard in 1997 and Todd Hamilton in 2004, both have Dallas- ties leading many to predict a win by current Dallas star Jordan Spieth.

It certainly will not be easy for Spieth who has struggled to regain his form from 2015 when he won the Masters and U.S. Open on his way to a record year that included a win in the season’s finale, The Tour Championship in Atlanta.

Spieth blew a large lead at this year’s Masters and seemed to be carrying a hangover from that disappointment before a stirring win at the Dean & DeLuca Invitational at Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth in May.

Spieth again displayed his marvelous putting touch with a final nine of 30 that was memorable because of seven one putts and a chip-in.

Scottish pro Guy Redford is a Texan at heart because he played college golf at Midland College before returning to his home country and becoming a club professional. He is the director of golf for Loch Lomond Golf Club and Dundonald Links. Loch Lomond is Scotland’s version of Augusta National since it is an inland course with majestic beauty while Dundonald is classic links golf very close to Royal

Troon.

Redford offers insight into who should play well this week.

“Scottish links golf is about playing shots that are not standard ones a lot of guys get used to playing in America,” Redford said. “You can forget about the yardage and go with feel because when the wind is blowing, you have to be creative. So I like Spieth’s chances because he seems to be that kind of player.”

But like the rest of us, Redford has to recognize that the U.S. Open win by Dustin Johnson may be a harbinger of things to come. As someone said of the talented Johnson, “the horse is out of the barn now.”

Johnson actually led the British Open last through two rounds last year at St. Andrews but failed to produce on the weekend. A lot of his loss of momentum may have been due to his tee times as often players seemed destined to win because of favorable tee times with the changing weather patterns in Scotland.

When discussing the favorites to win, one would be remiss to exclude the top player in the world, Jason Day, and others such as Rory McIlroy, Bubba Watson and the defending champion Zach Johnson.

There are many sentimental favorites such as England’s Lee Westwood, Spain’s Sergio Garcia and America’s Steve Stricker. All three are proven players without a major and time is beginning to run out, especially for the 49-year- old Stricker who qualified via a top performance at the FedEx Memphis St. Jude event in late June. Westwood and Garcia are accustomed to links style golf from learning to play in Europe and both played well at the U.S. Open.

Troon is a classic links course in that the first nine holes go straight out from the clubhouse with the second nine coming directly back. With the prevailing winds making the first nine downwind, the course plays very difficult coming home.

“You have to make hay going out at Troon,” 1981 winner and Texarkana native Bill Rogers said. “With that prevailing wind into you coming home, you better buckle your seat belt and hang on.”

Rogers won his title 35 years ago at Royal St. George’s in England on the opposite end of the British Isles from Troon.

“It was just one of those weeks when I knew I was playing well because of a good finish in the U.S. Open and so I came to the tournament with a lot of confidence. And then I managed to stay out of my own way and the Lord blessed me with a win,” Rogers said.

The most famous hole at Royal Troon is the 126-yard 8th , named The Postage Stamp. One of the characteristics of links golf in Scotland is the naming of holes and even bunkers and swales. At St. Andrews, one large bunker is named The Principal’s Nose and the steep recession in front of the final green is named The Valley of Sin.

Rogers was asked what makes The Postage Stamp so special.

“Well, first of all, the green is so small that it feels like you are trying to land a ball on the hood of a Volkswagen Beetle,” Rogers said with a laugh. “And then the wind is usually an issue and guys have hit as much as a 5-iron at that little green down there with those deep bunkers guarding the front.”

It was in fact a 5-iron that golfing legend Gene Sarazen used to make a hole-in-one on The Postage Stamp during the first round in 1973. Sarazen, who won all of the majors with his British Open win coming in 1932, was playing on an honorary exemption at age 71.

Sarazen missed the cut by a mile but holed out from the bunker on The Postage Stamp during the second round. He certainly had a flair for the dramatic.

Perhaps the same will be said of Spieth this week.

Pat Wheeler is the golf correspondent for the Tyler Morning Telegraph. Wheeler played golf at Robert E. Lee High School and SMU.