The nasty links of Carnoustie loom once again at The Open

Carnoustie is known as much for the calamity it causes as the British Open champions it crowns.

Any mention of Carnoustie immediately brings back that image of Jean Van de Velde, equal parts tragedy and comedy, standing in Barry Burn on the 18th hole with water up his shins and rising. He made triple bogey to lose a three-shot lead, and then completed as great a collapse as can be found in a major championship by losing in a three-man playoff in 1999.

Just don’t get the idea Van de Velde owns all the rights to bad endings at Carnoustie.

Jose Jurado was the first victim.

He had a three-shot lead going into the final round in 1931 and was still two shots clear late in the round until coming undone in the brutal closing stretch, topping one shot on the 17th hole into the burn. He lost to Tommy Armour.

More recently was Padraig Harrington, only it worked out well for him in 2007. Playing the 18th with a one-shot lead, the Irishman hit his tee shot into the Barry Burn. He took a penalty drop and then hit his next shot into the winding stream. Harrington managed the best double-bogey of his life. It got him into a playoff when Sergio Garcia made bogey from the bunker, and Harrington proceeded to win his first major.

Of the six previous Opens on these menacing links, Ben Hogan is the only winner to hold a 54-hole lead.

For most everyone else, Carnoustie seems to dish out its share of disappointment. Rod Pampling once opened with a 71 and had the lead. He followed with an 86 and missed the cut. Phil Mickelson still hasn’t seen a weekend at Carnoustie. Garcia made his major debut as a pro at Carnoustie. He shot 89.

“That’s a brutal course,” Bernhard Langer said. He speaks from experience in 1999, when Langer had his thirdhighest 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 carry a driver.

“I’m either going to carry a driver or that hot 3-wood, but there are only two or three holes — there are actually only two holes I plan on using it, both par-5s,” Mickelson said. “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 gets its mean streak from the way the course was set up in 1999, with narrow fairways and high grass. Its strength comes from the wind, like most links courses, and this course near the North Sea is particularly exposed.

There is no faking. Nothing comes easily. No one really conquers Carnoustie. It’s more about survival.

The highest compliment might have come from Tom Watson, who won his first major at Carnoustie in 1975 in a playoff over Jack Newton.

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