Carnoustie ready to wreak havoc

made his major debut as a professional at Carnoustie. He shot 89.

“That’s a brutal course,” Bernhard Langer said. He speaks from experience in 1999 when Langer had his third-highest score of the 23 Opens he completed. He shot 297, and he tied for 18th that week.

The first time Tiger Woods went an entire round without a birdie in a major was in 1999 at Carnoustie.

“I think I made one birdie on the weekend and I finished three or four back of the playoff,” Woods said. “That was ridiculous how hard it was.”

One month after Shinnecock Hills was punishing as ever in the U.S. Open, golf’s oldest championship doesn’t figure to be much of a reprieve. Scotland has been going through a warm, dry patch of weather, which figures to make it firm and bouncy.

Mickelson, who played Carnoustie a week before the Open, said it was unlikely he would even carry a driver.

“I’m either going to carry a driver or that hot 3-wood, but there’s only two or three holes — there’s actually only two holes I plan on using it, both par 5s. I have a low 1-iron that I’ve been putting in the bag and. It’s very low. Gets on the ground quick. I’ll hit that on probably the last 10 holes, almost every hole.”

Carnoustie in any conditions is regarded as a beast, with a reputation as the toughest links in the world. Sir Michael Bonallack, the former R&A secretary, might have sized it up the best when he said: “When the wind is blowing, it is the toughest course in Britain. And when it’s not blowing, it’s probably still the toughest.”

In recent Opens, it has even picked up its own nickname: Car-nasty.

“Carnoustie is like an ugly, old hag who speaks the truth no matter how painful,” Tom Watson once said. “But it’s only when you add up your score, you hear exactly what she thinks of you.”