Carnoustie - Championship

Links Parade - Carnoustie

Carnoustieﾒs Championship course has been called a lot of things! The ﾑmost testing course in the worldﾒ is one of its kinder labels especially following the flaying it gave American players during the 1999 Open. I say Americans as it was they who complained most vociferously.

Carnoustie is long and every hole at a different angle so decent driving in variable wind conditions is indispensable. But from the visitor tees on a relatively calm day ﾑthe sleeping giantﾒ is not so fearsome and indeed most enjoyable.

Early records mention play in the Carnoustie area as far back as the 1520s although by then gowf seems to have been well established here. With a sandy sub-soil and open, rolling-links terrain this site was patently intended for the game. Allan Robertson laid out the first ten holes in 1842 and 25 years later Old Tom Morris added a further eight. It was James Braid who designed the course that we know today although his close was reckoned to be too weak. The notorious sting-in-the-tail was the result of some local meddling.

The Open first came to the Carnoustie course in 1931 when Tommy Armour triumphed. Later, Henry Cotton, Ben Hogan, Gary Player and Tom Watson all took the trophy until Scots lad Paul Laurie from Aberdeen won the most recent Open event held here in 1999. The Open returns once again to Carnoustie in July, 2007.

The 2nd is a significant test, a distinct links-style hole with the wind usually blowing from the right. It plays through an increasingly narrowing valley with Braids Bunker in the centre of the fairway at around 190 yards from the tee. The 6th, Hoganï¾’s Alley, is particularly well known as one of the worlds great Par 5s. The tee shot is intimidating with out of bounds running left and two strong central bunkers forcing players to the safer right fairway. In his one and only appearance in The Open in 1953, Ben Hogan took the more direct route between the fence and the bunkers in each of his four rounds on his way to victory, hence the name