It’s called “Carnasty’’ for a reason.

Carnoustie, the site of the 148th British Open this week, universally represents the most brutal test of golf in the world of championship venues.

It doesn’t need to be tricked up the way Shinnecock was for the U.S. Open last month to confound the elite of the game. Carnoustie, in its natural state, will break the wills of the world’s best players. It has for years.

Carnoustie’s championship history is a dubious one — ominous if you’re participating player, most harrowing if you’re Jean Van de Velde.

In the 1999 British Open, Carnoustie brought Sergio Garcia, playing in his first Open Championship, in tears after shooting an 89 in the opening round and 83 in the second.

That Open, of course, was the time and place that Van de Velde, the Frenchman with perhaps too much flair for his own good, authored perhaps the most dramatic collapse in major championship history.

Van de Velde, in his mind at least, had half a bottle of exquisite Bordeaux poured into the Claret Jug, needed a double-bogey on the 72nd hole to clinch victory. He carded a triple-bogey 7 and lost to Paul Lawrie in a playoff.

Lawrie’s winning score in that Open: 6-over par. And that included a final-round 67 that put him in position to get into the playoff thanks to Van de Velde’s stunning meltdown.

Garcia wasn’t the only player to post 18-handicap scores in that ’99 Open. In all, there were 101 scores posted in the 80s that week. And those did not include the 91 that Thailand’s Prayad Marksaeng shot or the 90 Tom Gillis shot in the opening round before withdrawing.

Australia’s Rod Pampling took the first-round lead with a 71 and followed it with an 86 in the second round to miss the cut, becoming the first player in major championship history to lead after the first round and miss the cut.

The cut was 12-over par that week, prompting the late Payne Stewart to say at the time, “It could actually be a place where people wish they’d miss the cut.”

Phil Mickelson was one of those people. After shooting 79-76 to miss the cut, he said, “I wish I hadn’t come here. I would rather be at home with my wife and baby. I don’t think there is an individual in the R&A who could break 100 here.’’

Padraig Harrington, who won the 2007 Open Championship at Carnoustie, the last time it was played there, said “in terms of toughness, you couldn’t go past’’ the challenge Carnoustie presents.

“It’s the toughest,’’ Harrington said. “It has the toughest finish in championship golf. You’ve got a very tough 14 holes and an extremely difficult last four.”

Not even Tiger Woods, who was in the prime of his career dominance during the 1999 and 2007 Opens at Carnoustie, has conquered the beast. He tied for seventh in ’99 and 12th in 2007.

“Carnoustie is an unbelievable driving golf course,’’ Woods said. “You have to drive the ball well there, but also not your traditional in-out [links] golf course. It’s a lot of different angles, so a lot of different crosswinds. I have to be able to maneuver the golf ball both ways there efficiently. You just have to hit the golf ball well there.’’

It’s been an unusually dry summer in Scotland, which means the fairways will be fiery with a lot of bounce. That could make it treacherous, with the angles, for players to keep the ball in the narrow fairways — particularly if there’s significant wind, which usually is as much a staple at Open Championships as strawberries and cream at Wimbledon.

“Carnoustie will test to the limit the skill, creativity and survival skills of every golfer,’’ Rory McIlroy said.

Jordan Speith, the defending champion, has not played an Open at Carnoustie, but he’s well aware of the havoc it’s wreaked to players in the past.

“I’ve seen Opens at Carnoustie, I’ve seen what the golf course has a reputation and a nickname, ‘Carnasty,’ among a lot of the players, for being that difficult,’’ Spieth said. “The Open Championship has always been one of my favorite events of my life to have played in and I am looking forward to this challenge.

“I know Carnoustie presents — especially in the finishing holes, but really throughout the entire golf course — a tremendous challenge. [But] as a competitor, you look forward to that tough, but fair, type of challenge.’’

European Ryder Cup captain Thomas Bjorn, a two-time British Open runner-up who’s played in the past two Carnoustie Opens, called it “the toughest on the rota.’’

What lies ahead on the famous links hard by the North Sea figures to be as much the story about this Open as who’ll hoist the Claret Jug.