Last year's British Open was like no other in the long history of the championship

Defending champion Mark O'Meara said, "My pride is hurt. I've never seen a more difficult or demanding golf course." Sandy Lyle called it "a joke." Unflappable Ernie Els opined: "They've gone over the top. I don't think anybody has ever played on a golf course like this."

The average score from a field of the world's elite golfers topped 78, more than seven shots over par - a figure not broken even on a day of light breezes. Tom Watson, the man who won the first of his five Opens when the championship last visited the monumental Carnoustie links in 1975, added a despairing, "It's an unfair golf course."

That was only the first-day reaction to an Open of interminable whining, wailing and gnashing of teeth. Ever renowned for the steely nature of its challenge, Carnoustie in 1999 was dressed in puritan mode - anorexic fairways struggling to make themselves seen between acres of horrendously deep, lush rough. Two feet off the fairway the ball could be unplayable.

If the week started with drama, it ended in fantasy and farce. Unknown Frenchman Jean van de Velde could have taken a double-bogey 6 at the last hole and claimed the title. By way of deep rough, the burn (creek), a penalty drop, and a bunker, he scored 7 and went into a three-way playoff over four holes with 1997 champion Justin Leonard and home favorite Paul Lawrie, who had secured his spot an hour earlier when he picked up 10 shots on the Frenchman with a fighting 67.

All three made a mess of the first playoff hole. None made par at the next. Then Lawrie stepped firmly into the spotlight with a superb two-birdie finish to become the first Scots-born victor since Tommy Armour on the same course in 1931.