Pádraig plots a new course for Carnoustie

EVEN the fictional Christian Wolff would find it a puzzle and that’s coming from fellow “accountant” Pádraig Harrington.

The last man to win The Open at Carnoustie has found the course a far different beast that it was back in 2007, baked brown by weeks of glorious sunshine, lacking in thick rough with its putting surfaces surprisingly green and receptive.

And yet it still holds as much menace as the Car-nasty they all fear and it promises to be an epic tactical test on a 7,402-yard battleground that will suit a disciplined, straight-hitting plodder with the patience of Job.

There are so many options, it’s a real head-scratcher, even for Harrington, who loves nothing better than a good jigsaw puzzle.

“Do you remember that movie The Accountant and the scene where he’s a kid and he does the jigsaw when it’s face down with blank side facing up?” he said, referencing the Ben Affleck movie about an autistic accountant, Christian Wolff, who combines a head for numbers with the murderous skills of a Special Forces operative. “It’s a bit like that.”

Harrington (below) might have missed the cut in the Scottish Open but he made use of his weekend off to get to grips with a very different Carnoustie to the links where he won the first of his three majors.

On Saturday night he hit a downwind drive into the Barry Burn, not 250 yards from the tee as he did on the 72nd hole in 2007, but 457 yards away, where it snakes across the front of the 18th green.

It’s firm and fast but with hazards everywhere, there are few opportunities to really open up.

Harrington found himself reverting to conservative type in practice yesterday, frequently laying up short of trouble, even if it meant a more difficult approach.

“It’s irrelevant what I’d like, these are my favourite conditions this week,” the Dubliner said philosophically.

Whether the firm conditions, warm weather and wispy rough has made it a tougher or an easier challenge, he couldn’t say for sure.

“I honestly don’t know,” he said, genuinely at a loss to come up with an answer. “There are lots of options. And the wind is to change direction during the week too.

“When you can’t carry something that’s 260 yards away fromyouand then on another occasion you are hitting a driver 457 yards, there isalotof variation.

“You can find yourself laying up short of a bunker that’s 240 yards away and you are still worried about hitting a seven-iron into it! And it’s not like it’s blowing very strong.

“This will suit, not necessarily a short hitter but a very, very straight player. Somebody who pokes the ball around the place.”

Like Matt Kuchar, we suggest. “Yes, a Matt Kuchar style of player will do nicely here,” Harrington conceded. “Players who are quite happy to thread it between bunkers because that’s how they play all the time. I’d be of the defensive nature and lay up.

“The problem is that the course can play longer doing that. I had 180 yards into the first today and I’d never had 180 yards into it in the Dunhill. I was 50 yards short of the fairway bunker because I was too conservative.”

At the 412-yard fifth, Harrington hit an iron off the tee to stay short of bunkers 250-260 yards away, leaving seven iron to a front pin on a green that measures 57 yards from front to back.

“If the pin was up the back I’d have 200 yards plus,” he said, sizing up his approach. “Go right up the top tier and I’d have 210. So it plays shorter but it plays longer, if you know what I mean.”

TROUBLE

Kiwi Ryan Fox bludgeoned his way past all the trouble in the Irish Open at Ballyliffin by using his driver as an offensive weapon.

But that won’t be an option very often for Fox, Dustin Johnson, Rory McIlroy, Justin Thomas, Jon Rahm or the rest of the power bunch. Anyone who fears seeing a 500-yard drive at The Open can probably rest easy because power is not the answer.

Just a few weeks shy of his 47th birthday, Harrington believes experience and links golf ‘nous” is a great equaliser when it comes to neutralising the long-hitters’ power. But that doesn’t mean he’s ruling out McIlroy for that elusive fifth major win given that the wind is not expected to blow hard. “Rory likes a true ballstriking competition, I think, so that would tend to lend itself to the nicer conditions,” Harrington said.

Then there’s Tiger Woods, who arrived late yesterday afternoon and hit oneofhis traditional stinger long-irons straight down the middle of the first fairway, bringing back memories of Hoylake in 2006. “I think he definitely could be a contender,” Harrington said.

“He likes the golf course, I think .... Well, all ball-strikers like the golf course.”