The Open: Tiger Woods glad he’ll be able to show his creative side

The ‘no Tigers allowed’ signs were up again here denying the world’s best golfer his early-morning ritual. Woods is not one for lying in bed and, triggered by the early sunrise in Scotland, likes to set about the course before the larks are feeding.

This is also the hour of the greenkeeper, who assumes the power of God in the week of The Open. The course is his between 4am and 7am, when he mobilises an army of helpers to cut and clip Muirfield to within a blade of perfection. Diplomatically, Woods stood in line.

“It’s light early, here, right? I don’t sleep much anyway; I like to get out early,” said the world No1, who yesterday was prevented from practising 10 minutes before the official start. “Peter [Dawson, R&A chief executive] explained that he was cutting through one to 18. I totally understand it. I was always going to play nine each day, so that’s cool.”

The temporary affront has done nothing to diminish Woods’s love of this event or this course. Call it the anti-Florida experience, a version of the game Woods is denied on the vast real estate courses that populate the Sunshine State.

“This is a fantastic championship at one of the best venues,” he said. “It is playing really fast out there. It will be quick by the weekend and the course is set up perfectly. I love this championship. There are only certain places we get to play these kind of courses, and be really creative. I fell in love with it when I first came over here 17 years ago, back-to-back weeks at Carnoustie and St Andrews. That’s as good as it gets. Everywhere else, we play an airborne game. Here, it’s just so different.”

Muirfield is drier than the Gobi Desert with fairways the colour of straw. The concept of ‘driver’ here does not extend much beyond the bloke taking Woods home. “I hit one driver at Hoylake (scene of his last Open win in 2006). This is playing similar to that. I have played three days and hit only a couple of drivers. Jason Day has not hit a driver yet. Our three-irons are going 300 yards.”

Woods claims to be as ready as ever to win his 15th Major but says the depth of the field makes it both harder to triumph and to predict who the victor might be.

“There have been a lot of first-time winners in the past few years,” he said. “The margin between first and last is not that big anymore. The equipment has changed, too, over the years. This allows guys to basically stack up. Combine that with more athletic players and you are going to get more first-time winners.”

Woods also said he has no fitness issues, dispelling any concerns about the elbow that troubled him at the US Open last month.

He said: “The elbow didn’t feel good [at Merion]. The rough was so dense. You go from 100 mph to zero [in the swing]. That was the tough part about it. I couldn’t get through it.

“I put a lot of torque through it and it hurt. Here, the ground is going to be hard so I’m going to need that elbow to be good. I needed it healed, and I’m good to go.”