Open season continues at Carnoustie
BY Bruce Young | European Seniors Tour | 2010 Senior British Open | Preview | 22 Jul 2010
The ’Open’ season continues this week at one of the game’s greatest championship courses with the Senior British Open being played at Carnoustie on the other side of the Tay Estuary to last week’s Open Championship at St Andrews. It is only about 15 miles as the crow flies between the two venues but a one hour drive.
This will be the first occasion this particular event has been played at Carnoustie but continues the tradition of taking the event to some of Britain’s greatest courses. Carnoustie has however played host to seven Open Championships, the last of which when Padraig Harrington won in 2007.
There is little doubting as to who will be the crowd favourite this year. Tom Watson arrives after a week of mixed emotions last week in what was likely to be his final Open Championship appearance. “St. Andrews was – I would have liked to have made the cut,” he said on Tuesday.
“I never like missing the cut. It’s just always a disappointment when you are putting your game to the test and you don’t make the last 36 holes. It still eats at me and I still feel that way.”
“But beyond that, with that said, it was a special week in several different ways. First of all, my friends and family all came over, thinking it was going to be my last Open Championship. They made bookings the previous year, and this was before I got the exemption to continue on in the Open. We had 20 to 30 people that were there. It was a hectic week, let’s put it that way.”
It was at Carnoustie in 1975 when Watson began his run of major championship titles. He defeated Jack Newton in a playoff for the Open Championship that year and secured another seven major championships in one of the great careers of the modern era.
He might have missed the cut last week but it is a fair bet to suggest he will be in the mix this week on a golf course that must rank as one of his favourites.
“It rates maybe the highest in difficulty. I’ve always enjoyed a difficult golf course, and testing – driving the ball between bunkers, I like that test a lot.”
Mark Calcavecchia faltered over the closing stages of last week’s Open after making a brilliant start. He trailed only Oosthuizen at the halfway mark and although he eventually finished near last of those who made the cut he again displayed his capacity to play links golf course well. Calcavecchia of course won the 1989 Open Championship.
The event is however laced with some of the game’s finest players of the last thirty years or so.
In addition to Watson, Corey Pavin, Bernhard Langer, Larry Mize, Ian Woosnam, Tom Lehman, Bob Charles, Jeff Sluman, Scott Simpson, Sandy Lyle, Mark Calcavecchia and Wayne Grady are major championship winners competing for a title that has gained increasing relevance in Senior golf.
They are joined however by a host of other quality players who careers have been highlighted by multiple PGA and European Tour victories suggesting this is a very wide open contest.
Of the Australasians in the field Peter Senior perhaps is the best hope. He did well last week at St Andrews making the cut there, continuing what has been a very good season where he has played with distinction on the Champions Tour in the US.
Senior loves this golf course. “I reckon Carnoustie is the best of the Open Championship courses,” he said earlier in the year, sounding excited about his prospects.
Other Australasians in the field are Bob Charles, Wayne Grady, Mike Harwood, Graham Banister, David Merriman, Mike Clayton, Peter Fowler and Noel Ratcliffe.
