Each round at Prestwick in the 1860 Open consisted of 12 holes.
The inaugural championship was played over three rounds of Prestwick Golf Club’s 12-hole links course, so the winner completed 36 holes in total. This format differs sharply from the modern Open, where a standard round consists of 18 holes and the championship is normally contested over four rounds, subject to the cut.
Prestwick’s original course was laid out beside the Ayrshire coast and included holes with distinctive names such as the Alps, the Wall, the Burn and the Home hole. The course measured about 3,799 yards for a circuit, although early golf equipment and playing conditions made those distances very different from modern comparisons.
Willie Park Sr. won the event with rounds of 55, 59 and 60 for a total of 174. Prestwick continued to host the Open through 1870, but the championship later adopted longer 18-hole layouts and rotated among leading links courses in the United Kingdom.