Numbers are important to most sports, but golf has a special affinity for statistics and the accumulation of the all important data is the responsibility of a small group of volunteers working on behalf of the R & A.

And halfway along Hogan's Alley - as the par 5 sixth hole at Carnoustie is otherwise known - I bumped into Mike and John, two of the volunteers whose duty this week is to measure the driving distance of each and every drive.

They both assured me that it was a simple enough operation, but I'll take their word for it since an awful lot of trigonometry was involved for my liking.

And it is years - thank goodness - since I ever had to worry about triangles and equations.

Ironically, given the science involved, the trickiest part of Mike and John's role is the apparently simple job of identifying the players.

Easy enough if it is Tiger Woods or a garishly attired Ian Poulter, but the rather more anonymous three balls later in the day were giving them a few headaches, as when the previously unknown Anders Hultman disappeared into the distant rough.

So who hit the longest drive of the day? Well, surprisingly it was local boy Paul Lawrie.

I might suggest that will be the only event he wins this week, but he's proved before that he leaves things late - and he might get upset with yet another writer under-estimating him.

For those of us used to duffing the ball down the fairways there is a little crumb of comfort - not everyone in the Open lashes the ball three hundred yards.

Indeed, someone scuffed their tee shot 220 yards.

Even I could manage that.

In front of a crowd, though? Err, well, maybe not ...