Golf: Exposed Scottish course a challenge for Woods' talents

When Tiger Woods turns up today at Turnberry for his first look at the Ailsa Course, it could just be akin to the first time Robert the Bruce peered across the Firth of Clyde and decided this is where he was always meant to rule.

Arguably the game's greatest player ever taking on arguably the world's greatest links ... surely a golfing match made in heaven.

That's the romantic view, anyway. The reality will be rather more cold, more calculating. Woods will barely notice the stunning scenery (the lighthouse, the Ailsa Craig, the Isle of Arran) and will not pay a nanosecond's thought to any legends who may or may not have duelled there before.

It will be plotting time as he embarks on Mission Roger (catch Federer for major No 15).

The general perception is that the notes will fall all so easily on to Woods' yardage book. Of course, the weather on this exposed patch of Scotland's southwest coast is in the habit of laying waste to the best-laid plans. But if it is as fair as the forecasters suggest, then the implication is clear as far as Woods is concerned. Turnberry '09 could be another Hoylake '06.

It is a theory which Padraig Harrington is happy enough to extrapolate, despite the humbling memories of a British Open in which Woods came closer than ever to playing "an entirely different game" from his rivals. Famously - infamously, even - Woods employed the driver just once at Royal Liverpool, on the 16th hole during his first round, and instead forsook length for direction, using two-irons, as well as the occasional three-wood.

"If the weather is nice, yeah, Tiger could definitely do that," said Harrington, who, with his back-to-back Opens just happens to be the last man to have lifted the Claret Jug since the world No 1.

"That performance at Hoylake was remarkable. Nobody else could have played the way he played that course.

"It was phenomenal, his control, distance control, his ball-striking, to hit it in to those greens from those distances. If Turnberry gets hard, he will be able to do it again.

"Necessarily, it depends on the wind and on the firmness of the fairways and the greens, but I'm actually thinking to myself that I want to do a lot of threading between bunkers and things."

In truth, there are a few glaring differences between now and then. While the necessity to keep it out of the rough did not burn uppermost in the minds of Tiger's peers on the Wirral, in Ayrshire this will be the majority gameplan. What this entails is naturally dictated by the individual's accuracy with the big club and, in this regard, it is all rather a contrast for Woods to three years ago.

Then, he arrived at the year's third major with his driver in far from obligatory mood. This time it is being faithful to the point of unshakeable loyalty.

At his last three tournaments the fairways have been located with startling regularity and this was the primary factor in his two victories. Meanwhile, the second of the events - the US Open, no less - was thrown away on the greens. The sodden putting surfaces at Bethpage took a map to traverse and it is no secret how Woods hates a slow green.

There will be no brakes put on balls at bumpy old Turnberry. The challenges for Woods will lie elsewhere. He would never admit to loving the Open more than any other major but he does. The creativity it requires defines his superiority, and last week he eagerly went into visionary work with his coach, Hank Haney.

"It's making sure you can flight your ball and making sure you can manoeuvre it both ways, because over there you don't know what kind of weather you're going to get," he said.

"You're going to get years like we had at St Andrews when it was perfect, or you can get a day like the one we had at Muirfield [in 2002]. You just don't know and you have to be able to be confident."

Because of this, there is no reason why Woods should not, at 2-1, be considered as warm a favourite as he was at Bethpage.

"Nope, there isn't," agrees Peter Kostis, the CBS swing analyst and Golf.com columnist. "Tiger has made dramatic improvements in controlling his swing and has been getting better and better this season.

"Tiger has plenty of power, tremendous creativity, a knack for making clutch putts, and more experience in the spotlight than anyoneelse."

Englishman Paul Casey, at No 3, is the man ranked most likely to challenge Woods. Could Casey handle the attention that would bring, as no Brit has won a major in a decade?

Indeed, could any of Casey's countrymen handle the hype?

Lee Westwood, who must be given a huge chance in light of his recent brilliance in Paris and now Loch Lomond, said, "It's an intense week. If you could just go in there and not talk to anybody, it would be a massive result. Unfortunately it's the Open Championship. And I'm British."

- INDEPENDENT