Sunday, July 18th by Robert

Sunday, July 18th
Our arrival into Edinburgh (just after 1:00 local time) was (fortunately) uneventful, and I met Mark at the Hertz counter where we rented a car and a mini-van for the week. Even though we were somewhat nervous about driving “on the wrong side of the road”, with 9 people in our group we knew that tournament transportation would not be able to suit our needs. The “mini-van” was actually hardly larger than a hatchback, and while we are fine with it at this point, it could prove to be problematic in transporting all of the luggage once everyone is here.
The drive from Edinburgh up to Carnoustie takes about 1 ½ hours, and we arrived at Park House B&B at about 3:30. After countless planning e-mails, we finally met our hosts, Robin and Frances, the proprietors of Park House. Park House goes back to 1882 and was the home for a gentleman who owned a shoe factory in town, and his workers lived in a house across the street. We were told that the back yard gardens extended all the way to the beach on the North Sea at one time (about 200 yards). Park House also has the oldest indoor bathroom in Carnoustie. For Sunday night, we would need to stay in a flat across from Carnoustie since there were several visitors at Park House that had been spending time at The Open at St. Andrews (only about a ½ hour away). After moving our luggage into the flat, Mark and I went over to the course at about 4:45 just to walk a few holes, chip and putt a bit and get the cobwebs out from the travel.
We met up with Olin Browne (just entering his 2nd year on the Champions Tour, veteran player from the PGA Tour and a 3-time tour winner). It was great to catch up with him, plus he had his son, Olin, who was here caddying for him this week after having just graduated from Pepperdine. Olin (dad) had just arrived after 10 days off, and I think Carnoustie created a little “shock and awe” – it is an incredibly difficult course.

FIRST LOOK AT THE COURSE
The best way I can describe Carnoustie is that you need to play it very defensively – and when you do try to make an aggressive play, you better suck it up and execute a great shot. It has the best set of strategically placed bunkers I have ever seen, and I could hit as few as 5 or 6 drivers up to 9 or 10 drivers, depending on the wind direction. The fairway bunkers are, basically, a 1-shot penalty and you will rarely have an opportunity to hit a shot more than 50 yards out of one. And the way the course is laid out, there are very few holes that go the same direction, so you are always fighting some sort of cross wind.
Additionally, the greens are running about 10 – actually quite slow by major tournament standards – and most do not have major undulations. However, you cannot “short side” yourself (miss the green on the side the pin is cut most closely to) because the greens are quite firm and even well-struck bunker shots are tough to stop. The grass around the greens is very short, tight and firm, so chipping with a lofted club requires some incredibly quiet hands. I will use a putter as much as 20 yards off the greens. But from a strategy standpoint, it is really important just to hit towards the fat parts of the greens or you can rack up bogeys and double bogeys in a hurry. The challenge, of course, is that if you are somewhat defensive off the tee and defensive into the green, you will have few opportunities inside of 25 feet for birdies.
Mark and I walked around 1-4 and 15-18 on Sunday night with a yardage book, a laser and a wedge and putter just to get a better feel for the greens and the green surrounds. I remember that this type of practice is something that Bernhard Langer does for most tournaments – do your homework (yardages, identifying possible hole locations, create strategy for different wind conditions, etc.) early in the week and then focus on playing golf. The course is really green right now and softer than normal in certain areas, but not around or on the greens – the ball is still bouncing fairly hard.