Friday 23rd July 2010
Tom Watson says Carnoustie the toughest test of all
The Scotsman
Tom Watson reckons a round on the Old Course starts and finishes with a handshake.
By the sounds of things, he believes there's no chance of such pleasantries at Carnoustie. In fact, it's more likely its hands are already on a player's neck at the start and, by the finish, are strangling them.
Although Watson enjoyed being at St Andrews last week for the 150th Anniversary Open Championship - his only disappointment was failing to make the cut - the 60-year-old is even happier to be at Carnoustie for the Senior Open Championship starting today. The Angus course was where Watson recorded the first of his Open wins in 1975 and, while admitting he sometimes has problems remembering what happened the previous day, the memories from that triumph are still crystal clear.
Asked where, in terms of fondness, he rated Carnoustie, which, at 7,297 yards this week is more than 600 yards longer than Sunningdale Old for the same event last year, among all the courses on the Open rota, he said: "It rates maybe the highest in difficulty. I've always enjoyed a testing golf course where there's a lot of driving the ball between bunkers.