Course ready to crush spirits
With Open’s return, Carnoustie expected to live up to its killer rep
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, 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 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 Barry Burn. He took a penalty stroke and a 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 went on 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 always seem to dish out its share of carnage. 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 profes- sional at Carnoustie. He shot 89.
“That’s a brutal course,” said Bernhard Langer, who speaks from experience. In 1999 Langer had his third-highest score of the 23 Opens he completed. He shot 297 — and tied for 18th.
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.”
Mickelson, who played Carnoustie a week before the Open, said it was unlikely he would even carry a driver.
“I’m either going to carry a driver or that hot 3-wood, but there’s actually only two holes I plan on using it, both par-5s,” he 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 in any conditions is regarded as a beast, with a reputation as the toughest links in the world.
In recent Opens, it has picked up a nickname: Car-nasty.
For so much of the field, it will be a new experience. Only two players from the top 10 in the world have played in a British Open at Carnoustie — Justin Rose and Rory McIlroy, who was an 18-year-old amateur in 2007 and immediately showed his potential when he opened with a 68. He tied for 42nd that week.
Only 33 players in the 156-man field have played in an Open at Carnoustie, and only 12 have played it twice.
Defending champion Jordan Spieth knows it only from television.
He was 13, just starting to blossom as a junior, and he watched the Open from home as Garcia and Harrington tried to survive the finish.
“I remember how good of a score par was on that hole and will continue to be for Opens going forward,” Spieth said. “It’s one of probably the toughest closing holes in the Open Championship anywhere, and that creates some drama when it comes down to Sunday, as we’ve seen.”
Carnoustie gets its mean streak from the way the course was set up in 1999, with narrow fairways and high grass. But its strength comes from the wind, like most links courses, and this course near the North Sea is particularly exposed.
It measures 7,402 yards, which is 19 yards shorter — yes, shorter — than it was in 2007, the last time the Open was at Carnoustie.
Spieth will try to become the first player in 10 years to repeat as British Open champion.
Like most majors these days, the Open figures to be wide open.
Woods is happy to get another crack at it.
Carnoustie was his first experience with links golf in 1995, when he was still at Stanford and came over for the Scottish Open at Carnoustie ahead of the British Open at St. Andrews. He opened with a 69, closed with a 78 and finished 48th.
“Carnoustie is an unbelievable driving course,” Woods said. “You have to drive the ball well there, but also it’s not your traditional in (and) out course. It’s a lot of different angles, so a lot of different crosswinds. I have to be able to maneuver the ball both ways there efficiently. You just have to hit the ball well.”
Nothing comes easily. No one really conquers Carnoustie. It’s more about survival.