CARNOUSTIE DON'T WANT TOO TOUGH A LINKS FOR LADY PROS

FROM THE SPORT.SCOTSMAN.COM WEBSITE

By Martin Dempster

Carnoustie officials are keen that the Angus course isn't set up to be too tough when it stages the Ricoh Women's British Open for the first time later this year.

Mindful of the whingeing that led the course to be branded as "Carnasty" after the 1999 Open Championship, Graeme Duncan, general manager of Carnoustie Golf Links, has revealed he will be expressing strong views about how it should be set up in July in forthcoming meetings with the Ladies Golf Union and the event's promoter, IMG.

(Pictured above is the 16th green on the Carnoustie championship links with the hotel in the background: Image by Cal Carson Golf Agency).
"It is the LGU and IMG who set up the course, but we will be making our views known," he told 'The Scotsman' newspaper. "If you think back to 1999, when the course got a bad reputation as some people claimed it was too tough."
According to Duncan, criticism of the course was "redressed" when Padraig Harrington lifted the Claret Jug in 2007, while players offered nothing but praise, both for the test they were presented with and the condition of the course, when Bernhard Langer won the Senior Open Championship last summer.
"Now we don't want the course set up in a way that it is too challenging for the ladies," he added. "We don't want players to be coming off the course talking about horror stories.

"Nothing has been decided yet about what the actual yardage will be that week, but I'd say 6,500-6,660 is about the limit. The course is 6,900 yards off our normal back tees for members, but I think the ladies will be a bit forward from that.

Carnoustie officials are not resting on their laurels, as evidenced by a significant investment in a new visitors' centre.
The 1,000 square metre building will house a professional's shop, locker-rooms and toilet facilities, much the same as that St Andrews. It is designed to be used by both golfers and members of the general public.

"We are hoping that it opens a few weeks before the Women's Open," said Duncan."

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