CARNOUSTIE, SCOTLAND | Mention Carnoustie, and the first association most golfers have with this village at the mouth of the Barry Burn is as an Open Championship venue so tough it came to be called Car-nasty. The Open is staged on the Championship Course, one of three 18-hole layouts on a desolate North Sea links that lies a mere 14 miles north of St. Andrews as the seagull flies and has hosted eight of those tournaments to date. Invariably, it produces great winners. Tommy Armour prevailed in the 1931 edition and Ben Hogan in 1953. Gary Player and Tom Watson were victors here as well, in 1968 and 1975, respectively. And Pádraig Harrington came out on top in 2007. But Carnoustie is just as famous for derailing the quests of players to become the Champion Golfer of the Year, with no one ever crashing quite as spectacularly as Frenchman Jean van de Velde in 1999 when he lost a three-stroke lead on the final hole of regulation play – and then lost a playoff to Paul Lawrie. “Those boys became among the best golfers in America for many ye...