The Championship Course at Carnoustie is a Par 72 (SSS 75) and measures a cool 6941 yards and this is only the white tees.  Unfortunately we are not allowed to play the Blue tees as there is work being undertaken on them.  For the record the course measure 7400 yards (approx) off the blues.

After a night staying in the Corner Hotel (highly recommended) and a few beers we are blessed with a calm day and clear skies.  So its time for the big course well….Craig gets off to a great start making eight straight pars and one birdie at the 9th.  This is impressive however this involved only 12 putts in the front nine.  Craig never played badly however had to hole some decent 6 to 10 foot putts for pars before sinking a 25 footer on the 9th to turn in one under 35.  Stu managed to get round the front nine in level 5’s in his bid to try and break 90 on the Championship course.  A good par at the 3rd and a 4 at the short par 3 8th was cancelled out by the double bogey 7 Stu took up ‘Hogans Alley’ – which is an extremely tight hole!

The back half saw Craig deliver pretty much the same good ball striking saw pars at the 10th, 11th, 12th and 13th with a birdie coming at the 14th (The Spectacles named after the bunkers).  A big drive just short and a wedge onto the double green saw Craig make a birdie to go two under for the round.  A good par at the 15th and then a cracking four iron onto the green at the 16th (Par 3 – 245 yards!!) saw another par.  A scrambled par 4 at 17 and then a great drive down 18 only required a flick with the wedge to the middle of the green and a par was secured for a round of 70 (-2).

Stu had an equally good back half by his standard making par at the 11th and carding 4’s at the two par 3’s.  A three putt bogey at the 12th was the only real blemish however the highlight of the day was Stu making his par at the 18th.  The night before he said he had dreamed of playing the 18th and making a par and had built himself up for it.  Off the whites it was only playing 444 yards (instead of the usual 510 yards off the blue tees) and a great drive left him in a quandary.  Go for it or lay up……I talked him into going for it and he managed to crack a sweet 3 wood and bounce it over the burn onto the back of the green.  With a lot to do Stu hit this putt and I swear it burned the edge and went to about 10 inches were he calmly tucked it away.  I was well chuffed for him and so was he.  Stu managed to card an 87 which was a great achievement.

Carnoustie does not need us to sing its praises as it speaks for itself it is a superb golf course and is a very fair course as well…… we both hit it well and kept it in play which made it very enjoyable and managed not to go in any bunkers which is very bizarre.  With a bit of a wind and the rough up it would have been a different story.  Signature hole…..can’t choose one but suppose 18th sticks out the most.  Very easy for us on the day and looked a big fairway and yeah it had water but if you need to make a par or even a 6 to win (Van De Velde) The Open it can be very daunting and nerve racking we are sure.

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