a
CONTACT

-
SEARCH
HOME AT FIRST
a
———
a
COMMENTARY
& OPINION—
PESSIMISM & OPTIMISM

select


———
-
— 2009 —
Travel
PACKAGES
& PRICES:


EXTENDED!
———

— 2008 —
Travel
PACKAGES
& PRICES:

BRITAIN & IRELAND:
select
• SCOTLAND
• PRICES     
• SALE ON   
      SELECT WEEKS!
-  

•
•
• IRELAND   
• PRICES      
• SALE!          
-  

•
• LONDON    
• PRICES      
-
-
• ENGLAND  
• PRICES      
 • SALE!           
••
• WALES     
• PRICES     
  • SALE!           
select
Booking Your Trip to
BRITAIN/IRELAND
select

-
•
select
SCANDINAVIA:
select
• DENMARK 
ct
• NORWAY .
ct
• SWEDEN   
ct
• PRICES     
select
Booking Your Trip
to SCANDINAVIA
select
•
select
NEW ZEALAND:
sa
• NORTH ISLAND
• SOUTH ISLAND.
• PRICES               
select
Booking Your Trip
to NEW ZEALAND
a
———
a
Got Yours Yet?
ORDER A FREE
'VACATIONS'
CATALOG!
select

select
——
select
DEALS AND
SPECIAL OFFERS
select
——
select
GET A FREE
TRIP PROPOSAL!
select
——
select
SUBSCRIBE TO:
'HomEzine'
our
FREE
TRAVEL
NEWSLETTER
sent by e-mail! Each issue includes
the latest Deals, News and Features!
select
———
a
GOT A
???QUESTION???
select
———
select
CURRENT WEB
FEATURES:
select
ADVENTURE
select
GOLF
select
LODGING
select
PEOPLE
select
———
select
CONTACT:
HOME AT FIRST
(800) 523-5842
info@homeatfirst.com
a
HOME AT FIRST

a


a

— Center of the Golfing Universe —

-

They call it "Car-NASTY" or "The Bear".
It’s long. It’s narrow. It’s slippery.
It’s subject to strong winds and horizontal rain.
It’s not fair. It can be your worst nightmare,
right, Jean Van de Velde?

Links Parade
Carnoustie, Angus
Scotland DD7 7JE

So you like a good challenge...
care to take on #9 in the world?

HOLE 2, CARNOUSTIE
CHAMPIONSHIP GOLF LINKS.

          You remember The Collapse, don’t you? On the final day of the 1999 Open—the last time it occurred at Carnoustie—French pro Jean Van de Velde strolled to the 18^th tee with a 3 shot lead. Everyone knew that shooting double bogey or better on this difficult par-4 would mean a certain win of the world’s most prestigious golf event. Caution and conservatism was called for. Defense wins championships, right? Someone forgot to tell Van de Velde. His drive was wild and daring, but landed safe enough. His second shot—also wild and daring—hit the grandstand at the green and buried itself in deep grass. The third shot never reached the green, plunking down in the greenside stream called Barry Burn. Burned into our retinas were images of Van de Velde sans shoes and socks and up to his fetlocks in the creek contemplating chipping in a half-a-foot of flowing water. Thinking better of it (what took so long?), the Frenchman

THE 18TH HOLE AT CARNOUSTIE WITH THE
CROSSING OF THE INFAMOUS BARRY BURN,
SITE OF THE COLLAPSE OF JEAN VAN DE VELDE
AT THE 1999 BRITISH OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP.

dropped a ball creekside and chipped a fifth shot for the green, but missed wide right, landing in a bunker.
          Shot six finally landed on the short grass, but short of the hole by ten feet. With the headlights blinding Bambi, Van de Velde somehow summoned sufficient spirit to sink the 10-footer and save the match. Temporarily. Locked in a three-way tie for the Open with former champ American Justin Leonard and home-lad Paul Lawrie, Van de Velde swooned on the first playoff hole. Two holes later Lawrie satisfied the crowded grandstand with the first Open victory by a Scot on a Scottish course in 68 years.

          The 2007 Open Championship returns to Carnoustie July 19-22 for the first time since Van de Velde scored seven with one Blow. Since 1999 golf has changed. Since
the Millennium golf has been the fiefdom of Tiger Woods. The Big Cat owns three of the last seven Open titles with wins in 2000 and 2005 at St. Andrews—about an hour south of Carnoustie—and in 2006 at Hoylake, near Liverpool, England. Americans David Duval (remember him?) in 2001, Ben Curtis in 2003, and Todd Hamilton in 2004 claimed
claret jugs for the Stars and Stripes. South Africa’s Ernie Els broke the Yankee dominance of the Open in 2002.
          The Open comes to Carnoustie for the seventh time this July, and Tiger’s prowling for his fourth Open victory and third consecutive. If he succeeds, Tiger will join Aussie Peter Thomson, and Scotland’s Bob Ferguson, Jamie Anderson, and Young Tom Morris in winning three consecutive Open Championships. For everyone in the
tournament not named Eldrick, this year’s Open promises to be doubly intimidating. Playing against Tiger in a Major is a daunting challenge. Playing for the Open at Carnoustie, the North Sea Monster, will mean playing a tiger of a golf course.
          Carnoustie Golf Links maintains its claim as one of the oldest sites for golf in the world, with recorded golf being played on the links land here at least as early as 1520 and maybe before Columbus crossed the Atlantic. Regardless of the debate about where golf first was played in Scotland, Carnoustie’s Championship Links Course is not one of the ancient Scottish courses. Still, Carnoustie may be counted among the founding courses of modern links golf. Its first ten holes were laid out in 1842 on the Carnoustie sands near the mouth of the Firth of Tay. Three of golf’s great early luminaries had a hand in Carnoustie’s design, including golf’s first professional, Allan Robertson; one of the game’s first great champions, Old Tom Morris; and one of Scotland’s most prolific course builders, James Braid.

        Carnoustie promotes itself as a great promoter of golf. At the beginning of the 20^th century more than 250 Carnoustie trained golfers "spread the gospel of golf" around the world. Carnoustie claims its evangelicals have left a legacy of more than 250 American clubs it influenced at that time. Carnoustie’s Stewart Maiden made his contribution to golf by teaching Bobby Jones the game. By the time the British Open was first played at Carnoustie (1931) golf missionaries from Carnoustie had won national open tournaments in seven different countries, including Britain and America. Carnoustie’s clubhouse displays a great number of the trophies and medals won around the world by members of the Carnoustie Golf Club.
        Five years after James Braid, a 5-time British Open champion and legendary course designer, tweaked Carnoustie’s layout in 1926, the 91-year-old course hosted its first British Open British Open which Tommy Armour won. The Open Championship has returned to Carnoustie six times since: 1937 (winner: Henry Cotton), 1953 (Ben Hogan), 1968 (Gary Player,

ALAN ROBERTSON

1975 (Tom Watson), 1999 (Paul Lawrie, featuring Van de Velde’s famous collapse), and in 2007.

CARNOUSTIE CHAMPIONSHIP COURSE & SOME NOTABLE HOLES: Like many links courses, Carnoustie occupies what is otherwise useless wasteland. But what the rolling links land lacks in dramatic scenery, it makes up in challenge. Carnoustie’s Championship Links makes the most of its natural conditions: menacing meandering burns and pot bunkers, fierce wind and rain, slippery slopes on fairways and greens, and diabolical rough. These conditions are magnified by Carnoustie’s random design—no two consecutive holes face the same direction, making wind, rain, and hill slope different on every hole. But Carnoustie’s biggest intimidation lies in wait to the end of the round. Holes 16-18 have earned a fearsome reputation as the "toughest finish in golf", rendering no round—and no lead—safe after the first 15. The finishing three holes can be your worst nightmare—right Jean Van de Velde?

        Carnoustie is currently ranked Number 9 in the world (outside of the USA) by the PGA’s Golf Web, and rated 5^th best course in Scotland after St. Andrews Old Course, Royal Dornoch, Muirfield, and Turnberry Ailsa.
        The course has three par 5’s (2 on the back 9); and three par 3’s (2 on the back 9). Its fairways are narrow, very undulating, and edged by heather. Its greens are generally small, sloping and difficult to hold, particularly in dry summer conditions. (One green

Hole 1: "Cup", 401 yards, Par 4, 10^th handicap. The serpentine Barry Burn first appears here. Ten feet wide and with sheer banks, this creek in a ditch affects play in a dozen holes, including the finishing three. Here the creek is less a threat than a distraction, but the hole is not easy. Its bumpy fairway—called an "elephant’s graveyard" by Hale Irwin—and a blind second shot to an unseen green foretell of some of the difficulties ahead.

THE FIRST TEE AT CARNOUSTIE

THE ROLLING FAIRWAY OF THE 6TH HOLE
IS LACED WITH POT BUNKERS AND LINE
WITH OUT-OF-BOUNDS TO THE LEFT. IT
REQUIRES THE ACCURACY OF A BEN HOGAN
TO SCORE UNDER PAR-5 HERE.

Hole 6: "Hogan’s Alley" (formerly "Long"), 520 yards, Par 5, 2^nd handicap. The tight, long, 6^th at Carnoustie is one of golf’s great par-5’s. Properly played as a double dogleg, the 6^th is bordered along the left with an out-of-bounds, has a ditch to avoid, then a narrow squeeze to a slick 2-level green guarded with serious pot bunkers. With an out-of-bounds tight all the way down the left-hand side and bunkers in the middle of the fairway off the tee, the "safe" line is to play the hole as a double dog-leg.

Hole 8: "Short", 167 yards, par 3, 18^th handicap. Carnoustie’s first par-3 offers no relief for short-hitting higher handicappers owing to its usual cross winds and small green surrounded with trouble.

THE "SHORT" 8TH HOLE AT
CARNOUSTIE PLAYS LONG
IN THE WIND, AND AWAITS
ERRANT SHOTS WITH
LOTS OF TROUBLE.

Hole 10: "South America", 446 yards, Par 4, 3^rd handicap. Off the tee bunkers flank the right side and tough rough the left. If you keep your first shot in the fairway with some distance, a daunting long second shot to the green awaits. The Barry Burn snakes almost completely around the 10^th green. Better lay-up and pitch.

HIDDEN BEHIND THE TREE BY THE 10TH GREEN,
THE BARRY BURN LURKS. LISTEN CLOSELY TO
YOUR CADDIE HERE ON YOUR APPROACH SHOT.

Hole 14: "Spectacles", 483 yards, Par 5, 1 handicap. One of Scotland’s most pivotal holes. Plagued with vicious gorse and heather rough, made tight with an out-of-bounds, and with a green guarded by its namesake spectacle-shaped bunkers, this short par-5 has made or broken Open Championship rounds by Nicklaus, Player, and Watson wish they had stayed "Home".

THE SPECTACLES BUNKERS GUARD THE
14TH GREEN LIKE A PAIR OF ROTWEILERS.

THE BARRY BURN INVADES THE
APPROACH TO THE 18TH GREEN.
HERE'S ONE FINISHING HOLE YOU
WILL NOT SOON FORGET.

Hole 18: "Home", 444 Yards, Par 4, 11th handicap. One of golf's great finishing holes, Carnoustie's 18th is one of the course's "unfair" holes, having formerly been a par-5. The treacherous Barry Burn affects tee shots and shots to the green. Impossible rough, nasty pot bunkers, and an out-of-bounds running the length of the hole's left side add to the challenge, as do notorious cross winds. All of these factors have left many players dreaming of home while up to their ankles in the Barry Burn. Right Jean Van de Velde?

]
Want to learn about other courses throughout the British Isles
including some of the greatest tests of golf in the world? See our
SCOTLAND, IRELAND, ENGLAND, and WALES
Course Guides for more information.
A