I first played Carnoustie in 1979 or as everyone said “Car-Nasty”, I was told how hard the course was so I teed off, hit a good tee shot right down the middle and as I looked around it didn’t seem too hard to me, 10 minutes later I walked off the first green after taking a triple bogey 7. When we got to the par 5 sixth hole (Hogans Alley), a narrow number one handicap par 5 with a very strong wind blowing left to right the caddie showed us how Hogan (who won the Open Championship in 1953) hit his tee shots left over the OB fence and then let the ball come back into play, he did it 4 days in a row. I didn’t try that but did manage to par the hole. On the par five 14th hole “The Spectacles” (named for the 2 huge bunkers that guard the approach to the green), I hit a beautiful 3 wood over the right bunker or I thought I did, the ball hit the very top of the bunker shot up about 50 feet in the air the then fell back into the bunker, an easy triple bogey 8. When we walked off the 16th green after being hammered all day the caddie tells us, “now it gets hard”. The 17th and 18th holes have the Barry Burn wandering through them and you can’t see it from the tee boxes, you hit and hope. When I played the course in 1988 my tee shot on 18th landed very close to where Jean Van de Velde hit his tee shot 11 years later in 1999, he tried to reach the green with his second shot, ended up in the hazard, took a triple bogey 7 and lost the Open. I laid up, then hit the green in three and left Carnoustie with a very happy bogey 5. I didn’t feel too bad, shot 89 with two triple bogeys. I played much better in 1988 as I somewhat knew my way around it, I managed to avoid the Spectacles and the Barry Burn etc. Of the Open venue courses that I have played or seen the Open on I would rank Carnoustie the hardest, next Royal Lytham & St. Annes, then Turnberry, then Troon with St. Andrews the easiest. Add in Prestwick, an early venue for the Open which has perhaps the toughest opening tee shot in Scotland, no visible fairway, a very hard wind blowing across the fairway, railway tracks right and OB left. Waiting on the first tee @ Carnoustie GC, August 28th, 1988. L-R, Merle & Betty Wade from Sierra View CC, Sandie and myself. See a short video clip of Carnoustie and Sandie & Mike teeing off.
