Despite some bad food that led to vomiting on the flight to Scotland, problems adjusting to a 6-hour time change, shooting rounds of 80-77 to miss the cut by 13 shots and having major connection problems on the flight home, Andrew Landry considers his first British Open experience priceless.

“I’m not happy with the way I played,” said the Port Neches-Groves ex, while in the process of gearing up for an important closing stretch to the 2017-18 season that starts next week with a World Golf Championship in Akron, Ohio. “Thing is, that whole week was really, really hard.

“But I wouldn’t trade it for anything. It was just a phenomenal experience on what I consider the greatest course I have ever played. I would not trade it for anything. It was probably the greatest learning experience I have ever had in golf. I will be better prepared next time.”

Landry knew he might be in deep trouble after he and Zach Johnson played four practice holes on Monday.

“We flew all night from Iowa, then had a 2-hour bus ride to Carnoustie,” he said. “After we got checked into the hotel, Zach invited me to play a few holes with him. So we went out and played 1, 16, 17 and 18. Sixteen and 17 were the two hardest holes I’ve ever played. Sixteen is a beast.

“When we finished, I looked at my caddie and he looked at me and we both said at the same time, ‘Holy bleep. What the hell just happened?’ Zach shook his head and said, ‘I feel like I just got punched in the face.’”

Landry, in his first exposure to true links golf, felt a little like he was wandering around on Mars. Between the incredibly firm and fast conditions, the difficult holes, near impossible bunkers and a yardage book that looked like it might have been written in Chinese, he was overwhelmed.

”I had no clue when I looked at the yardage book,” he said. “It was just incredibly difficult with all the humps and bumps. You had to pick a yardage and figure what to hit to that yardage. Six irons were going like 240 yards. Most of the time you were dead, if you went in the pot bunkers off the tee.”

No matter the beating he took, Landry came away with profound respect for Carnoustie.

“It is hands down the greatest course I have ever played,” he said. “It is over 100 years old and the only changes to it have been adding a bunker here and there. The tees are in the same places as when they built it. Yet, with all the modern technology, the winning score was single digits under par.

“I know it sounds bad but I left there happy. I can’t wait for another shot at the British Open. My goal is to be qualified well ahead of time, so I can get over there and have a week to prepare. What I’d love to do is be able to play in the Scottish Open the week before the British Open.”

Meanwhile, Landry was not the least bit surprised that Italian Francesco Molinari won the tournament. He’d played with Molinari three weeks earlier in the third round of the Quicken Loans championship and said afterward Molinari was the best player he’d ever been paired with.

In the past three weeks, Molinari has won the Quicken Loans, tied for second in the John Deere Classic and won at Carnoustie.

“He is playing some of the best golf of his life,” said Landry. “It’s cool to see it happen to somebody who is such a terrific person. I really like him. I wouldn’t say he’s super impressive in any aspect of the game. But he’s just such an all around great player. He does everything well, especially iron play and putting.”

Landry did admit he thought Tiger Woods was going to win after he hit an other-worldly shot out of a fairway bunker at 10 to save par and maintain a one-shot lead the final day.

“I was in that bunker. I had to pitch it out sideways because of the high lip,” he said. “I don’t think there is another player who could have pulled that shot off. Maybe Rory McIlory. I thought it was crazy that he was trying it. I can’t even begin to explain how remarkable that shot was.”

CHIP SHOTS

Bryce Parsley shot a 79 to edge Dalton Shields by one shot in Boys 15-18 in the STPGA Junior Tour’s Trevor Lee Chesson Classic at Babe Zaharias. Daniel Cormier and Jacob Ballard tied for third at 81.

Other flight winners were Elizabeth Townsend (76 in Girls 15-18), Xander Parks (78 in Boys 13-14), Mya Winter (118 in Girls 13-14), and Lincoln Parks (81 in Boys 11-12). …

Jack Burke of Orange, who a lot of people think is going to be the next really good player to come out of Southeast Texas, fired rounds of 74-78 for a 36-hole total of 152 to win Boys 15-18 in the STPGA’s Bruce Lietzke Junior at Henry Homberg.

Cormier and Shields tied for second at 157.

Winners in other flights included Cari Denson (150 in Girls 15-18), Connor Denson (156 in Boys 13-14) and Annabel Cardenas (42 in Girls 13-14) …

There were ties on both the front and back in the Monday Senior 50 Plus 2-ball at Babe Zaharias, with the team of Benny Sharpe, Ronnie LaSalle, Larry Reece and James Trahan, getting a piece of both the front (minus-3) and the back (minus-3).

Also shooting minus-3 on the front was the foursome of Bob West, Don MacNeil, Pete Reobroi and Charlie Leard. Matching the Sharpe team on the back was the team of Bob Byerly, Tom LeTourneau, Larry Johnson and Charlie Perez. …

Ties were also the order of the day for the Saturday Super Senior 2-ball at Zaharias. The team of LeTourneau, Bim Morrow, MacNeil and R. Hicks shared the front in minus 5 and the back with minus 1.

Tying the front was the foursome of Adam Noel, Earl Richard, Leard and Don Duplan. Sharing the back was the team of Cap Hollier, Joe Gongora, Reobroi and Cole Lee. …

In the Friday Senior 2 ball at Zaharias, the team of Craig Geoffroy, Ron LaSalle, Charles LaSalle and Trahan won the front with minus 3. On the back, Hollier, Lee Bertrand, Ron Mistrot and Reobroi came out on top with minus-5 …

The Wednesday DogFight at Zaharias was played in a 9/9 format, with the team of James Shipley and Morrow winning First Flight by two strokes with a 66. The duo of Raymond Darbonne and Reece took Second Flight at 68.

In Third Flight, the team of Mistrot-Leard won with 72. Fourth Flight went to Gary Anderson-Paul Duplantis with 77.

Closest to the pin winners were LeTourneau (No. 2), Kenny Robbins (No. 7), Bill Jones (No. 12) and Darbonne (No. 15).
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