Carnoustie test for best
Course requires calm, courage and confidence
CARNOUSTIE, Scotland — From the first days in the mid-1800s that golfers took to this ancient ground on the east coast of Scotland, Carnoustie has tested the bravery and skill of one and all.
Exposed to the variable winds blowing off the North Sea, Carnoustie’s sea of hazards — featuring 112 bunkers, a minor river meandering through the course and rough, ditches, out-of-bounds stakes and gorse bushes — has crushed the nerve of thousands of golfers, including the best in the world.
‘‘You have to adapt,’’ four-time major champion Rory McIlroy said on the eve of the 147th edition of the oldest championship in golf. ‘‘There’s not going to be one player in this field that has a game plan on Wednesday night and is going to stick to that game plan the whole way around for 72 holes. It’s just not going to happen.’’
Carnoustie was where Tiger Woods went an entire round without making a birdie for the first time in a major. That was in the 1999 Open, the year Rod Pampling was the only player to match par in taking the first-round lead with a 71, only to shoot 86 and miss the cut the next day.
And there was Jean Van de Velde’s Sunday disaster that year, in which he made a triple bogey on the 18th hole when a double bogey would have won him the Claret Jug. The picture of him standing in shin-high water in the Barry Burn forever is etched in golf ’s hall of horrors. Conditions were so difficult that year that the course earned a nickname: CarNasty.
The par-4, 499-yard 18th, with out of bounds running down the entire left side of the hole, is the end of a closing four-hole stretch that could ruin scorecards. The 15th is a par-4 of 472 yards, the 16th a par-3 of 248 yards and the 17th a par-4 of 460 yards that requires two carries of the Barry Burn.
‘‘There’s always going to be shots that you’re just going to have to grow up and hit,’’ said Padraig Harrington, who defeated Sergio Garcia in a playoff the last time Carnoustie hosted the Open in 2007. ‘‘You can’t hide all the time around Carnoustie. You just continually need to keep hitting big shots. There’s a lot of questions to be asked. And you’ve got to believe in yourself, don’t doubt your strategy and don’t lose your head when things go wrong.’’
A dry, warm summer has turned Carnoustie brown, bouncy and brick-hard and left the rough on the thin side. Some players are hitting 5-irons 315 yards. Others are hitting their driver more than 425 yards. The greens are running a tad slow and are receptive. High winds are not expected.
Thus, players are deciding on their strategy to attack the course — and whether to be bold and use their driver as much as possible.
Woods will not. The three-time Open champion said he doesn’t think the risk of hitting his driver is worth taking.
‘‘This course can be played in so many different ways,’’ Woods said. ‘‘The test is how we’re going to manage our way around the golf course, and a lot of it is dependent on which way the wind blows.
‘‘There’s not a lot of opportunities to hit the driver because the ball is going to be rolling 80 yards. It’s just hard to keep the ball in play. Even hitting sometimes 4- and 5-irons, they’ve been running 50, 60 yards.
‘‘Feel has a lot to do with playing the Open. And here, especially with these conditions, you’re going to have to use your mind on every tee box.’’