Tiger: Carnoustie's Fairways Faster Than The Greens

Some fun stuff from Bob Harig's Carnoustie account for ESPN.com of Tiger's first practice round for the 2018 Open.

The course is already rife with examples of players finding the ball going extraordinary distances, whether it be due to the wind or the firm and fast conditions. For example, Woods hit a 7-iron off the No. 4 tee to position himself short of bunkers; it went 215 yards. His normal distance with that club is 180.

"Right now the fairways are faster than the greens," he said. "I am sure they will probably speed the greens up a touch, but I'm sure this will be one of those weeks where the fairways are a little quicker than the greens."

Also interesting on the narrowness factor:

As for adjusting to the links style of play and learning how far to hit shots on each hole, Woods said: "It is mainly trajectory. You can get the same numbers [yardages] with different trajectories. That's what is going to be important, how hot you want the ball coming into the fairways. You can really make the ball roll 60, 70, 80 yards. Is it really worth it or not? Some of the holes, can you carry bunkers? It is a risk/reward golf course, and the way it is set up right now, it is going to play very narrow because it is so fast."