Steroid-injected Carnasty from '99 a thing of the past

The caddie was right. Janzen immediately four-putted the 15th hole.

The shame of the story is that the Carnoustie steroid injection was unnecessary.

"It's a fantastic layout," said Englishman Greg Owen, who made his British Open debut at Carnoustie in 1999. "It's a links course, so the wind is going to blow. How about letting us play instead of mucking up every course we play nowadays?"

This year, Open officials have backed away from anything resembling the '99 conditions. In fact, some professionals who arrived early at Carnoustie over the weekend were shocked to see very little rough and relatively generous fairways. After the last time, they had expected the worst.

That is, those who care to remember, anyway. Phil Mickelson missed the Carnoustie cut at 13-over and has deleted it from his mental hard drive.

"I've kind of suppressed those memories," Mickelson said. "I'm looking forward to hopefully having the Carnoustie everyone knows and loves."