As Tiger Woods climbed the steep slope from the seventh green it was a great, iconic figure arriving on one of golf’s most famous stages – the teeing ground for the hole they call the ‘Postage Stamp’.
His gait has an uneasiness because his right foot needed reconstruction after nearly losing his leg in a car crash and there is a certain stiffness to his movement because his back has long since been surgically fused.
But he still carries an aura. Even when it is just him and his caddie Lance Bennett on a Sunday recce before a major week, there is a presence about Tiger.
The fans know it and he commands the biggest gallery as he merely shakes off the effects of the overnight flight from Florida to the South Ayrshire coast where he plays the 152nd Open at Royal Troon this week.
It will be his 23rd Open and 95th major. He will insist he can contend even though compelling evidence suggests otherwise and crowds will continue to flock to follow the 48-year-old.
There is still magic in the hands that have held 15 major trophies. From the elevated teeing ground on Troon’s renowned eighth hole, an area surrounded by a grandstand running the length of The Open’s shortest hole, he swings in carefree fashion.
It is a 123-yard flick with a wedge that tracks all the way, lands, skips and stops three feet from the pin. Moments later he nonchalantly knocks in the birdie putt.
This was the hole where outside hopes had once floundered with a final-round triple-bogey six. That was in 1997 when he was a Masters sensation and playing his first Open as a professional.
He returns wondering if this will be his last Championship, with the likes of Colin Montgomerie suggesting it should be because he is past it.
At the ninth he loses a ball in the right rough. In places the grasses are punishingly thick for this Open, but as fearsome as it looks, the rough has browned off, it is more brittle than juicy and therefore potentially playable.
A few holes ahead another ball search begins down the left of the par-five 16th. It is the current Masters champion Scottie Scheffler along with US compatriot and friend Sam Burns who are having a cursory look for an errant drive.
These two American Ryder Cup players have also attracted a decent gallery and those watching are looking at potential challengers this week – especially Scheffler, who has already won six tournaments this year.
The Dallas-based star owns the dominant space in world golf that Woods used to occupy.
But he was discomfited by the capricious bounces of last month’s US Open at Pinehurst, a rare event where he failed to trouble the leaderboard operatives.
Links golf can be similarly unpredictable, especially if the wind blows as forecast for Thursday’s start. Scheffler only just made the cut at Hoylake last year and finished outside the top 20 in what was only his third Open.
Rory McIlroy is the player closest to Scheffler in the world rankings and comes here having squandered a glorious chance to end a barren run at the majors that will stretch beyond a decade if he does not win this week.
At Pinehurst the four-time major champion led by two with five holes to play, but bogeyed three of the last four and Bryson DeChambeau snatched his second US Open crown.
McIlroy has the game but his nerve will be tested like never before if he contends this week.
The 35-year-old from Northern Ireland talks of “resilience” and might have won last week’s Scottish Open but for a putting stroke and green reading that have yet to accurately adjust to links greens.
Instead, the home favourite Bob MacIntyre rumbustiously celebrated the biggest win of his career, profiting from a fortunate drop on the 16th and inspired play down the rest of the stretch to pip Adam Scott.
MacIntyre proved he has what it takes when he wants it most – the commodity that has eluded McIlroy for far too long. Could the Scot go back-to-back? He has climbed to 16th in the world rankings and is arguably now Britain’s biggest hope this week.
But Tommy Fleetwood is another to consider in that bracket. The runner-up to Shane Lowry in 2019 at Royal Portrush has the ball-striking attributes for a course lengthened by nearly 200 yards from the last time the Open was here in 2016.
Fleetwood was grinding last week on the practice putting green at the Renaissance Club during the Scottish Open and if that work pays dividends, the Englishman might make his major breakthrough.
He has been top-10 in four of the past six championships.
In recent weeks, Lowry has been trending nicely and, on a course where chipping and wedge play will be well tested, could contend for a second Claret Jug. The Irishman finished joint sixth behind Xander Schauffele at May’s US PGA Championship.
Schauffele, a former Scottish Open winner, has links credentials and is no longer the best player in the world without a major title. He and DeChambeau are the two most recent major winners and, therefore, significant threats this week.
The same might be said of Collin Morikawa, the champion on debut in 2021 at Royal St George’s, and a regular on major leaderboards this year. The 27-year-old Californian was third at the Masters and fourth at the PGA.
He was also in the mix at the US Open before familiar final day fade struck again to leave him 14th. And on Sunday he briefly flickered at the Scottish Open before finishing joint fourth alongside McIlroy. His aim must be to sustain his 54-hole form…
