Things started well enough...shots two and three below are from the 5th fairway ("Brae") as Donald and Alistair both rescue wayward drives.
Then it all starts to go horribly, horribly wrong. The three balls in the bunker (middle shot, below) are Alistair's, Mike's and Campbell's - all strategically landed there with pulled drives on the short 8th.
Question is, has Mike just struck the right ball?
Help is at hand though...the infamous Tea Hut has thankfully been persuaded to serve up something a bit more powerful than regular coffee, so Alistair plays waiter.
From the smile on everyone's faces (middle, below) you could never guess how wayward things were getting for some! Second from left is our celebrated Caddie, Blair Dougan, whose unswerving sense of humour saw us all through the bad times.
The Tea Hut marks the main intersection of Championship and Burnside courses. As Donald explains to Mike, it was here at the 5th on the Burnside in nineteen canteen that Alistair chipped in over the burn. Twice two years running. Consistent, eh!
Here are some cracking views back to the Carnoustie Hotel, also from the Tea Hut, looking over the 5th at Burnside (named "Burn" funnily enough). This was our only real sunshine of the day, but we were lucky enough to have a window of dry weather for 4 hours while all around us was being flooded out.
And yes (below, right), we had to finish in the dark. Here's Donald striking arguably his best drive of the day (since none of us could actually see it) to lay up short of the burn on the infamous 18th ("Home"). Fortunately the course manager kindly switched on the hotel clock light so we just about had enough to putt out by!
