Calling Carnoustie ‘The Beast’ is doing it no favours for The Open
Right, let’s get this one nipped in the bud. Carnoustie is not “The Beast” and anyone who calls it that in the build-up to this year’s Open Championship – the event’s muchanticipated first visit to the Angus course since 2007 – is doing it no favours whatsoever.
That description, of course, stems from 1999, when it was dubbed “Carnasty” in the wake of the winning score being six over and the cut falling at 12 over, bringing some of the game’s greatest players to their knees in what was unquestionably the hardest set-up for an Open Championship.
While you will never hear Paul Lawrie compaining – understandably so given he got his hands on the Claret Jug that year – mistakes were made by the R&A and the head greenkeeper at Carnoustie back then, John Philp, in the way the course was prepared for that test. In fairness, Mother Nature also had a hand in the spring weather that caused the rough to be as penal as it was and also the wet and windy conditions during the event itself.
Nearly 20 years on, it’s that week that many people still seem to use as a main reference point when either talking or writing about Carnoustie and that’s not really fair because calling it “The Beast”, for example, paints a picture that simply isn’t justified. To many, it’s the best test of them all on the rota for the Claret Jug event and definitely not somewhere that players are always going to be battered into submission.
Just ask Tommy Fleetwood. Sure, the course is set up a lot differently for the Dunhill Links Championship than for an Open Championship, but you don’t shoot 63, as the Englishman did last October to become the new course record holder, on a track that is too often portrayed as being too tough.
“Carnoustie is a course that I like,” Fleetwood admitted recently to The Scotsman after successfully defending the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship. “To be fair, in the 63 I hit it in a couple of spots where I probably wouldn’t have broke 70 maybe in The Open the way they set it up. But I do like the course and I like how the holes set up.”
Sergio Garcia is another big fan, which might come as something of a surprise. In his first major as a professional, after all, the then 19-year-old was reduced to tears after slumping to an opening 18-over-par 89 in that 1999 event before also finding it a real struggle in then adding an 83. Talk about someone having his wings clipped bearing in mind Garcia went into that event with a spring in his step after winning the Irish Open a fortnight earlier.
The pain from that experience was eased somewhat when he fared a lot better in finishing second to Padraig Harrington eight years later and Garcia’s description of Carnoustie, while admittedly acknowledging that it is by no means a pushover, certainly doesn’t give an impression of that monster some seem intent on making it out to be.
“I’m really excited to go back. I love Carnoustie,” he said. “I think it’s one of the best links courses we play in the The Open rotation. I think it’s just a solid golf course. It’s great. It’s not the kind of links course that needs a lot of wind or very bad weather to play tough. You know, even with good weather, it’s still very challenging. So I love that about it.”
According to Phil Mickelson, the R&A “seem to struggle getting the course set up properly” for the season’s third major. That view probably stems from him having missed the cut in both 1999 and 2007 and, in fairness to Peter Dawson, who was in charge at the R&A at the time, and also the greenkeeping team at Carnoustie, there seemed little wrong with the test 11 years ago. Seven under was the winning total and the cut came at four over, both of which would be perfectly acceptable again this time around.
In an interview with golfbytourmiss.com, Mickelson also said he’d found Carnoustie “a fun golf course to play every time I have played it outside of The Open” and that’s why a careful approach needs to be taken by Dawson’s successor, Martin Slumbers, in ensuring that element of the test isn’t lost during the 147th Open Championship.
In short, Carnoustie will be a wonderful test for this year’s event, when players such as defending champion Jordan Spieth, Dustin Johnson, Justin Thomas and Rickie Fowler will be among those tackling it for the first time in the heat of battle. Let the course itself make its impression on them and not keep harping back all the time just so we can come up with false descriptions of a fantastic golf course.
Let the course itself make its impression on the likes of Jordan Spieth and not just keep harping back to 1999 for a false description