Open triumphs over train pain

There is nowhere to hide when the eyes of the world are upon you. The 147th Open at Carnoustie put this corner of the world in the spotlight, and the pictures that beamed back into the homes of tens of millions of sports fans around the globe were nothing short of magnificent.

The course was top class and the associated tented village to support the championship was an impressive spectacle in itself.

And that is before I mention the fantastic sporting contest which played out on the grand old links.

The championship was, by any measure, a great success and one I trust the R&A will be keen to repeat soon.

Yet there were grumblings about the lack of opportunity for local firms to get involved due to a no re-admissions policy that kept golf fans on the course for the majority of the time.

In hindsight I hope the reality of an event that brought 172,000 fans to town – a figure well in excess of 10-times the normal population – was not lost on those who complained.

I spent two days at Carnoustie and the streets were alive.

I doubt there was a bed to be had in the place (or in Broughty Ferry or even Dundee for that matter), the pubs were straining at the seams and, re-admittance or not, the shops had a moneyed audience in front of them to exploit.

And, as you often find with these type of events, the law of unintended consequences came into play.

World number 31 Tony Finau was spotted buying a takeaway meal on the high street, while the “very British haircut” 2017 champion Jordan Spieth had at Magic Barbers 2 ahead of his third round will go down in Open folklore.

The resulting global publicity for a takeaway and small barber shop is of the type money cannot buy.

In fact, my only gripe with the whole event was with the public transport – or lack thereof – in place.

I went by train and bus to Carnoustie and found both services wanting.

After close of play on Saturday evening, I strolled up to the high street to catch a bus back towards Dundee.

There were many others with the same idea and a queue quickly formed.

In more than half an hour of waiting, just two service buses passed.

I direct messaged Stagecoach East Scotland on Twitter and they explained they were operating a normal bus timetable, which sees the frequency of buses reduce as the evening wears on.

I don’t know how these things work with regulations and the traffic commissioner, but it seems bizarre no exception had been made to handle the volume of passengers the Open was obviously going to generate.

The train was much worse though. The service on Saturday morning was infrequent at best from secondary stops such as Broughty Ferry and no ticket purchase facilities were available.

I eventually boarded on to a packed and stiflingly hot train and upon arrival at Carnoustie was among hundreds of golf fans herded into a no ticket queue.

I felt heart sorry for the poor man – yes, one – who was tasked with selling briefs for a journey already taken.

It was a farce and left visitors with a terrible first impression as they arrived in Carnoustie.

When the eyes of the world are upon you – as they were in that moment – what they saw was not good enough.

Jordan Spieth’s ‘very British haircut’ at Magic Barbers 2 will go down in Open folklore