This is a big week for a lot of people – players and their entourages; administators; referees; the town of Carnoustie; restaurants; hotels; guest houses; media.  The list goes on and on.  It could, of course, be life changing for someone – a first time major winner, for example.

One man pivotal to the success of the entire week, however, is Craig Boath, head greenkeeper at the Carnoustie Links. This is his third Open at the Angus course.  In 1999, that year of the unplayable rough, he was an apprentice;  then in 2007 he was assistant head greenkeeper; now he is the man at the helm.  Can you imagine the pressure of years of your work being under the microscope of the world’s finest exponents of the game, never mind television pictures being beamed all around the world to millions of viewers?

The beautifully revetted bunkers at Carnoustie will test the world’s best.

Don’t expect any tricking up of the links – Boath is proud of the fact that Carnoustie can, in his opinion, hold its own with the modern game, technological advances notwithstanding.  The course is actually slightly shorter than in 2007 and the fairways are not narrower.  In fact, at the 11th hole on the right hand side near the green there is a slight widening out of the fairway.  The intention is to have the greens running at between 10 and 10.5 on the stimpmeter, positively slow by Tour standards, but necessary on links courses where off-shore winds will cause the ball to move if the greens are cut any lower.  He has presented the course to highlight its strengths.  Thoughtful strategy is demanded to avoid the penal bunkers and it’s essential to recognise when to have a go and when to hang back and be a little more conservative.  Good shots are rewarded as much as they ever are on a fast-running links and, by and large, this week’s test favours a thoughtful player and a mindless grip-it-and-rip-it-down-there-as-far-as-you-can strategy is going to have to be tempered by sound thinking.  Phew – a proper golf course then and not even the teensiest bit tricked up.  Thank you, Craig and team.

The work is endless when preparing a course for an Open Championship.

Tuesday evening at The Open Championship can only mean one thing – the AGW (Association of Golf Writers)  dinner, one of my favourite nights of the year.  Patricia has been a member of the AGW for donkey’s years and I have ensured that I’ve been permanently on her guest list since I first worked for the BBC at the 1997 Open at Troon.  It’s a fun evening with the presentation of a Player of the (previous) Year and various other awards and there are normally a sprinkling of top players present.  They’re happy to be there not least because they are free to escape early and their presence is always much appreciated.

Last year the guest of honour was one of my favourites, Sergio, resplendent in his green Masters jacket.  It’s a great opportunity to have an informal chat and take some pics.  Alison Root, editor of the informative Women & Golf magazine and a huge Sergio fan, was determined to have her photo taken with the Spanish Masters champ.  I obliged and, if I say so myself, took rather a good pic.  It was then my turn and Alison took the photo.  I hadn’t the heart to tell her later but it was a disaster – she was obviously still shaking with excitement at her proximity to her idol and the resultant blurry image could have been of anyone!!

This year the AGW is celebrating its 80th birthday, having been founded by 30 scribes attending the 1938 Walker Cup at St Andrews.  Their stated aim was to “establish a close liaison with the governing bodies and promoters of golf” and a list of their past presidents makes for impressive reading with Bernard Darwin, Renton Laidlaw and Percy Huggins amongst their number.  As Patricia is back home in Cheshire looking after my husband, who is on the mend post elbow surgery, it fell to me to host her guests at the dinner – a very onerous duty indeed!  Ros Rentoul, captain of St Rule Golf Club in St Andrews, and I had played university golf against each other many years ago and hadn’t seen each other since but golf bridges all such divides with ease and I had a lovely evening getting to know her again.  Former Wales international Pam Valentine, now a member of the R&A Amateur Events Committee, fresh from a hole-in-one (her 4th) on ladies’ captain’s day at home in Wrexham, was with us and any evening in her company is a treat.

With Pam and Ros. Patricia – we missed you!

It was a treat for the three of us to see Segio, Ernie Els and John Paramor, esteemed Rules guru, be presented with their awards and another bonus that Gary Player, although endlessly entertaining, only spoke for three minutes!  He spent more time imparting his wisdom to Ernie’s nephew, Jovan Rebula, the newly crowned Amateur champion.

Gary draws breath for a photo opportunity with the new Amateur champion.

Golf Writers’ Trophy winner Sergio with wife, Angela – not being kept up at night by Azalea they told me!

Ernie with the AGW Arnold Palmer Open Award given to the person who has made particular efforts to assist the AGW membership in its endeavours to provide media coverage.

As usual, the Master of Ceremonies was the BBC’s excellent Iain Carter who moved the proceedings along with a swing including an entertaining little interview with Jean Van de Velde.  When Iain asked Jean did he often hark back to that 72nd hole in 1999 when he”only” needed a double bogey to win the Claret Jug, Jean replied with a wonderful Gallic shrug, “Well, no.

“Some people are destined to get their names on a trophy.  I got mine on a bridge!”

Not being at Carnoustie this week I’m watching on the telly, listening to the radio and waxing a bit nostalgic about the last time I was there, not least because I realised it was the last time I was at an Open with Dai, the last time we shared our traditional Open ice cream as we meandered around taking in the atmosphere.  If this dry spell continues, all ice creams will have to be consumed quickly before they run away in the heat, a welcome change from having to protect your cones and yourself from icy Angus blasts of wind and rain.

Harold Riley’s take on Ben Hogan’s victory at Carnoustie in 1953.  Note the weather.

Carnoustie Opens are relatively rare birds but they don’t do dull, from Armour to Cotton to Hogan to Player to Watson to Lawrie to Harrington, there’s always been drama, in spades more often than not.  Why should this year be any different?  I’ll have to schedule my exercise breaks carefully, probably going against the grain and getting them in early.  Perhaps that’ll help ease the guilt and sense of failure I feel every time I remember that Aidan O’Brien is up and about by 0500 every morning.  The other day I woke up at 0645, went back to sleep and didn’t surface until 0845.  Crikey, I’m four hours behind Aidan already.  There’s no hope!  Even if I do work on the blog until 0500 in the morning and go to bed when Aidan’s getting up……

Dai used to say that the Open was the hardest week of the year – more punishing even than the Masters with its testing time difference.  Big teams of writers; endless previews; long, long days on Thursday and Friday, with the almost inevitable unexpected unavoidable unknown (or near unknown) leader coming in at half past nine at night; then trying to make sense of the final day’s toing and froing in the run-up to deadline; and the added stress/excitement of being the back page lead.  A home major is a special test for everyone.

Brooks Koepka, double US Open champ, surveys Carnoustie’s sun-dried 18th.

It’s a special year for the AGW (Association of Golf Writers) who are celebrating their 80th birthday and I suddenly realised that I was celebrating my 30th year as a member.  Blimey.  All sorts of memories come flooding back, ranging from playing golf with Henry Cotton at Penina – terrifying because Henry was still fiercely competitive and Toots, his wife, was watching every septuagenarian move like a small but formidable hawk; admiring a waistcoat worn by Seve Ballesteros only to have him give it to me a couple of days later – I still have it of course, despite a couple of late addition Midlands moth holes; Dai got a pair of socks because Seve claimed he had nothing else that would fit him.

There was the Open when Dai’s final piece disappeared into the ether because he’d changed the batteries – the sort of things you’d put in a torch or a small radio – in his Tandy without switching it off first.  That turned out to be a no, no, NOOOOOOOOO because it wiped whatever it was you were working on off the face of the earth.  There was nothing for it but to do it all again, dictating to a copytaker, I think, because there was no time to type it all out, especially with Dai about to spontaneously combust.

A Tandy, for those lucky enough never to have used one, was an early computer with a narrow screen that showed about five lines and could sometimes be connected successfully to the office computer system even by technophobes brought up with typewriters.  Only sometimes though.  Getting through wasn’t always easy, especially from America and I once had to dictate one of Dai’s pieces to a very bored, supremely unhelpful copytaker.  It was tortuous and she was even moved to utter the immortal line:  “Is there much more of this?”  The best I could manage in response was, “I really have no idea.”  Which was true because I could only see the few lines on the screen and hadn’t a clue how much longer we were going to suffer.

Dustin Johnson in fine form in practice but will he make the cut?

After that it was a joy to deal with the cheerful man from the Daily Mail who made light of a panicky rookie (me) and a very crackly transatlantic line and didn’t miss a beat when I nervously spelled out the name Danielle Ammaccapane.  “Ah, normal spelling,” he said, which cheered me up no end.  Life is so much easier when people who know what they’re doing employ a light touch and a bit of humour.  I still smile when I think of that lovely man and try to follow his example.  Not always successfully.

I believe the bookies now have Tiger as the favourite to win at Carnoustie but I’m keeping my money in my pocket because my Open prediction record is about as dire as it is possible to be.  My men usually miss the cut.  The one year I did win something I had to leave early and the AGW bookie, who will remain nameless, gave my winnings – 30 quid I seem to remember, which was a tidy sum back in the day – to Dai.  The cash never made it into my hot little hand and I never forgave Dai and am still reluctant to forgive the bookie.

Haotong Li blissfully unaware that his chances of playing all four rounds are slim…..

I’ve just checked my AGW PYP (Pick Your Pro) predictions for this week and they seem to be up to standard:  Dustin Johnson,  Haotong Li and Padraig Harrington.  Apologies gentlemen and good luck.  There’s a reason why I’m languishing at the bottom of the PYP pile, the only person without a winner to her name.

Which reminds me, many congrats to Dame Laura Davies on winning the inaugural US Senior Women’s Open by a country mile with some splendid golf at Chicago Golf Club last week.  Here’s to the R&A taking the hint and introducing a Senior Women’s Open before too long.

Dame Laura Davies, the first holder of the US Women’s Senior Open trophy [USGA/Chris Keane]