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Ralph’s Golf Drone Pictures, 1, Carnoustie (2026)

18/09/2026

Carnoustie Hole-by-Hole - Hole 15: “Lucky Slap”

Here we go.

The start of Carnoustie’s famous finishing stretch and arguably the best hole on the entire course

Everyone talks about how difficult the final four holes at Carnoustie are. I prefer to think about the excitement they provide

And the 15th is a fantastic way to start

The hole doglegs from right to left, but the fairway cambers in the opposite direction, making finding the ideal position from the tee far from straightforward

Then comes an approach shot that I’ve always found incredibly difficult to judge

The green sits below the level of the fairway, while two bunkers around 40 yards short mess with your depth perception and make the putting surface feel closer than it actually is

Get there and the challenge isn’t over

The green looks relatively flat, but it’s full of tiny, subtle undulations. Ask almost any Carnoustie local and they’ll tell you the same thing…

It’s probably the hardest green to read on the Links

The 15th also had the honour of starting the four-hole playoff at the infamous 1999 Open

Paul Lawrie, Jean van de Velde and Justin Leonard headed back to the 15th tee to decide who would lift the Claret Jug…

…and for a few moments it looked like they might never actually finish the hole, as all three promptly hooked their tee shots into the trouble down the left

Perhaps the perfect demonstration of what the 15th does so well

It doesn’t need to beat you over the head with difficulty. Everything is just awkward enough to make you uncomfortable

A properly fantastic golf hole

And somehow…

They only get better from here.

Hole 15 complete. Three to go…

17/09/2026

Carnoustie Hole-by-Hole - Hole 14: “Spectacles”

Onto Carnoustie’s final par 5 - and another hole where there’s definitely a score to be made

The 14th is a dogleg left, with four fairway bunkers waiting from the tee. Avoid those and the green is reachable in two, particularly with a helping wind

Manage that and there’s still one rather famous obstacle standing between you and the green…

The Spectacles

Two enormous bunkers sitting around 50 yards short of the putting surface which, in all honesty, really, really shouldn’t be in play

Yet somehow I’ll find myself standing in one of them at least once every season

By modern standards, the 14th isn’t a particularly long par 5, but those bunkers loom large and have helped make this one of Carnoustie’s most recognisable holes

It’s also played a pivotal role in Open history

In 1968, Gary Player made a famous eagle here during the final round on his way to winning the Claret Jug

Almost 40 years later, Pádraig Harrington also made a crucial eagle at the 14th during the final round of the 2007 Open, helping propel him towards his first major championship

Two champions. Two final-round eagles. Same hole

There are birdies and eagles out there on 14…

Just stay out of those bloody Spectacles.

Hole 14 complete. Four to go…

16/09/2026

Carnoustie Hole-by-Hole - Hole 13: “Whins”

The beautiful little par 3 13th. At around 160 yards and framed perfectly by the surrounding bunkers and gorse, some might even argue this is Carnoustie’s signature hole

Normally playing downwind, it’s another hole in this stretch where a good birdie opportunity can present itself

But that depends entirely on where they’ve put the flag…

There are some seriously awkward pin positions on this green and, when they tuck it away, suddenly even making par can become a challenge

Stick the flag somewhere around the middle, though, and it becomes altogether more accessible

I should know

Back in 2010, with the flag sitting pretty much in the middle of the green, I hit a flushed 7-iron slightly left of the pin. It caught the slope perfectly, started feeding its way towards the hole…

…and disappeared

My first ever hole-in-one

I’ve since added another ace at the 8th, which means I’ve now made 1s at two of Carnoustie’s three par 3s

So there’s only one left

The 16th

And if I ever complete the Carnoustie set by making a hole-in-one there, I’ll run the length of Carnoustie High Street naked

Hole 13 complete. Five to go…

15/09/2026

Carnoustie Hole-by-Hole - Hole 12: “Southward Ho”

The 12th is a funny one at Carnoustie. Depending on when and where you play it from, it can’t seem to decide what it wants to be.

From the forward tees it’s a par 4. From the medal tees it’s a par 5. Head all the way back and it plays as a par 4 during The Open… but a par 5 during the Dunhill!

Whatever par is written on the card, though, the real character of the hole comes when you reach the green.

Most of Carnoustie’s greens stretch away from you, placing a premium on distance control. The 12th flips the script completely.

The green is relatively shallow from front to back but incredibly wide — and incredibly wild. Find the wrong section and you can be left with some seriously interesting putts.

And if you need any evidence of just how different this hole becomes as a par 4, look no further than the 1999 Open.

Craig Parry reached the 12th tee on Sunday leading The Open by one shot.

He walked off it with a triple-bogey 7.

Parry would eventually hole out from the bunker on 18 for birdie and finish just one shot short of the famous playoff between Paul Lawrie, Jean van de Velde and Justin Leonard.

How costly did that 12th hole prove?

As a par 5, this is absolutely one of the holes you’re looking at as a birdie opportunity and a chance to pick up a shot.

As a par 4?

You’d sign for a four every single day of the week and walk happily to the 13th tee.

Hole 12 complete. Six to go…

14/09/2026

Carnoustie Hole-by-Hole - Hole 11: “John Philp”

The shortest hole on Carnoustie’s back nine, and the start of a four-hole stretch where things can really start to happen

In the right conditions, the 11th is drivable and offers up a genuine birdie chance

But, as is usually the case at Carnoustie, there’s trouble waiting if you get too greedy

Take the green on and a big gorse bush down the left is very much in play, while missing down the right can leave you horribly short-sided

There’s definitely a score to be made here - but there’s also a quick way of making a mess of it

A few years ago, the hole was renamed “John Philp”, in honour of Carnoustie’s former Links Superintendent.

The word legend gets thrown around willy-nilly these days, but with John it feels entirely appropriate

The work he did in helping bring The Open back to Carnoustie and in transforming the Links into one of the best-conditioned courses in the country, cannot be understated

A Carnoustie legend and a fitting tribute that his name now sits on the Championship Course permanently

Hole 11 complete. Seven to go…

13/09/2026

Carnoustie Hole-by-Hole - Hole 10: “South America”

A strong par 4 kicks off the back nine at Carnoustie

Around 440 yards from the medal tees, with bunkers waiting from the tee and the Barry Burn lurking short of the green, it’s a proper test from start to finish

But you can’t talk about the 10th at Carnoustie without talking about Tiger Woods in 2018

That Sunday remains one of my favourite memories from any Open I’ve attended.

After everything Tiger had been through, suddenly there he was again - right in contention for a major championship

I was watching it all unfold in the beer tent and the atmosphere was absolutely electric.

He reached the turn right at the top of the leaderboard and for the first time in what felt like forever, Tiger Woods genuinely looked like he might win another major

Then came the 10th

Tiger tugged his tee shot slightly left and watched it disappear into the cavernous fairway bunker

We thought he was gubbed

His ball had finished close to the face, with a huge lip directly in front of him and the Barry Burn still to be negotiated before reaching the green

The sensible option was surely just to splash it back onto the fairway

Tiger being Tiger had other ideas

What happened next genuinely needs to be seen to be believed

From just under the face, he somehow launched a pitching wedge up and over the lip, carried the Barry Burn and found the front edge of the green

Two putts later, Tiger walked off with his par

And sitting in that beer tent, with the place absolutely buzzing, I remember genuinely thinking he’s going to do this.

For a brief spell he actually did take the outright lead, before the 11th and 12th ultimately put paid to his challenge

It wasn’t to be that Sunday. Francesco Molinari would go on to lift the Claret Jug, while Tiger finished three shots behind

But I’ll never forget the feeling around Carnoustie that afternoon

For a couple of hours, Tiger was Tiger again. He would later say it was the best shot he hit all year

That shot from the bunker on 10 will live long in the memory

Hole 10 complete. Eight to go…

12/09/2026

Carnoustie Hole-by-Hole - Hole 9: “Railway”

The 9th at Carnoustie is, quite simply, one of the toughest driving holes on the course and it really does not suit my eye

It’s almost dead straight, usually played in some sort of crosswind, but trouble seems to be absolutely everywhere you look

Trees and out of bounds run down the left. There’s a ditch waiting on the right. And then there’s another particularly dangerous hazard down there…

“Wardlaw’s Bush”

Admittedly, that’s not its official name, it’s just been christened that due to the frankly ridiculous number of times my golf ball has ended up underneath it

Avoid all of that and you’ve still got the fairway bunkers to contend with, including one on the right with a little piece of Carnoustie history attached to it

During the 1968 Open, Jack Nicklaus drove over the bunker and finished on a mound in the fairway

Nicklaus wasn’t particularly impressed with its positioning, reportedly questioning why on earth there would be a mound there

So when he returned to Carnoustie for the 1975 Open, I’m sure Jack was absolutely delighted to discover they’d listened to him and turned it into a bunker

If you needed any further evidence of just how difficult the 9th can be, look no further than the 1999 Open

That week, the 9th was statistically the hardest hole on the entire course, averaging 4.57 for the championship

The man who eventually lifted the Claret Jug, Paul Lawrie, even described it as one of the hardest driving holes he’d encountered anywhere and as someone who has stood on that tee plenty of times desperately trying not to hit it into Wardlaw’s Bush…

I can easily believe him

Hole 9 complete. Nine to go…

11/09/2026

Carnoustie Hole-by-Hole - Hole 8: “Short”

You have to wait a little longer than you do on most courses for the first par 3 at Carnoustie

But the 8th is definitely worth the wait

It’s a cracking mid-length par 3 where, like so many holes at Carnoustie, the difficulty isn’t necessarily obvious when you first look at it

The upturned saucer-shaped green can be incredibly difficult to hold, particularly when the wind is blowing across the hole. Miss slightly in the wrong place and the contours can send your ball away from the putting surface remarkably quickly

Then there are the bunkers

The front-right one in particular leaves an absolutely smelly bunker shot

You’re playing up towards the green with the out of bounds staring straight back at you beyond it. It’s one of those shots where suddenly getting the ball close isn’t your main concern

The 8th also holds a pretty special place in my own Carnoustie memories. This is where I made my second hole-in-one

There was no wondering whether it had gone in. No disappearing over a ridge and walking up to check the cup. I slam-dunked a 9 iron straight into the hole

Not particularly good for the edges of the cup

But I’ll take it

A brilliant little par 3, a deceptively difficult green and the scene of one of my favourite golfing memories

I’ll always have a soft spot for the 8th

Hole 8 complete. Ten to go…

10/09/2026

Carnoustie Hole-by-Hole - Hole 7: “Plantation”

The 7th is another mid-length par 4, usually played into the prevailing wind and for me it perfectly sums up one of the things I love about Carnoustie

Almost every tee shot asks you the same question:

How big are your balls?

The two fairway bunkers on the right are positioned at that horrible, awkward distance for most golfers

Do you take them on, knowing that getting past them leaves a much shorter approach and a genuine chance of birdie?

Or do you play conservatively, lay back and leave yourself a considerably longer second shot?

The problem with option one is obvious. Find either of those bunkers and you’re almost automatically staring at a bogey.

The problem with option two?

Carnoustie doesn’t exactly make the safe option safe either

There’s another bunker sitting shorter and left which has caught me out more times than I’d care to admit

The approach brings another classic Carnoustie feature into play

Quite a few of the greenside bunkers here aren’t actually greenside at all. The front-left bunker on the 7th sits around 20 yards short of the putting surface, and that makes it particularly clever

From the fairway it messes with your depth perception, making the green appear closer than it really is

If you’re unlucky enough to find it?

You’re left with one of the most uncomfortable shots in golf - a long bunker shot with plenty of ground still to cover before you even reach the green

For such an unassuming looking hole, the 7th has always given me a hard time. Statistically, after the 3rd, it’s the second-hardest hole on the front nine for me

There’s nothing particularly dramatic about it. No enormous dunes. No railway line. No Barry Burn waiting to swallow your golf ball

Just brilliantly positioned bunkers asking you questions from the moment you stand on the tee

At Carnoustie, the safe answer isn’t always the right one

Hole 7 complete. Eleven to go…

09/09/2026

Carnoustie Hole-by-Hole - Hole 6: “Hogan’s Alley”

Now we’re getting to the serious stuff…

The par-5 6th at Carnoustie, Hogan’s Alley, is surely one of the most famous par 5s in golf

Its name comes from one of the greatest players the game has ever seen

When Ben Hogan arrived at Carnoustie for the 1953 Open, most of the field took one look at the out of bounds running all the way down the left and sensibly opted for the much wider fairway to the right

He saw it differently

Hogan aimed towards the out-of-bounds fence and faded his drive into the tiny strip of fairway between the bunkers and the OB

The reward was the perfect angle from which to attack the par 5 in two

The risk was being a few yards away from reloading

Ballsy

Hogan went on to win the Claret Jug in what would remarkably be his one and only appearance in The Open and his exploits on the 6th became so legendary that the hole would eventually take his name

Fast forward 65 years to the 2018 Open and I spent a few hours sitting in the grandstand beside this tee before eventually giving in to the lure of the beer tent

I was fascinated to see how the modern professionals would tackle Hogan’s Alley.

The answer?

They didn’t

I can’t remember seeing a single player take on Hogan’s route. Everyone headed out towards the safety of the right-hand side, seemingly with absolutely no interest in flirting with that out-of-bounds fence

Standing there watching the best players in the modern game repeatedly turn down the shot really put into perspective just how brave Hogan’s strategy had been 65 years earlier

And then there’s my favourite Hogan’s Alley story of all…

Legend has it that during the 1953 Open, when the final two rounds were both played on the Friday, Hogan’s ball-striking was so ridiculously precise that his afternoon tee shot finished in the divot he had made there that morning

Did that actually happen?

Or has nearly three-quarters of a century of Carnoustie folklore added a little artistic licence?

True story or urban legend? I’ll let you decide…

Either way, there aren’t many golf holes in the world so closely associated with one single shot, one strategy and one player

Hole 6 complete. Twelve to go…

Ralph’s Golf Drone Pictures

18/09/2026

17/09/2026

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13/09/2026

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