Carnoustie Golf Links

 Carnoustie dates from 1842 when Alan Robertson and Old Tom Morris developed a 10 hole links course around the Barry Burn.

With the advent of the rail line and the people it brought, demand for golf escalated, and so in 1867 Old Tom was brought back to refurbish the course and extend it to 18 holes.

Carnoustie is the northern most venue for the Open Championships and has now hosted 8 Opens, as well as a ladies Open and a senior Open. The course is known to be the hardest of the Open Rota courses, and is sometimes known as 'Carnastie'.

There have been some famous wins at Carnoustie:

Tommy Armour (1931)

Henry Cotton (1937)

Ben Hogan (1953)

Gary Player (1968)

Tom Watson (1975)

Paul Lawrie (1999)

Padraig Harrington (2007)

Francisco Molinari (2018)

And who can forget Frenchman Jean Van der Velde's disastrous finish when, needing only a double bogey on his last hole to win the 1999 Open, he made triple bogey, and then lost a playoff?

Carnoustie is exposed to the weather- and the weather is one of the key defences for the course. Play Carnoustie on a calm day and you will enjoy the chance to pit your skills against a course that asks you to think your way around the course, and avoid the many strategically placed bunkers, burns and rough.

You need to to keep yourself in the game in readiness for perhaps the biggest finish in golf - holes 15 to 18 are long, hard, and fraught with danger in any conditions.

Play Carnoustie in the wind and it becomes a battle of survival!

Over the years I have played Carnoustie is wildly different conditions. They ranged from perfect golfing weather where you can enjoy the strategy on each hole - to miserable grey days where the cross winds are so chilly that a beanie is mandatory to maintain your sanity.

Either way you know on the first tee that you will have a battle on your hands at Carnoustie, and that is one battle I always look forward to! 

Carnoustie Golf Links should be on every golfers bucket list.