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CARNOUSTIE, Scotland – "Drive Safely", read the signs as you enter this seaside town, which made me think twice when I arrived on Thursday for another British Open
pay attention to Carnoustie when the pressure is on and the Claret pitcher is in play.
This is only the third British Open to be held here in the last 42 years, and every previous occasion included a final implosion by the leader on the 18th hole
The first came from Jean Van de Velde, who ended up in the water once in 1999, his pants rolled up and a hold in his hands. The second came from Padraig Harrington, who ended in the water twice in 2007.
Only Harrington managed to emerge with the trophy and all his dignity. But Van de Velde has emerged with a special place in the history of his sport and in many of our memories.
It was unlikely that the little-known French qualifier was in a winning position at all, implausible that everything went up in smoke with the clubhouse in plain sight, unlikely, too, that he could handle the disappointment to blow a lead of three strokes and a unique opportunity in such a class.
He was gallant. He was funny. But he was also very humane, making jokes at his expense and shaking hands with his rivals before going into the privacy of the marker's hut, where he buried his face in his hands and cried like an official him gently stroked his back.
Do not get me wrong, Carnoustie can bite – even if his guardians all year round do not like the term "carnasty". It was invented in 1999, when the course configuration was widely criticized by the players as too sadistic. There were no such complaints in 2007 as the organizers of the Open had made changes to ensure that there would be no such complaints.
"Look, it was carnasty for a week," said Colin Sinclair, professional chef at Carnoustie Golf Links. "The weather can be unpleasant but the golf course itself is not."
Thursday's weather was anything but brutal. It looked more like Scottsdale than in Scotland when the sun was shining and the wind was blowing slightly, if at all.
"Just a little zephyr," Sinclair said. "It's as easy as you'll ever have here."
And yet, the best players in the world did not go wild, and the Carnoustie holes, widely considered the most difficult on the open rotation of 10 in part because of the positions of pins and burnished fairways – which, with the greens still green, gave the impression that the terrain had been camouflaged.
"You drop the ball, and you can hear," said Bernhard Langer, the 60-year-old German playing in his 31st British Open. "It's hard to get the tee in the ground . That's really the case. "
The 16 was statistically the toughest hole on Thursday, the 17th was the third hardest, the 18th, the toughest hole in 2007, was the fourth toughest despite being played with a southwest wind that allowed the players to drive with the breeze on their backs
They still came to grief.There were 16 birdies, 94 pars, 33 bogeys, 8 double bogeys, 4 triple bogeys and a quadruple bogey – from Nicolas Colsaerts, the former European player of the Belgian Ryder Cup
Thirteen men ended up falling on the Barry Burn, the winding Trench that keeps the 18th as a python and lynch. place that took Van de Velde in 1999.
Among his victims on Thursday were reigning Masters champion Patrick Reed and reigning British Open champion Jordan Spieth, who hit "Eighteen was just a bad shot, but all the other drivers I've touched ended up in a very good place, "he said. clarified Spieth, who ended up with a bogey over 18 years old and up. another on a par 72 after being as low as three earlier in the round.
Others who found water out of 18 included three former British Open champions: Darren Clarke, David Duval and Harrington, who touched his tee shot. in the Burn – after driving a right into the Burn in 2007, his Ball bounces off a bridge before it gets wet.
Thursday, Harrington ends up with the double-bogey 6 out of 18 to finish with a five-over 76.
"I do not think you'll find one," said Harrington, who was among the golfers who named the number 18 Carnoustie as the most difficult hole of all the British Open.They responded to an informal poll of the BBC at the Scottish Open last week.
"Out of bounds left by the start, water left, water right, water short, bunkers in front of you, "Harrington said." The second shot, you can hit the green and go out of bounds.
He seemed haunted – and played haunted Thursday – but Harrington, now 46, is the one who escaped relatively unscathed.
He lost his lead In 2007, at age 18, Sergio García took advantage of a 10-foot reprieve that would have allowed him to win the Open. Harrington then beat García in a playoff series to become the first Irish winner of a major championship since Fred Daly at the British Open 1947.
"If I lost, I do not know what I would think to play golf again, "Harrington said at the time
He did not have to find out, and he came back in 2008 to win the Open again
Van de Velde, here commenting on French television, experienced the trauma of 18 at Carnoustie without the satisfaction of having his name engraved on the Bordeaux pitcher.
But he made another lasting impression.
"We receive many more questions from John's visitors than from Padraig, certainly." Sinclair said:
The visitors, mostly Americans, want to see where Van de Velde hit his wandering reader, where he hit his second shot from a tribune and in the rough, where he threw his third shot in the Burn and where he rolled his pants and took off his shoes and He went into the shallow water before changing his mind and taking a penalty
He is also the only one non-champion at Carnoustie to have named a junior suite in his honor at the Carnoustie Golf Hotel & Spa.
The Velde Suite is located next to the Paul Lawrie Suite. Lawrie was the Scottish golfer who started this last Sunday 10 strokes behind and won, shooting a 67, then beating Van de Velde and American Justin Leonard in a playoff series.
In any other circumstance, this return of the final round would have Lawrie, not Van de Velde, the unbeatable story of 1999.
"I would have liked to see a little more of" Jean Van de Velde blew the Open, but, by God, Paul Lawrie shot a 67 to win the tournament by two hits by hitting the best shot ever seen in the last hole, "Lawrie said. "But that did not happen very often."
Driving safely – as it stands – is not the best path to lasting fame at Carnoustie.
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