Global Golf Post - July 11, 2011

Colin Montgomerie (left) and Padraig Harrington
discuss “The HSBC Ultimate Open 18.”

INVERNESS, SCOTLAND | Colin Mont-
gomerie was hardly at his most diplo-
matic during a debate with Padraig Har-
rington – it took place at HSBC’s London
HQ – to pick “The HSBC Ultimate Open
18.” He referred to the first hole at St
Andrews as “a field” and prompted a few
more raised eyebrows when he sug-
gested that Carnoustie, the town, was a
pretty depressing little place.
Harrington and Montgomerie had
been given the brief of choosing the best
holes from the Open rota, with the only
proviso that they should keep the holes
in order. In other words, they could not
have Muirfield’s 10th as their opener.
They had to choose between the No 1
holes on the various Open links.
Monty lit on Royal St George’s for
his start but was talked out of it by
Harrington.
“St Andrews,” said the Irishman, “is
the only place in the world where the
hairs stand up on the back of my neck
when I’m on the first tee.”
Throughout, Harrington, with his two
Opens, saw atmosphere as part of the
equation. Montgomerie, on the other
hand, was altogether less sentimental.
He concentrated purely on the quality
of the holes. Regardless of what Monty
said about Carnoustie, the place, he
and Harrington were agreed that the
town’s links deserved four slots in the
“Ultimate 18” as detailed below:
1st St Andrews; 2nd Royal Birk-
dale; 3rd Carnoustie; 4th St Andrews;
5th Carnoustie; 6th Carnoustie; 7th
Royal Birkdale; 8th Royal Troon; 9th
Turnberry; 10th Muirfield; 11th Royal
Troon; 12th Royal Birkdale; 13th Royal
Birkdale; 14th St Andrews; 15th Royal
St George’s; 16th Carnoustie; 17th St
Andrews; and 18th Muirfield.
Up at Castle Stuart, Phil Mickel-
son delivered a soliloquy on modern
courses. “I think that Gil Hanse has got
it right and I hope that other architects
learn from him,” said the American. “It
should be almost a prerequisite to play
Castle Stuart before you’re allowed to
design courses nowadays.
“Our modern-day architects have this
feeling that equipment has changed the
game and that they should make every
hole long and hard and totally unplay-
able for the average player. A lot of
these courses are unplayable for us (the
professionals). This preoccupation with
length is responsible for driving a lot of
people away from the game.

Mickelson mentioned his friend
Hanse, but the latter was working in
tandem with Mark Parsinen, the man-
aging partner at Castle Stuart.
Wisely or unwisely, the latter was
drawn on why he believes the Castle
Stuart project has not created any of
the same ructions as Donald Trump’s
place in Aberdeenshire.
Firstly, he reckons it is because he
decided to live on the course during the
construction phase and is still living
there today. Secondly, he puts it down
to the way he made it his business to
befriend all the neighbours: “I’m part of
the community now.”
Trump’s course and Parsinen’s are
going to face endless comparisons over
the next few years, with the relationship
having got off to the most arresting of
starts when Parsinen said that he had
studied the whole of Scotland’s north-
east coast and picked the finest site
there was to be had.

The application form for one par-
ticular line of work at Castle Stuart is
two pages long and calls for the best of
CVs. Three previous employers must be
named, along with the nature of the jobs
in question and reasons for leaving.

It was typical of Thomas Levet.
Firstly, that he should have been suf-
ficiently carried away with his win in
France to jump into the water. And, sec-
ondly, that after he had broken his leg
in the process, he should have turned
up at a Canon company day the next
morning with his leg in plaster. Okay,
he could not play with the clients but he
saw them all off the tee and shared in A

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