Dougray Scott's Dunhill blog - day three

Published on Saturday 4 October 2008 13:39

It was so cold today. I woke up this morning and I looked out of the window of my hotel, over the 17th at the Old Course. The skies were dark and I could hear the wind whistling, so I wasn't exactly looking forward to going to Carnoustie.

I skipped breakfast so I was pretty cold and hungry when I got there. I saw a few of the players I knew and went up to the range, and my hands were like blocks of ice.

I hit the ball great on the range. I hit my first drive on the course and I thought I had put it out of bounds, but I managed to find it and hit it just left of the green. I think I played pretty well today, given the conditions. I managed to play some really good holes, I kept it very consistent and steady. But it was really tough, but there's something I love about Carnoustie.

The course is so well designed and although it is very tough, when you play it you know you are playing proper golf.

I haven't played Carnoustie as much as I've played Kingsbarns or The Old Course, but every time I come here I just think 'Wow, what an amazing test of golf.' Some golf courses are just tough without being fair, whereas Carnoustie is tough, but it rewards you when you play a good shot.

The great thing about golf is that you really have to take the rough with the smooth. I hit an amazing drive on one of the par fives where I thought I'd bottomed it, but it turned out it had caught one of the bunkers. So that's the great thing about links golf, if you're not precise and don't hit it in the right place you don't deserve it. I thought I'd got away with it, but it had gone into the bunker, so fair dos really.

Andrew struggled a wee bit today. He's a great ball striker, it's a joy to play with him and he's really good company. I tried to keep out of his way as much as I could, because I know the etiquette of golf very well.

The way I get through this week is to accept that I am not a professional golfer, I'm an actor with a passion for golf. Occasionally I can actually play very good golf and shoot very low scores, but not in these circumstances. With the people and the cameras and the crowds it can be off putting. So you have to accept that you're going to hit bad shots, shots that you wouldn't normally hit.

The tip I picked up from Mark Roe has been working well today, it really helped with my driving which was a lot better than it was yesterday.

Tomorrow I feel I've got a very, very good round coming along. We're 7 under as a team and so not too far behind the leaders. Things could change tomorrow and there's a real possibility of us making the cut.

I'm looking forward to Kingsbarns.