The hardest and easiest holes at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship

The three courses of Carnoustie, Kingsbarns and The Old Course, St Andrews are taking centre stage for the first three rounds of competition. Here, we take a closer look at the easiest and hardest holes from the first two rounds.

Click here for a closer look at the Fortinet Threat holes

After a fairly benign day of weather to start the week, Friday brought with it the beginning of Storm Amy, and it's no surprise that the amount of holes averaging over par went from eight on Thursday to 20 after two rounds.

However, the hardest holes across all three courses remained relatively similar, with the 18th at Carnoustie standing out above the rest.

The hole infamous for Paul Lawrie's Open Championship victory pver John van de Velde in 1999 has provided plenty of drama so far. With just three birdie over the first two rounds - by Frenchman Benjamin Hébert on Thursday, England's Jack Senior on Friday and Rafa Cabrera Bello on Saturday morning finishing his second round, it was averaging 0.76 shots over its par of four with three birdies, 54 pars, 33 birdies and 22 double-bogeys or worse.

Other than the 5th at Kingsbarns, the rest of the top ten hardest holes all come from the closing stretches of each course: The 15th-18th holes at Carnoustie all feature in the top six hardest holes so far, while the 15th-17th holes at St Andrews are all in the top eight.

There was less movement on the three easiest holes, which stayed exactly the same: The par-five third at Kingsbarns (averaging 4.11), the par-five 5th (averaging 4.20) at St Andrews, and the par-five 12th (averaging 4.38) at Carnoustie. In fact, sixth of the seven easiest holes across all three courses were all par fives, with the par-four 10th at St Andrews the only outlier in that list, averaging 3.62 over the first two rounds of play.

The Easiest Holes: Alfred Dunhill Links Championship

In the top ten easiest holes so far this week, four are from Kingsbarns (the 3rd, 9th, 16th and 6th), three are from Carnoustie (the 12th, 14th and 11th), and three are from St Andrews (the 5th, 10th and 7th).

The Hardest Holes: Alfred Dunhill Links Championship

In the top ten hardest holes so far this week, four are from Carnoustie (the 18th, 17th, 16th and 15th), three are from St Andrews (the 15th, 16th and 17th), and three are from Kingsbarns (the 5th, 17th and 18th).