I used to live in Carnoustie, but left there in 1985 when I was twenty. At 17yrs old I was playing off of 9, not brilliant, but not too bad. Most of my mates were off of about 5 or 6 so i was the lame duck. One day though, I was standing on the 17th tee at one under par. A bad tee shot left me in deep rough short of the burn on the right. I could only hack out and eventually took a six on 17. Last hole I hit a good drive down the middle and hit a solid 5 iron deep to the back of the green. As it was in the summer and we were playing after school, the light was fading badly. I just could not read the putt I had on the 18th. Needless to say, I hit it woefully short and three putted for five. Nevertheless, it was the best round of my life and between my friends at the time. It is a great course, and no one should live in awe of its reputation. I proved that, a mere hacker in golfing terms. Anyone who comes to visit Scotland should play Carnoustie, it is such a beautiful course. I used to cadddy in the summer when I was at school, and old the older ones used to tell the visiting golfers that Tom Watson never got a par when he won the Open in '75 on the par 3 16th. If any one did par the 16th, they used to say, "your'e better than Tom Watson". Us younger ones at the time used to laugh because we knew this was always going to be said. If we parred the 16th we would never say we were better than Tom Watson because we never parred or birdied any of the other 17 holes on the course.lol.