Funny thing, this game called golf. The number one player plays the fewest games on offer and he keeps coming back to win, and if he doesn’t, he threatens to win all the time. The rest of the players go through an emotional and physical rollercoaster week in and week out.
Take, for instance, Scotland’s Colin Montgomerie. Two weeks ago he captured the European Open and he saw this as a morale booster to take on Tiger Woods for the 136th British Open at Carnoustie this weekend.
But last weekend Monty was humbled — embarrassed even — when he did not make the cut and did not finish his home Scottish Open.
So, is Monty still hungry to take on Tiger this weekend?
Only six players have won the Open at Carnoustie since its inception. The reason for this is simple, the Open has visited this monstrous course only six times. The tournament that took off on Thursday is the seventh.
Carnoustie is not a course for winners, but rather for those with the uncanny ability to grab defeat from the hands of victory.
No one will forget the Frenchman, Jean van de Velde, in 1999, who needed a double bogey to take the lucrative Claret Jug, only to fumble and stumble out of contention and give it away.
Woods won the Open at Hoylake last year — only the second player to win it back-to-back since Tom Watson in 1982 and 1983. Woods comes to Carnoustie after a two-week layoff and, by all accounts, he is armed to claim his 14th Major victory in his quest to match and ultimately surpass the record of Jack Nicklaus.
Cast your minds back only two months ago to the US Open at Oakmont. True to expectation and form, the US Open showcased the most displeasing mastery of golf, with bogeys outnumbering pars and birdies twofold.
Carnoustie is to golf what Vietnam is to American history. Everyone goes there with great intentions, few want to go back after they have been battered and shamed. It is a course where more expletives are uttered during the four days than most people spout in their entire lives.
If ever there is a course designed for anti-golf, Carnoustie is up there with the worst, including Shinnecock and Oakmont.
Despite its multitude of pot bunkers, St Andrews, the home of Scottish Golf — in fact the home of golf — is a better bet for golfers. Less enterprising golfers have found it easy to clinch the Open on the lawns of St Andrews. But some of the most aggressive and skilled golfers have failed dismally to make their mark at Carnoustie.
There are courses that are known for their tough greens, such as Augusta. And courses with mean, narrow fairways with no room for even the slightest pull or push shot, like St Andrews. The roughs at Oakmont are impenetrable. The greens at Shinnecock are faster than light itself. Carnoustie brings all these together in one torrid pot.
It is rare on any given weekend to find a golfer who finds all fairways and greens in regulation, records the most sand saves and putts almost perfectly. At Carnoustie no such golfer has ever been invited because none exists yet.
So what will it take to win this weekend? Bad memory will be the best tool in every golfer’s bag.
This weekend, golfers must expect many disappointing shots, and the sooner they forget them the better. They should play the next shot as if it was their first. Some great shots will end up in the worst rough, or in the water. Shots might fly past the green or even fall many metres short of the desired distance.
When the best players meet this weekend, it will be on the back of many great performances.
Monty won two weeks ago. Ernie Els made a stunning comeback at the Scottish Open last week. World Number three Phil Mickelson lost out to French journeyman Gregory Havret, who clinched the Scottish Open. Jonathan Byrd stole the John Deere Classic from the hands of Tim Clark, who mesmerised his challengers, but lost out at the last moment. Tiger Woods is playing good golf. Jim Furyk and Vijay Singh are not out of it either.
But this game called golf can be a funny thing. At Carnoustie even the last shot counts for nothing.