Tom Watson says Carnoustie the toughest test of all

FROM THE SCOTSMAN WEBSITE
By Martin Dempster
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.
"There's so much variety in this golf course as far as where they can put the flags on certain greens. These are also the narrowest fairways in Open golf, without question. You have to really drive the ball well here. The other thing about Carnoustie is that it forces you to play through (between or over) the bunkers; you can't lay up short of the bunkers because your shots are too long into the greens.
"There are certain holes you do lay up. You'll see people laying up at several holes on the front nine. But there are a number of tee balls where you have to play through the bunkers. You have to play by them and it's narrow. That's what makes Carnoustie so difficult. This morning I played with an amateur who said eight of his first nine tee shots in the pro-am ended up in bunkers."
Even Watson, who has never been outside the top 25 in eight previous Senior Open appearances and has won it three times, most recently at Turnberry in 2007, admits he's surprised the course has been set up to a length this week that is only just over 100 yards shorter than the Open Championship here in 2007.