Open Officials defend "Car-Nasty"

Open officials tonight insisted they had not set out to make the world's best players "look like idiots" despite admitting playing conditions were sometimes "impossible" at Carnoustie.

Players complained bitterly about the narrowness of the fairways and the rough, with former champion Sandy Lyle accusing organisers of turning the championship into a "joke" by putting fertiliser in the rough to make it grow.

But Sir Michael Bonallack, secretary of the R&A, insisted they had been merely "unlucky" with the weather conditions before and during the tournament.

"We don't set out to make the players look like idiots, far from it" said Sir Michael, who himself was in contention to win the Open here in 1968 before playing the last nine holes in 45.

"We don't like to see the players struggling like this and I feel sorry for them but the great thing is the great players are still doing good scores.

"We didn't set out to make it as hard as this but the weather made the rough grow very quickly and with the wind it's a very severe test.

"You have to be unlucky to get that wind, we are in the middle of July, it's supposed to be the summer.

"With hindsight if we had known we were going to get this growth of rough we could have widened the semi-rough, and we did do some of it, but you can't cut the deep rough down because you would need a combine harvester and you can't do that on the eve of a championship."

Sir Michael also refuted claims that such a spectacle was short changing the spectators adding: "I don't think the spectators come to see players shoot very low scores.

"I think they are enjoying seeing the players playing under such conditions, at times impossible conditions."