Dustin Johnson and Jordan Spieth are golf giants with contrasting styles

CARNOUSTIE, Scotland – A record heat wave has tee shots at Carnoustie running faster than a caffeinated Usain Bolt. Players are hitting as little as 7-iron off the tee, and even long-irons are crossing the 300-yard barrier. The toughest course in The Open’s rota is providing a different type of test this week. “Car-nastyâ€� became notorious in 1999, when lush rough and narrow fairways made the course near-impossible. The course was damp again in 2007. Even with easier conditions, 7 under par was Padraig Harrington’s winning score. Now players will face a firm and fast Carnoustie on fairways that have been yellowed by a record heat wave in the United Kingdom. Last month was the second-hottest June on record in the United Kingdom. Motherwell, Scotland, recently hit 91.8 degrees, the highest temperature ever recorded in Scotland. “I don’t remember the last time we went six weeks without rain,â€� a British farmer recently told the New York Times. “Only a proper week of full-on British rain can save the situation now.â€� That’s not in the forecast this week. Carnoustie has received half its usual rain over the past three months. There have been occasional sprinkles this week, but not enough to alter the conditions. The forecast for the remainder of the week calls for minimal precipitation. That means the 7,402-yard course, the longest in The Open rota, will play significantly shorter. And the rough that tormented players in 1999 now offers little penalty because it is so dry and brittle. With well-watered greens and breezes that may not blow harder than 20 mph, there is some talk about an unprecedented week of scoring at Carnoustie. No one has finished double-digits under par in seven Opens here. “When the wind is blowing, it is the toughest golf course in Britain,â€� said World Golf Hall of Fame member Sir Michael Bonallack. “And when it’s not blowing, it’s probably still the toughest.â€� Some are comparing this week to 2006, when Tiger Woods won at Royal Liverpool. He hit driver just once on a course so parched that balls kicked up dust when they hit the turf. He shot 18 under par to beat Chris DiMarco by two shots. This week, Woods put a new, lower-lofted 2-iron in his bag to send his tee shots scooting down the fairway. There’s one problem, though. “I haven’t been able to use it that many times … because I’m hitting my other irons so far,â€� he said. That includes a 333-yard 3-iron on the 18th hole. That hole used to play as a par-5. Now players who hit driver are left with little more than a pitch shot. Dustin Johnson drove it into the burn fronting the green. The 12-yard-wide hazard crosses the fairway 450 yards from the tee. Along with the bothersome Barry Burn, which plays an outsized role for such a narrow hazard, it will be imperative for players to avoid Carnoustie’s penal pot bunkers. “I haven’t seen one yet that … I could actually hit it on the green out of,â€� Dustin Johnson said. Carnoustie’s bunkers, among the toughest in the British Isles, are comparable to miniature water hazards because both hand out a one-shot penalty. Some of the vertical faces are 6 feet tall. The bunkers are so small that players are often left with awkward stances, and the ball is so close to the face that it’s impossible to do much more than pitch out. Johnny Miller lost the 1975 Open here when he needed two shots to get out of a fairway bunker on the 18th hole. He made bogey to fall one short of the playoff won by Tom Watson. There are, however, a few opportunities for long hitters to blow their tee shots over the traps because the rough is of little concern. On other holes, it is better to lay back short of the bunkers. “There’s 5,000 different ways … to play these holes out here,â€� Reed said. The safe play often leaves a more difficult approach shot, though. “There’s no perfect strategy that eliminates risk,” said Harrington. “It’s very difficult to play short of the bunkers all the time. The beauty of the course is that there are a lot of different ways of playing it, but eventually you’re going to have to grow up and hit the shots.” Players will certainly have plenty of decisions to make. Carnoustie has just three par-3s, leaving players with 15 tee shots on par-3s and par-4s. They may be hitting wood off the tee of the 248-yard 16th, as well. Jack Nicklaus hit driver into that hole in the 1968 Open. Choosing a club isn’t the only challenge. Trajectory will have an outsized effect on the distance shots travel. During Tuesday’s practice round, Reed hit two tee shots with 6-iron on the 16th, which was playing downwind. The “chippedâ€� shot, the one he hit with 70 percent of his strength, rolled 40 yards past the shot he hit with a full swing. “Trajectory means a lot,â€� Woods said. He didn’t foresee a lot of opportunities to hit driver because it is so difficult to control a ball that rolls on Carnoustie’s sloping fairways for 60 or more yards. But U.S. Open champion Brooks Koepka said he could hit up to 9 drivers. “Sometimes we can just take all the bunkers out (of play) by hitting driver,â€� he said. “There’s no reason not to take advantage of that, especially with the rough being not so thick.â€�

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All Round 1 scores will be reset when play resumes Thursday at Riviera Country Club, TOUR officials announced. There were 10 groups on the course when play was halted at 7:30 a.m. local time due to rain. The last TOUR event to restart a round came at the Dell Technologies Championship (Round 3) in 2013.

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A little over a week ago, WiIlie Mack III managed to squeeze in 27 holes of practice at iconic Riviera Country Club. Turns out, comedian Adam Sandler just happened to be playing in the group behind him that Sunday, too. "He wasn’t doing any Happy Gilmores," Mack recalls with a chuckle. "But it was fun to meet him." It will be all business this week, though, when Mack returns to the historic club which has counted among its members old-school Hollywood movie stars like Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn to Sandler and many other current celebrities like Mark Wahlberg and Larry David and Carson Daly. He's playing in the Genesis Invitational after receiving the Charlie Sifford Exemption given to a deserving minority golfer as chosen by the Tiger Woods Foundation. It will be Mack's second career start on the PGA TOUR — and second in four weeks. Yes, life is moving fast for the unassuming 32-year-old these days. But make no mistake - this is the byproduct of years of hard work for Mack who once slept in his Ford Mustang in hotel parking lots while playing the mini-tours in Florida and pursuing his pro dream. Mack and his father, a mental health counselor with the state of Michigan, actually started playing golf because of Woods, who is on the mend from a fifth microdiscectomy and won't be able to compete in the tournament he has hosted since 2016. Woods will be onsite, however. "I just remember watching on TV and he was just different than everybody else," Mack says. "I just kind of like gravitated to watching him." To earn the Sifford exemption, well, that was almost beyond belief. "I thanked them probably more than most times for a lifetime," Mack recalls. "But I was just excited and kind of got off the phone and called my dad and he started crying. "So, it was … it was a good day." Mack says he was probably 6 years old when the two first went to the golf course. He reports that he was "horrible" at first but treasured the "good bonding time" with his dad. They'd watch TV and try to imitate what the pros did when they teed it up on courses like Pierce Park and Swartz Creek in their hometown of Flint, Michigan. "We kind of just kept with it," Mack says. "And by the third year I got a lot better. I think after that it kind of just stuck with me, and I fell in love with the game." By the time Mack was 12, he started taking lessons from Jack Seltzer, a member of the Michigan Golf Hall of Fame. There was a golf dome about 20 minutes from Mack's house so he could practice during the cold, snowy winter months. Although Mack played football, basketball and baseball, too, he knew his 5-foot-7 frame wasn't exactly built for long-term success in those sports. Golf was different, though, and Mack had several scholarship offers, eventually deciding to play at Bethune-Cookman in Daytona Beach, Florida. "I wanted to get out of Michigan, for sure," Mack says, weighing sunshine versus snow. "I didn’t even go to any of the other schools. I just went there and fell in love with it." While at Bethune-Cookman, Mack won 11 tournaments and his career goals came into sharper focus. "I always dreamed to be on the PGA TOUR when I started golf," Mack says. "But probably when I was in college and I won my ninth tournament, I kind of was talking to my parents and I was telling them I wanted to try and maybe make a career out of it. "It might not have worked out, but I wanted to at least give it a shot. And then here we are today.” It hasn't been easy. And he's not where he wants to be — yet. But Mack has come a long way from those days when he'd curl up in his car in hotel parking lots when he couldn't find a buddy's couch to crash on early in his golf career. He'd park between two cars in hopes of keeping a low profile so the nighttime security guards wouldn't chase him off. "I got caught a couple of times, but I would just go to another parking lot and try to get some sleep," Mack says. If he had a good payday and could cover his entry fee for his next event, Mack might splurge on a motel room or treat himself to something better than fast food. He did most of his practicing at Orange County National in Winter Garden, Florida, just outside Orlando, where as an added bonus, he could use the shower in the locker room. "The good thing about sleeping in the car was I got up early and practiced as long as I could because I knew I was going back to that car," Mack says. "So, I stayed out there as long as possible." His vagabond lifestyle lasted about 18 months. While there were times it almost seemed oddly normal, Mack says, there were others when he wondered what in the world he was doing with his life. "But I would talk to my dad and just think about what he said about not giving up and how hard times don’t usually last," Mack says. "So, I'm glad I got through those hard times and I think it made me a better person and a better golfer today." Eight years down the road from those lean times, Mack is playing at Riviera in his second TOUR event. He feels more prepared than he was at the Farmers Insurance Open, where he was a last-minute addition to the field after his good friend Kamaui Johnson had to withdraw when he tested positive for COVID-19. Mack also has straightened out an equipment issue that plagued him as he shot 74-75 at Torrey Pines. On Friday afternoon after he missed the cut, the TaylorMade folks discovered his driver had a crack in it. "I hit four fairways in those two days and usually the best part of my game is driving and putting," Mack says. "So, I was kind of confused why it was going so far right every hole, but I got that figured out." Mack's practice at Riviera was a confidence-builder, too. "(It) was just more of a tree-lined course and kind of an up-North feel which I’m used to," he says. "So, it just kind of fits my eye a little bit better." His goal this week is obviously to win, while a top-10 finish would get Mack into the next TOUR event. But if that doesn't happen, he hopes to take some momentum with him back home to Orlando. "Hopefully this won’t be my last time playing in a PGA TOUR event," says Mack, who has also played in one Korn Ferry Tour event and another three on PGA TOUR Latinoamerica. "But if I don’t win or come in top-10, I definitely will take everything I can out of the experience and work harder than I am now." Mack now has a two-year sponsorship agreement with Farmers Insurance that helps cover his expenses on the Florida Professional Golf Tour, where he leads the money list, and the Advocates Pro Golf Association Tour, a non-profit that seeks to bring more diversity to the game. And Mack understands how important it is to carry on the legacy of Sifford, who was the first African-American to play on the PGA TOUR. "It’s kind of like the Jackie Robinson of golf," Mack says. "And who knows if Tiger would be who Tiger is today if it wasn’t for him." Or whether Mack would be the man he is, either.

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