CARNOUSTIE: BACK TO THE BEAST
The golfing world turns its attention to Scotland this month with The Open Championship set to make its return to the most challenging layout on the rota, writes Brendan James.
Carnoustie is not a name that immediately jumps o any map of Scotland.
In fact, it’s a ‘wee’ seaside town of about 11,000 people, which lies on the east coast beside the North Sea about 70km from the outskirts of Edinburgh.
While it is a ‘wee’ place that most outside Scotland and the game of golf may never have heard of, there is no questioning its massive impact on the development of golf globally and, in particular, Australia and the United States.
Between 1898 and 1930, nearly 300 Carnoustians left their home to seek their fortunes abroad and in doing so took the game around the world. Known as the ‘Sons of Carnoustie’, they played a major role in pioneering professional golf and course design in the United States, across Europe, India, China, South Africa, New Zealand and Australia.
Three Sons of Carnoustie – Carnegie Clark, Dan Soutar and James Herd Scott – arrived in Sydney in 1902 and would ultimately change the game here forever. The trio became good friends during their caddying days at Carnoustie and, as teenagers, had competed against each other. In 1898, Clark and Soutar played in the final of the famous Dalhousie Cup at Carnoustie, with Soutar, then an apprentice carpenter, winning the match 2 & 1.
Clark and Soutar dominated the Australian Open Championship for many years and when they were not making clubs and giving lessons out of the workshop at Royal Sydney Golf Club they were advising other clubs on course design.
When their playing days were behind them Clark, Soutar and Scott – all long-time club pros – were well sort after course designers and much of the inspiration for their creative work had its roots back in Carnoustie.
Today, the Carnoustie Golf Links is far more familiar to golfers as a host of The Open Championship and will host the 147th edition this month.
There are few courses on this planet that you can walk away and say it has no weakness, but you can do that at Carnoustie.
Each hole’s characteristics dier from the next. At no point during the round do more than two consecutive holes head to the same point on the compass. The problems of club selection or judgement of distance complicated by the wind, therefore, are ever-changing adding to the terrific challenge and fun of playing this great course.
The first real golf course at Carnoustie was planned and laid out in the early 1830s by Robert Chambers, a publisher from Edinburgh. But it was Alan Robertson of St Andrews who, in 1850, designed the basics of the Championship course that is in play today, while Old Tom Morris redesigned and extended it to a full 18 holes in 1867. In 1891, Arthur George Maule Ramsey, 14th Earl of Dalhousie, sold the links to the town on condition it would be maintained for all time as a golf course. A three-day bazaar was held in Dundee, which raised enough funds for the purchase.
The legendary James Braid put his stamp on Carnoustie in 1926 and while the members were
pleased with Braid’s work, they felt the finishing holes were a bit weak. Leading into the 1937 Open Championship, the closing three holes were rebuilt by local architect, James Wright, who created what is regarded by many as the toughest closing three holes in golf.
Having notched up some high numbers on these holes I can vouch for their strength. That said, Jean Van de Velde made the 18th hole look much harder than it really is … even from the back tee.
The natural feature that ramps up the di culty of the dual par-4 closing holes is the snaking Barry Burn, which shot to worldwide fame with Van de Velde’s 72nd hole meltdown in the 1999 Open Championship. When the Frenchman clambered down the mossy stonewall, with shoes o and trousers rolled up, ready to play his ball from the cool clear water, he wrote his way into Open folklore. For most golfers who play Carnoustie, thoughts of Van de Velde undoubtedly cross their mind well before reaching the 18th tee.
Carnoustie has hosted the Open just seven
times and the club warmly embraces each one of its Opens like a member of the family. Some day there will be a plaque to commemorate Van de Velde’s calamitous e orts. In the meantime, there is a plaque out by the 6th tee commemorating Ben Hogan’s play on the par-5 en route to winning the 1953 Open Championship. The ‘wee ice mon’ took the tight driving line between fairway bunkers and the out-of-bounds fence on all four days, two of those in a sti left-to-right crosswind. Standing on the tee now, and looking at Hogan’s tight driving line … its shake-your-head-inamazement stu .
Players in the field of this year’s Open will find a tough but fair layout – nothing like what was o ered in 1999 when some of the world’s best golfers could not break 80 in the opening round.
Unlike a lot of ‘ancient’ courses in this part of the world, Carnoustie reveals itself from the tee on every hole. There are no blind shots or hazards hidden beyond dunes. What you see is what you get and, to be frank, Carnoustie doesn’t need sleight of hand tactics to be tough.
This year’s championship will see the course o er a tale of two nines. The outward nine will see a plethora of red numbers and anything gained heading out, will need to be banked and held onto for the inward nine and, in particular, Carnoustie’s closing trio of holes.
The 245-yard par-3 16th hole generally plays into a headwind so it shouldn’t surprise that all
THERE ARE FEW COURSES YOU CAN WALK AWAY FROM AND SAY IT HAS NO WEAKNESS, BUT YOU CAN DO THAT AT CARNOUSTIE.
the trouble is short of the green. There are four bunkers – three right and one left – that all lie well away from the tiered putting surface, which is 46 yards from front fringe to back. It is the devilish bunker short left that complicates the tee shot here and contributes to the hole playing more like a par-3.5. During the 1975 Open, Tom Watson couldn’t par the 16th in five attempts through four rounds and then the play o , which he won over Jack Newton.
The original ‘Island’ hole presents on 17 – a 461-yard par-4 where Barry Burn twists its way down the edge of this hole. The drive must be hit onto the island fairway to leave a long dicult approach to the green. Any tee shot hooking slightly left of the fairway will find the burn. In 1999, Craig Parry’s run to win his first major championship came to an abrupt end with a double-bogey six. He birdied the 18th hole to finish a shot out of the play-o .
The diculty of Carnoustie’s closing hole is well-documented on the back of Van de Velde’s meltdown in 1999. But consider this also.
In 2007, Padraig Harrington made four birdies and then eagled the 14th and was obviously playing well when he reached the 18th hole. The 499-yard par-4 features Barry Burn again and is in play to the right and left of the hole and also short of the green. Fairway bunkers encroach from the right and it was here that Johnny Miller lost the 1975 Championship when he took two shots to get out of the bunker. Harrington almost did similar when he finished with a double-bogey six leaving Sergio Garcia needing a par to win. The Spaniard took a bogey. When the play-o returned to the 18th, Harrington made a bogey but it was good enough to claim the Claret Jug from a desperate Garcia, who could not make the birdie needed to keep the play-o alive.
This year’s Open promises to produce the same drama coming down the stretch. The R&A has overseen only minor tinkering of the great layout in the lead-up with the 3rd fairway widened and two fairway bunkers repositioned while the 9th tee has been extended. Doing any more than that would be like painting a moustache on the Mona Lisa.