Carnoustie Golf Links – Championship Course Review
There’s a strong case for saying that Carnoustie’s Championship Course may be the most challenging in the country.
When it comes to quality, it is certainly one of the best golf courses in Scotland and one of the best links courses in the UK. It delivers a complete test of golf as displayed each time a Major championship visits, whether that be The Open Championship, or the AIG Women’s Open.
Francesco Molinari won over baked fairways in 2018 with the ball running like a scalded cat upon landing. Padraig Harrington came through an epic tussle with Sergio Garcia in 2007. But, for many Carnoustie will always stir memories of 1999, Jean Van de Velde’s 72nd hole collapse, and Paul Lawrie’s famous comeback victory.
There may be no views of the sea around the course at Carnoustie but the terrain is pure links. The turf is firm and sandy over natural bumps and hollows. The narrow fairways are protected by gorse, streams and magnetic bunkering as they pick their way carefully towards the vast, supremely maintained, greens.
(Image credit: Getty Images)
There are no weak holes on the course, which ranks 5th in the most recent Golf Monthly UK&I Top 100 course rankings, with each demanding excellence. Whether the requirement is solid, accurate ball striking, as on long par-4s like the testing 2nd and 15th, or a more strategic approach, as on the short but very well protected 3rd.
Golf at Carnoustie began in the 16th century but the first course didn’t appear until 1850 when legendary St Andrews professional Alan Robertson designed a 10-hole track. It was Robertson’s protégé Old Tom Morris who extended the layout to 18, but the Championship course as we know it didn’t really begin to take shape until 1926 when James Braid oversaw extensive modifications.
Prior to the Open Championship of 1931 it was decided the finishing holes were not challenging enough so, local man James Wright redesigned the final three. It’s fair to say he was successful. Wright, arguably, created the toughest closing stretch in…
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