Tiger Woods: Back in the spotlight

With the Open looming, all eyes were on Tiger Woods as he tried out Turnberry for the first time. James Corrigan looked on

(GETTY IMAGES)

The last time Tiger Woods grimaced like this on a golf course it was during his famous "winning on one-leg" US Open. Yesterday, the pain was more easily relieved. Actually as soon as someone opened the damned rest-room.

"It feels like my teeth are swimming in my head," was how the world No 1 vividly explained his discomfort while he waited for an official to locate the keys to the halfway house by the 10th tee.

Few players have ever been able to deal with the build-up of pressure quite like Woods and soon he was off again, acquainting himself with one of his sport's most famous links as he lined up major No 15.

It seemed remarkable that this was the first time the player ranked No 1 in the world had set foot on the course ranked No 1 in Britain. But then Turnberry has not staged an Open Championship in 15 years and as Woods said recently: "I don't do golfing vacations." If he did, then the Ailsa Course would surely have been on his itinerary. If only because of the "Duel in the Sun".

Woods has confessed to watching the video of the 1977 classic between Tom Watson and Jack Nicklaus; but typically only did so to gain an early look at the course. In truth, the Turnberry now to the Turnberry then is an entirely different animal. Yes, the lighthouse is still standing, as is the Ailsa Craig and the Isle of Arran. But thanks to the advent of technology the layout has been radically altered. Would Woods approve? The Royal and Ancient held its breath.

The venerable old governing body need not have worried as Woods seemed impressed (barring the urinal's opening hours, naturally). "Well, it's in great condition," he said as the usual phalanx of security men and policemen ushered him towards his courtesy car. "We got the best of it today – no wind." Indeed, it had been a wonderful afternoon. The sun was out, the breeze was down and the players were happy. A good start to the 138th Open Championship. Particularly for the R&A.

The line between the pros loving it or hating it is indeed thin and another cliché is apt in this regard as the organisers realise they should not try to please all of the pros all of the time. Yet there have been instances when the R&A have pleased nobody, none of the time; most famously at Carnoustie in 1999. They have clearly learnt the lesson of that Championship, where the fairways were too tight, the rough was too long and the challenge was, quite frankly, daft. No mistakes here.

"About three weeks ago we took the decision to widen the fairways," so Peter Dawson, the R&A chief executive, revealed yesterday. "We don't want to get the reputation that the Open is all about hacking out of rough because it isn't. With the rough being up, as it is all over the country on links courses this year, we have widened the cut sections of rough a little bit on each side. Six yards rather than the usual four a half. Then again if you do spray it outside the playing arena, it is lost ball, hack-out territory I am afraid."

Dawson walked a few holes with Woods, but just missed Woods not even bothering to look for his tee-shot on the par-four second after sending it cabbage-bound. Woods is nothing if not wise and for the rest of his round employed his driver just twice. Of

course, he took the same cautious course at Hoylake three years ago – he let the big dog off the leash just once in four rounds on that occasion – and many believe with the right conditions he can do so again.

"I think he realised what is obvious to a blind man – you have got to keep the ball on the short grass this week," said Dawson. "I saw him hit off the fifth tee and he hit a three-wood there." All very Royal Liverpool; although do not expect the same winning score. Woods plotted that genius way of his to 18-under par and even with the conditions as benign in Ayrshire as they were on the Wirral, such a low number would surely be an impossibility. David Howell certainly thinks so.

"It's the best conditioned course I've ever seen at an Open," said the Englishman, getting his positive thoughts out of the way early. "It's not Carnoustie, or Carnasty as we called it, but it is proper difficult. There are no unbelievably obvious birdie chances out there, expect maybe the downwind par-five. The fairways are not single file but not double file either. And all you see when you're trying to hit them is hay. Everywhere. The rough is up, it's patchy, not as consistently thick as Carnoustie, although if you do find the thick stuff it is big trouble. You can't play this course from the rough. And when you play into the greens if you miss them on the wrong side it will be difficult to get up and down. So all in all, I'm really looking forward to it."

Howell's self-deprecating wit is well-known on Tour, although he can still be forgiven any negativity as the game is presently not coming as easily to the former world No 10 as it once did. As the current world No 7, Henrik Stenson's outlook yesterday was inevitably far rosier. "It's lovely, fabulous," said the Swede on the tee of the par-three seventh. "The fairways are fairly generous and you can get lies in the rough where you can play out of. It's all about controlling your ball-flight."

Alongside Stenson was Pete Cowen, the respected coach who, among others, also has Lee Westwood and Colin Montgomerie in this week's field. "I don't think it's as difficult as some are suggesting," he said. "It's very fair. The fairways are 30 yards wide. With the rough it depends what sort of grass it is. With the 'kind' sort the players will have no problem playing out of it, but if they go in the 'nasty' sort then you could drop it at your feet and you might not be able to find it. That's unfortunate, but that's links golf. It's not meant to be fair. The thing to avoid is the bunkers here. They are really, really penal."

To that end, Stenson used the driver four times in his first practice round on Saturday. "Off the third, the seventh, the eighth and ninth," said Stenson. "And not once on the back nine." "There was no need to, really," concurred Cowen. "If there was no wind it would be possible to 'Hoylake' it around."

Which refers to Woods' tactics in '06. The burning question here last night was whether Tiger was just about to add "to Turnberry it around" to the game's vernacular. The 33-year-old has largely rewritten the record books so he might as well do the same to its dictionary.

Tiger's feats: Open record

Amateur

*1995 (St Andrews)

Tied 68th ......... 74 71 72 78......... 295

*1996 (Lytham & St Annes)

Tied 22nd ......... 75 66 70 70 ......... 281

Professional

*1997 (Troon)

Tied 24th......... 72 74 64 74......... 284

*1998 (Birkdale)

3rd......... 65 73 77 66......... 281

*1999 (Carnoustie)

Tied 7th ......... 74 72 74 74......... 294

*2000 (St Andrews)

WON......... 67 66 67 69......... 269

*2001 (Lytham & St Annes)

Tied 25th......... 71 68 73 71......... 283

*2002 (Muirfield)

Tied 28th......... 70 68 81 65......... 284

*2003 (Sandwich)

Tied 4th......... 73 72 69 71......... 285

*2004 (Troon)

Tied 9th......... 70 71 68 72......... 281

*2005 (St Andrews)

WON ......... 66 67 71 70......... 274

*2006 (Hoylake)

WON ......... 67 65 71 67......... 270

*2007 (Carnoustie)

Tied 12th......... 69 74 69 70......... 282

*2008 (Birkdale)

Missed through injury