"It's my trigger," he says. It seems to work. The 27-year-old South African kept the world's best players at bay for more than two days to land his maiden major title at the iconic home of golf. Winning any major is special. Winning at St Andrews is a lifetime ambition for most.

Despite winning by seven shots, the man they call "Shrek" - because of his resemblance to the film character - only relaxed after his drive hit the deck on the 18th.

"That's one thing I learned in this game," he said. "You're only certain when the last putt goes in. But I didn't think I would 10-putt from there."

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Oosthuizen's win, on Nelson Mandela's 92nd birthday, came with the backing of South Africa's golfing heavyweights. He is a protege of Ernie Els's foundation and nine-time major champion Gary Player rang him up for a little chat before the final round.

Apparently, the 74-year-old legend told him to ignore the roars of a home crowd desperate for a British winner.

"He told me the story when he played against Arnold Palmer when he won his first Masters," revealed Oosthuizen. "He said, 'the crowd wanted to throw stuff at me'. But he was so focused on winning at Augusta."

But there were plenty of South African fans on the Old Course, decked in trousers in the colours of the national flag or Springbok rugby shirts.

Not that Oosthuizen really needed their encouragement. Colin Montgomerie spoke before the last pair went out that it was easier to defend on the Old Course than attack in the final round.

And so it proved. Four ahead of Paul Casey at the start, Oosthuizen was only ever troubled after a bogey at the eighth narrowed the gap to three. And when Casey ran up a triple bogey on the 12th, the game was up.

Rory McIlroy and Lee Westwood made some ground as Casey fell away, but no-one could touch the man from Mossel Bay.

"It's like being 4-0 up at half-time," muttered a Scotsman in the crowd. "Aye, with a couple of sendings off," said his mate.

Not that Oosthuizen would have cared that it wasn't the most riveting of final days. He gets to add his name to an illustrious list of past winners on the Old Course that includes Sam Snead, Seve Ballesteros, Nick Faldo and Tiger Woods.

And he joins a conveyor belt of South African major champions - Bobby Locke, who won at St Andrews in 1957, Player, who won three Opens in three different decades, three-time major winner Els, double US Open champion Retief Goosen and 2008 Masters victor Trevor Immelman.

Els, whose Foundation helped Oosthuizen with his education and travel to tournaments around the world, was ecstatic.

"This is absolutely unbelievable," he said. "It would be difficult to find anybody in the world who is more proud of him right now. I could not be happier.

"Louis is simply a wonderful kid. You cannot find a better one and I am so pleased for him.

"The world might know more about him now, but even before today he had started his own Foundation to help kids who are needy. They could not have a better role model.

"Louis is now the Open champion. His life will change. He won't."

Oosthuizen has already changed, though. He had a reputation for being an angry young man when things weren't going right on the course.

"It was just a matter of growing up, really," he said. "I think any youngster that's playing makes stupid mistakes on the course. It frustrates you."

One youngster who might have thrown his toys out of the pram was McIlroy. The 21-year-old fired a stunning 63 to lead after round one on a course where he had never carded worse than 69 in eight rounds of golf.

But then he amassed an 80 on "Ferocious Friday" to go spinning backwards as Oosthuizen romped into the lead in benign morning conditions. To McIlroy's considerable credit, he hit back with rounds of 69 and 68 to finish in a tie for third and was left to rue what might have been.

"I'm a bit disappointed, to be honest," he said. "I'm not saying I could have got to 17 under, but I definitely could have been contending for second."

You sense McIlroy's time is fast approaching. As for Lee Westwood, a fourth top- three finish in five majors in no mean feat. The 37-year-old used his experience of contending in major championships to keep plugging away and emerged at the top of the chasing pack.

"It's not really to be sniffed at," Westwood said of his major record. "If you get close and you lose then there's disappointment, but I didn't even get within eight shots." The law of averages might suggest he will find no-one else in front of him one day. But how long before a man cracks?

Despite his woes, and it was only a gorse bush on one hole that did for him, Casey posted his best major performance in the tournament he least expected to do well in, given his adaptation to a more American style of game.

He refused to be too downhearted, given the size of Oosthuizen's win, and considering he was seriously worried last year his career at the very top might be over because of his ongoing rib injury.

"Louis was in a different league," he said. "That softens my disappointment."

And what of Woods? Not as good as his two fourths in the year's two previous majors. A brief threat, but no more. He began with a new putter for the first time in 11 years and then went back to the old one for the final round.

So where's he at? Still a work in progress, seems to be the answer. "Driving-wise, better than it's been in years. Iron play, not quite as sharp as I need to have it, and my putting is way off," said Woods, who took nine three-putts during the week.

Casey's coach, the American Peter Kostis, reckons Woods's swing looks better than it has for a while. Standing closer to the ball and more upright plane, apparently. "He's better, but he's not there yet," said Kostis.

Woods still has private life issues to resolve, but the golfing public at St Andrews didn't appear to care. It was golf they were interested in, not tittle-tattle.

But "Oosty" should have the final word. In fact, Oosty paid for the final word. He bought champagne for the entire media centre after his victory.

"Winning at St Andrews is something you dream about", he said. Who are we to decry a man his dream?

Long live King Louis.

You'll have seen them on the telly or here at the course, packs of snappers, kit hanging off them like soldiers in battle, a phalanx of long lenses trained on the action.

Some just want the news story of the day, others need feature pictures, some are after more timeless colour and atmosphere. All are hoping to capture "the moment" in whatever form that may be. But all their images form a history of the sport.

To find out more about the noble art, I grabbed a chat with Matthew Harris, who runs The Golf Picture Library, and has been a golf photographer since 1979.

"Often in stills photography there is literally a split second that is the moment," says the 50-year-old, who has worked at every major since 1988.

This might be the instant of a celebration, such as a Tiger Woods fist pump, or a grimace of disappointment, or something more subtle such as capturing fleeting light, a shadow or a player's body shape.

"In order for that to then become a really memorable moment, it's all about the background," says Harris.

"It's nothing to do with art or photography or f-stops or anything like that - when your eye sees an image it will get distracted if there is something there to distract it.

"For a great picture, a truly memorable picture, you've got to get the focal point of what makes it so good."

Harris points to the iconic photos of Seve Ballesteros celebrating his birdie putt on the 18th at St Andrews in 1984.

"With Seve, it's the fist, the face, the mouth - but the background was so good you knew it was the Open," he says.

This week's Open has presented problems for the photographers, and not just because of the damp, grey weather at times.

"St Andrews is without any shadow of doubt hardest venue to get a good clean picture," he says. "It's in quite a tight area and has the double greens which from a photographers' point of view is a nightmare. Up the middle of the golf course there's no access to get in and work so we're forced to always shoot from one side of the golfer."

Nevertheless, St Andrews contains the most prized picture of them all.

"Every Open course has its iconic shot but without any question the most iconic across any venue is from behind the 18th tee, down the line at the top of the backswing, with the R&A building, the Swilcan Bridge and the old hotel with the pepper pot top in the background," says Harris.

"If it's of the winner it's a classic historic picture that will be used time and time again."

Woods nearly provided a huge pay-day there on Friday. In perfect evening light conditions, the American very nearly drove into the hole on the par-four 18th.

"All the hardcore working pros were there specifically, just in case," says Harris. "I can assure you if he'd holed that shot it would have given an amazing picture."

Harris reckons most snappers rate Woods as the best to photograph because he will always offer something whether he is playing well or badly, but the shot they all want is the Woods "upper cut". He says the photographers are baffled by calls for the world number one to tone down his celebrations, or "celis" as the snappers know them.

"We find that really puzzling. I never remember reading anything about Seve, saying that his celebrations were disrespectful," says Harris.

"We think we've got the best-case scenario. We've got a number one player who gives you emotion whether he's playing good, bad or indifferent. That passion, to me, is what sport is all about."

If Woods is photography gold - though his lime green T-shirt over a long-sleeve white top had a few scratching their heads on Friday - sometimes the photographers have to work harder for a "selly".

Some players offer little in the way of emotion - Geoff Ogilvy, "a lovely man", is a good example, says Harris. The harsh UK summer sun, typically between about 8.30am and 4pm in the UK, also makes life difficult, plunging faces into deep shadows under their ubiquitous caps.

Photographers then have to go looking for something different. A pre-dawn shoot with greenkeepers, a group of lesser known players early in the morning or late in the evening while the summer light is at its atmospheric best.

The tower at the sixth tee provides a good vantage point. Photo: Matthew Harris, The Golf Picture Library

Bad weather is not all bad either. "The Saturday at Muirfield in 2002 was just the worst I've known it," says Harris. "Only five of us were daft enough to still to be out but it was so extreme that they were good pictures. The shots I've got of Woods are of a man fighting the elements, not just the golf course."

Often the photographers are looking to capture a certain posture. Nick Faldo had a classic way of leaning on his putter, Colin Montgomerie does his "Monty Slump".

"Body language shots are terrific," says Harris. "With Monty, you can see the shoulders drop - he looks like a wounded monkey."

The players and photographers all know each other and often chat about what makes a good picture.

"The hardcore of us are like a travelling family," says Harris. "Everyone is trying to make sure everyone can do their job."

Paul Casey - "great sense of humour " - is apparently always asking, "did you get that?" while Darren Clarke has been known to apologise for his outfit.

"'You might as well go somewhere else, I know it looks rubbish'," Clarke once shouted across to the lensmen.

Sometimes, though, the tension of the game can boil over and every photographer has fired his lens at the wrong time at some stage in his career.

"It's happened to me badly, maybe three times in my career," says Harris. "The rule of thumb is to say nothing. Let the player react in whatever way he needs to. I always go and find him after to apologise.

"On one of the three someone in the crowd leant against my second camera and that's what had fired off at the top of Howard Clarke's backswing."

Another time at a European Tour event in the midlands, Montgomerie tore a strip off Harris for being the first person he saw after hitting a bad shot.

"I was the easy target," says Harris. "He gave me a verbal hosing down. He came to find me afterwards in the media centre to apologise profusely. 'You know how I get sometimes,' he said."

Harris typically carries two camera bodies and three lenses (17mm-40mm wide angle, 70mm-200mm zoom and 500mm fixed telephoto.) On a good day at the Open, with good light and some good reactions, he reckons he might shoot 600 frames, actually not that dissimilar to the days of film.

He edits his pictures down to 20, maybe 40 on the final day. For the news snappers out on the course, there will usually be a runner who will ferry memory cards back to the edit suite.

St Andrews might have its difficulties but there are a number of favourite spots.
The tower behind the sixth tee gives a good vantage point for colour, with a sea of spectators, all the furniture of a group of big-name golfers, and the view back to the Auld Grey Toon.

"You can also get great shots of the double greens, beautiful shadows and dust kicking up off the links turf from punch shots into the seventh green, and beyond that the 12th tee with the coastline of Fife in the background or the ninth tee and the line of surf out in St Andrews Bay," he says.

But while all those make pretty pictures, the money shot is back at the 18th on the final afternoon.

The problem with a new winner, as could happen on Sunday, is the snappers don't have much of a clue how he will react, making positioning difficult.

"The biggest worry is, yes, you've recorded history, but it's not a very good picture," says Harris.

It's all about the moment.

So goodbye to McIlroy, Daly, Calcavecchia and the other supporting cast. Thanks for your efforts.

Welcome, Paul Casey, Martin Kaymer, Henrik Stenson, Alejandro Canizares, Lee Westwood. And of course our leading man for two days now Louis Oosthuizen. Our star will come from one of you.

But scripts can be changed, even ripped up. Paul Lawrie wasn't supposed to come from 10 shots behind to win at Carnoustie in 1999, but Jean van de Velde fluffed his lines. Quite dramatically as it happened.

Anyway, enough of the theatre analogies. Lawrie's comeback is still the Open record after 54 holes, meaning Nick Watney, Sean O'Hair, Retief Goosen and Ricky Barnes would have to emulate the Scotsman. Anyone else, starting with Rory McIlroy, would be straying into new territory.

Goosen, for one, was already conceding defeat. "Pretty much out of it now so hopefully just get a good round in and try to finish in the top five," he said.

But McIlroy - and the Old Course - have shown that strange things do happen. The 21-year-old went from a sublime 63 to a ridiculous 80 in the first two days.

"We'll just have to see what the weather does," said Tiger Woods, who knows better than most that it's never over until it's over.

Brisk breezes, gusting up to 25-30 mph, are predicted for early afternoon on Sunday, easing later. The chasing pack will have to hope it knocks everyone sideways and then see who can get up first.

Oosthuizen may have missed seven cuts in his previous eight majors, but that stat is irrelevant now - he hung onto his lead in impressive fashion on Saturday.

"No-one was really expecting me to be up there," said the 27-year-old, a protege of Ernie Els who has also been in touch with Gary Player this week. "I mean, no-one can actually say my surname, so they don't know who I am out there. But it's great being up there and I want to enjoy everything about it.

"I'm really happy with myself, keeping my emotions intact."

But Casey is a player who can get on a streak and make up ground quickly. And if the building support as the crowd sensed he was on a charge on Saturday afternoon is anything to go by, the Englishman will have the galleries firmly behind him.

The trouble with streak players is they can disappear as quickly. Just ask Mark Calcavecchia, who was second behind Oosthuizen after round three and shot 77.

So does Casey, who has only had four top 10s in 29 majors, have the ability to translate his Saturday form into a resilient major championship-winning performance on Sunday?

"I know what this golf course can do," said Casey, who has only picked up two shots on the back nine all week and dropped three on the 17th on Friday.

"It can give you some great moments and it can give you some horrible ones. I'm going to go out there with a smile on my face and enjoy it."

The 32-year-old's best major finish was tied sixth at the Masters in his first appearance in 2004 after going into the final round one shot off the lead. And Casey, who went to college in America and lives in Arizona, admits he always thought his best chance of a major would come at Augusta because of his high ball flight, rather than at the Open where he says he may have misplaced the art of links golf.

"It's in there," he said. "I know how to do it and I love doing it."

Of the other realistic challengers - Kaymer (-8), Stenson, Canizares and Westwood (all -7) - all have a chance of bagging a first major, while Johnson, also without a major, will be entrusted with trying to preserve America's formidable record of winning 11 of the last 15 Opens, and the last three at St Andrews.

Kaymer would be the first German major winner since Bernhard Langer won the Masters in 1993, Stenson the first ever male Swedish major champion, while Canizares would better his former Ryder Cup player father Jose Maria Canizares and become Spain's first major winner since Jose Maria Olazabal won the Masters in 1999. And of, course, Westwood would improve on his three top threes in the last four majors, including at Turnberry last year.

"I've made the mistake of chasing in majors before," said Westwood. "I got off to a bad start and then looked at it afterwards and realised I did not need to be that aggressive. As always I have a game plan and patience will be key.

"I've won from eight behind before, it can be done, we know that. Strange things have been happening this week."

The curtain will soon be going up. Is there yet a twist in the tale?

He's had the same experience as Louis Oosthuizen of leading after two rounds, and also felt the heat of Mark Calcavecchia breathing down his neck. Yep, it's BBC commentator Wayne Grady.

The Aussie led after the second and third rounds at Royal Troon in 1989, only to lose out to Calcavecchia in a play-off, which also included Greg Norman.

Grady also led the US PGA that he went on to win the following year so has experienced both sides of the coin.

"I'd been in the lead and I'd taken all the pressure and this is what Oosthuizen will have - all the pressure and expectation on him. Everyone would love a five-shot lead but with it comes the burden that you should win. Louis will be very jumpy, very nervy. The pressure drives some people out of the game. But it's absolutely the best pressure in the world. It's like someone has got your head in a clamp and you can't get out of it but it's what we all play for. Some people can handle it, some can't.

"I didn't sleep very well at tournaments anyway and was up at 5am. When you're off at 2pm, that's a lot of time for your mind to run riot. And they're off at 4.40pm.

"Oosthuizen's got to do things to keep his mind active. He can think about his game, but not about the result. As soon as you think, 'I'll buy a Porsche or a new house', you've made a few bogeys and the dropped right out of it.

"Look at Ian Baker-Finch, a great friend of mine, who led here in 1984 going into Sunday and shot 79, though at least he went on to win an Open.

"Staying in the moment is the hardest thing. I don't think there's a secret - every time you catch yourself day-dreaming you've got to give yourself a smack.

"As for 'Calc', he's been around a long time and is very much a momentum player. Once he gets something going he can turn the tables on anybody. He's a great guy, I've no issues there at all. He's been competitive and kept his card in the US for all these years. He won three years ago in the States so I don't see his age as an issue. If he gets the momentum going in the right way he can still win at St Andrews."

In 1989, Grady shot 68, 67, 69 to lead Tom Watson by a shot going into the final round, with Calcavecchia three behind and Norman seven adrift.

But Norman stormed through the field with a 64 to set the clubhouse target at 275. Grady took 71 and Calcavecchia 68 to force a play-off, but Watson fell back with a 72.

On the final hole of the four-hole play-off, a new format for that year, Calcavecchia hit a stunning five-iron approach to six feet.

Grady was by now two back and out of it, and Norman drove under the lip of a bunker, found more sand with his second and then blasted into the out-of-bounds behind the green as the American secured his only major title.

Here's "Grades" again: "I'd just won a tournament in America the month before so I went in with good form. I stayed in front until the first hole of the play-off and was on my own until I bogeyed 17 on the Sunday.

"'Calc' wasn't in it until the back nine on Sunday, and was almost out of it - he holed a 50-footer for par on 11 and holed a pitch shot on 12 that was going to fly across the green. He made a birdie but was going to make six. He's just that type of player.

"Shark wasn't in it either, but he birdied the first six holes on Sunday and shot a very low round.

"I really didn't play poorly, I just missed a couple of putts that I should have made and three-putted 14.

"After the play-off I went out and had quite a lot to drink, unfortunately not in celebration. I don't think you can describe what it's like to lead a major for three days and lose. The emotions of almost achieving what is everyone's goal and the nervous tension you've had to deal with for so many days and then it's taken away from you - it's the most gut-wrenching thing in the world.

"But I learnt a lot from losing the Open and won the US PGA a year later. It was almost identical - I went into the lead on Friday lunchtime and had it until the 12th on Sunday. I lost it for one hole to Freddie Couples and was thinking, 'oh no, it's happening again'. I had to give myself a good kicking to tell myself to get over it and get back into it and I ended up winning by three."

So Louis, Mark, anyone else reading this - take Wayne's advice. Love that pressure and kick yourself often. "Grades" got another chance. Will you?

If she was in generous mood on Thursday, allowing Rory McIlroy to help himself to a 63, she was truly spiteful on Friday.

People say that without wind the Old Course is defenceless. Trouble is, sometimes the old girl overdoes the back-up.

Louis Oosthuizen escaped unharmed with his booty, a 67 to climb to 12 under and Mark Calcavecchia also nabbed a quick 67 to nip to seven under before the heavies arrived.

But the later starters copped a maelstrom and that nasty 'Mr Drews', with his 40mph gusts, knocked most of the other challengers off course.

The morning saw periods of rain, heavy at times, but light wind. Unpleasant to play in, but not necessarily difficult.

No surprise that 1989 champion Calcavechia was first off at 0630 BST and Oosthuizen at 0641 BST. Or another former winner Tom Lehman, who shot 68 to edge to five under, was in the fourth group of the day. Paul Casey (69) and Lee Westwood (71), in a tie for third on six under, also teed off early.

In the afternoon, the sun came out and so did the breeze, blowing so strongly at one stage that play was suspended for an hour from 1440 BST because balls were moving on the greens.

"Welcome to real golf," muttered a Scotsman in the gallery when the suspension was explained to him.

The wind caused havoc at St Andrews on Friday. Photo: Reuters

But this is the kind of real golf where each shot costs wads of cash and if a ball moves when a player has addressed it - blown by the wind or whatever - he is penalised one shot. That's a lot of cash to lose through no fault of your own.

Mind you, none of that bothered Lodewicus Theodorus Oosthuizen, to give him his full name - or Shrek - as his mates know him for short. He was back home with his feet up when the trouble started.

On the other hand "Rors", as his pals know him, or Rory McIlroy to the rest of us, copped the lot. He was bouncing along in his gum-chewing 21-year-old way at nine under going down the fourth when the delay came. Afterwards, he plummeted to an 80, his boyish exuberance blasted out of him. McIlroy still hasn't shot a round in the 70s at St Andrews.

He bemoaned the suspension afterwards, but hanging tough was the key. Weathering the storm the name of the game. Tiger Woods was among those that battled to stay alive in the tournament, birdieing the last to end four under. Darren Clarke, too, proved that the weather was not insurmountable and edged to four under. But it's too simplistic to say that McIlroy lacked the grit of experience. Padriag Harrington took 77, Ernie Els 79.

Oosthuizen, a product of Els's Foundation in South Africa, had missed the cut in seven of his eight previous majors, but this week he has obviously had his meteorologist cross-check the weather with his draw.

"Yeah, I've booked a house until Sunday night so I was planning on making the cut," he said.

As is becoming Open tradition, someone has to fly the flag for the old guard and in these conditions the only man with the weight to hold it down was the 50-year-old Calcavecchia, following in the footsteps of 53-year-old Greg Norman and 59-year-old Tom Watson in the last two Opens.

The burly Floridian, who has recently joined the Champions Tour in the US, won the Open at Royal Troon in 1989 and knows his way around a links course.

"It doesn't really matter how old you are if you're feeling good about what you're doing," he said. "I think the old guys can hang with the young guys. I haven't grown up any. I may feel 50 or 60 but inside I'm still 30."

Calcavecchia revealed the secret ingredients of his elixir for eternal youth - Scottish beer.

"I'm just taking it easy, having a couple of pints here and there," he said. "Stopped at the Dunvegan for a couple last night on the way to dinner."

"Calc" has wife Brenda on the bag and claims any rows are "entirely his fault". The pair will go straight to Carnoustie next week for the Senior Open, and are quite keen to trouser another decent cheque.

"We just built a mansion with a two-lane bowling alley in Jupiter, Florida, so there's plenty of ways to spend it," he said. "It'll take me the rest of my life to pay for it."

At odds of 600-1 before the Open, he could be clear by Sunday night.

Oosthuizen and Calcavecchia stepped around a minefield on Friday, but they still had to play well.

The forecast for Saturday is light rain to start, brightening up later with 15-20mph winds, possibly gusting to 30mph.

The Old Lady may have told 'Stan' to back off, but she is still intent on keeping these young men at arms' length.

Often, the inexperienced among us are baffled by the seaside form of the game, sometimes played more on the ground than in the air.

To find out more about it, I grilled Jean van de Velde, a man with some definite links pedigree, for some tips on how to play the crucial shots that will be required on the Old Course this week.

The Frenchman will be best remembered as the man who nearly won the Open at Carnoustie in 1999 before tangling with the burn on the final hole. But that was a long time ago and Jean is commentating for BBC Sport here at St Andrews.

"What you need to have on links courses, and especially when it's very windy, are a lot of different shots in the bag," he tells me.

"Shot-making is a little old-fashioned these days, but it will be mandatory this week."

Here then, is Jean's guide to some of the key shots in links golf, slightly shaped by me.

Driving into the wind/downwind
When brandishing a driver into the wind, move the ball slightly back in your stance but not too much because there is not much loft on the club anyway. Try to swing a little shallower and flatter and definitely try to drive the club with the left hand (if you're right-handed). You want to minimise the release - when the right hand whips through - because that will add too much loft to the club. Some people like to swing easier as this puts less spin on the ball and hence it doesn't balloon upwards, but then you don't get the same clubhead speed and, in theory, distance.

With the breeze behind, you need to make the ball ride the wind. Tee it up a little higher, and maybe move it forward a touch in your stance. Try to hit underneath a little more with your right hand, which will add a bit more loft so the ball will fly higher and catch more of the wind.

Holding the ball against the wind
To reduce the effect of a side wind, hit knock-downs. Take a less lofted club than you normally would for the distance, so if it's an eight iron, take a six or even five. Go down the grip and play the ball back in your stance a little. Take a shorter backswing, and aim for a flatter swing. Through the shot what I try to do is drive with the left hand always ahead of the clubface and try to finish with clubface as low as possible to ground. So instead of your normal high finish, it's more of a low, cut-off finish around your body. It's a punch shot, which should keep the ball low and make it less prone to being knocked off course. It should also reduce the amount of hook or slice spin on the ball, which could be exacerbated by the cross-wind.

Long putts
At St Andrews there are these huge double greens on 14 of the 18 holes. Added to that, you can't always aim at the pin, so you will be faced with a lot of long putts, of 30ft, 45ft, 60ft. You'll hear a lot of talk of lag putting this week - that's where you are trying to get the ball close enough to the hole to make the next one easy. Of course, you are trying to make every putt but from that range it's unlikely. What you don't want is a three-putt.

When it's windy, make sure you are stable. Take a wider stance, grip your putter a bit shorter and lower your centre of gravity. And consider the breeze on the ball - if the normal line is right of centre, a 30mph wind from the left can change it to inside the left lip.

For distance control on long putts, some use visualisation techniques, such as imagining the hole is the size of a dustbin. That often makes it easier to get within a few feet of the actual hole. Or just telling yourself that you have great speed will give you more confidence.

Then there are mechanical techniques. Some players know that from 20ft away they need to go so far with their backswing, from 10ft away only this far back.

I've always just trusted my eye to tell my muscles subconsciously how far to hit it. The actual putting stroke is a whole area on its own but I try to remain constant and match the same length backswing to follow through, so if it's 30ft I'll take it back, say, two feet and through two feet. When I'm putting well there's no conscious acceleration, it's just back and through like a pendulum, tick, tock.

It's crucial in the wind not to leave too many lag putts short because as the ball loses speed it can move off line a lot. So try to be a bit more aggressive, even if you're three feet past - trust yourself on the one coming back.

Pitching
The iconic shot on a links course is the bump-and-run or pitch-and-run and you should certainly try to put the ball on the ground as quickly as possible, especially when it's very windy

The club choice is dictated by where you want to land the ball. If you are 10ft off the green and have three feet of green to work with, you might choose a lofted wedge to fly it all the way to the short stuff and then let it land softly. If you're only a foot off the green but have 10ft to go to the pin, a seven iron might be the best way to get it down and running. It also depends on the lie.

But whichever club I pick I try to keep it simple. I position the ball opposite the left heel with my stance slightly to the left but my shoulders down the line of the shot. My hands are level with or slightly forward of the ball and I execute the same swing as I do with my putter. The trajectory of shot is then dependent on the loft of the club, not by overcomplicating things like moving the ball around in your stance.

Bunkers
There's 112 at St Andrews and the main thing is to stay out of them at all costs. Tiger Woods didn't find a single bunker in 2000, but for most a visit to the sand is inevitable. The key on all links courses with deep pot bunkers is to get the ball out first time. If you think you can get a pitching wedge on it but it's really a sand iron, don't gamble for 20 yards. It won't make much difference if you can't get over the face. If you have to play out sideways, do. Just get it out.

In trying to keep out of the bunkers, that's where your strategy comes in. Is it better to go shorter off the tee and leave yourself with, say, a six iron in to take all the bunkers out of play, or do you hit a driver off the tee to leave yourself just a wedge but risk flirting with the traps?

The 16th at St Andrews is a classic example. You're one or two behind, do you knock a two or three iron short of the Principal's Nose bunker, leaving a five iron to the green, or do you take on a driver to land between the out-of-bounds on the right and the group of three bunkers? There should be plenty of room - there's about 25 yards - but you need to be brave.

Luckily at St Andrews there's hardly any water, but generally it's a straight drop out for the cost of one shot. The only time you might try to play is if you can see a part of the ball and then you'd play it like a bunker shot.

The big thing in these tournaments is to make sure that if you hit it in trouble, you only drop the minimum number of shots. Don't drop more because you were greedy or are trying to catch up. That's a lesson I learned very quickly.

Rory McIlroy is certainly the former, and while there is more to John Daly than snazzy pants, the 1995 Open champion certainly dazzled on the Old Course.

Northern Ireland's McIlroy was head and shoulders above the rest as he laid down a serious challenge for a maiden major title on an iconic course he relishes.

And he is going the right way about avoiding that particular stigma on a course where he has never scored worse than 69 in eight rounds of golf.

McIlroy, who shot 61 as a 16-year-old at his home club Royal Portrush in 2005, has been marked out for greatness for years.

At times McIlroy looked like he owned the Old Course during a stellar round of 63

As the world's number one amateur he sprang to public notice with a strong showing in the 2007 Open at Carnoustie before turning professional.

He was the youngest player to climb into the world's top 50 golfers when he achieved the feat at the end of 2008 and he won his first, though so far only, European Tour event at the age of 19 in Dubai in 2009.

That week he was described as having a better swing than Tiger Woods at the same age by none other than the world number one's mentor Mark O'Meara.

McIlroy also clinched his maiden crown in the United States earlier this year when he shot 62 in the final round at Quail Hollow to become the youngest winner of a PGA Tour event since Woods in 1996.

Crashing out of the recent US Open at halfway after rounds of 75 and 77, he was gently chastised by his close friend McDowell for being still too raw to contend in major golf, despite having finished 10th in the event in 2009 and third in the US PGA two months later.

"Rory plays gung-ho golf. He doesn't put a lot of thought into what he does," said McDowell, the tournament leader at the time and eventual winner.

"He's a young kid, he grips it and rips it. But I would imagine he has not put a lot of thought into this course as regards a game plan."

McIlroy also missed the cut at the Masters in April after finishing 10th on his debut in 2009, and he slunk back to Holywood to lick his wounds, play with his friends and rediscover the fun side of golf.

His victory at Quail Hollow suggests it worked, and he has adopted the same method before the Open - after warming up at home last week, playing at Portrush and Royal County Down, McIlroy employed his carefree attacking game on a benign first morning at St Andrews.

"The course was there for the taking," said McIlroy. He did, though, admit he has never played the Old Course in bad weather and he is likely to encounter his share at some stage this week. Whether McDowell's assessment is still true, only time will tell.

Daly, known for his colourful background as well as his now familiar outrageous legwear, was also granted a chance to rekindle former glories by the kind Old Lady of St Andrews.

The 44-year-old American was wearing the "good luck pants" - a lilac paisley creation - that he has worn to good effect in recent weeks.

"The good thing about all of these pants is you get dressed in the dark, any shirt is going to match," he said.

Daly was one of a number of players to shoot 66, while South Africa's Louis Oosthuizen went one better, but the American has certainly taken the most turbulent route in his life to get there.

Daly, known as 'Wild Thing' in his heyday, has battled weight problems, marital woes, gambling and alcohol addictions and serious financial worries but remains one of the game's most endearing characters.

"I have never run from my mistakes," he stated. "I've screwed up an awful lot, not just on tour but in other aspects of life. It's how you come back and deal with it."

The big hitter, who often sells his own branded merchandise out of his motorhome at events to make money, is often capable of low scoring and will sometimes feature for a round or two before blowing up.

But he has admitted he finds St Andrews, where he won the second of his two major titles 15 years ago, a soothing and inspirational place.

"It's my favourite course all over the world. There's just something so peaceful about it," Daly said, suggesting he should now be known as 'Mild Thing'.

Daly's weight ballooned to almost 20 stone last year, persuading him to have a gastric band fitted. His former tag-line "grip it and rip it" was tweaked to "grip it and sip it". He's now down to about 14 stone and enjoying his new lease of life.

"I'm not drinking, I just can't eat as much of the bad stuff as I used to," he added. "The thing I miss most about having the band put in is I can't drink vitamin D milk. I used to drink half a gallon of that a day. When you used to be as hungover as I was it was great, got rid of everything."

Daly has also suffered from a rib injury in recent years and became disillusioned, announcing earlier this season he was quitting the game.

But he quickly retracted the comments and said after his round on Thursday: "There's not too many players that haven't said it, I was just the idiot that said it on TV. But I love the game too much."

Daly and McIlroy are clearly in love with the Old Course. Whether she will love them back on Friday is another matter.

Granted, one is arguably the biggest sporting superstar in the world. And added to that going through a very public wringer, completely of his own making.

Another one has been dubbed "current hottest player on the planet" by Sam Torrance, who captained a winning European Ryder Cup team and therefore knows a bit about golf.

But Tiger Woods and Justin Rose, playing with Camilo Villegas in the marquee group on the first morning of the Open, went about their business to the backdrop of calm. There was no frenzy, no charge, no hyped-up emotions.

The crowd still clapped in all the right places, but no-one went mad. It was like still water is to sparkling. The same thing, just without the fizz.

But that's in a good way, I suppose. It's by no means a criticism. Maybe we've all grown up. Maybe we're used to seeing Tiger, or bored of his saga. Maybe it's the weather. Grey drizzle doesn't spark the same emotions as hot sun. Maybe we've realised it's just men who are quite good at hitting a ball around a field.

On the putting green before they teed off, Woods looked relaxed, certainly more so than in the nervy press conference he gave on Tuesday.

Steve Williams and Tiger Woods on the 10th tee during the opening round of the Open Championship

In a pink and lilac striped T-shirt over a long-sleeve white shirt he seemed happy with his new putter, holing them from all over. He laughed with fellow American Sean O'Hair, teeing off in the group ahead. And the rumoured discontent and strained relations with caddie Steve Williams were not apparent as the pair chatted and grinned at the side.

Rose, trussed up in waterproofs, also has a new short stick and wielded it to good effect, too. The Englishman has won two events and led a third in recent weeks and shoulders some of the main British hopes of a home winner.

Waiting for their start time, the pair exchange pleasantries and fist-touches with the sylph-like Villegas. There's not an ounce of spare meat on the angular Colombian, who could be in trouble if the wind gets up.

Tiger Woods celebrates with Justin Rose after getting a birdie on the ninth

A lull in the banter and Woods stands, arms folded, staring down the fairway. Just what is he thinking about?

At 0909 BST, Woods is introduced as "From USA, Tiger Woods" - as you would expect really - and hits an iron down the fairway. As you would expect. The crowd claps as much as a small crowd can, no more, no less.

Rose and Villegas follow suit and with that are off. A few muffled cries of "Go Tiger" from the stand but nothing much else.

The Englishman birdies the first and second, Woods starts par, birdie, Villegas with two pars. On the third tee, where you wouldn't have a clue where to hit it if you'd never played here before, Woods splits the fairway with a piercing three wood. Someone mutters, "Shot". He fires back, "thanks, man". Three heavily-made up blondes by the side of the tee take off their jackets to reveal T-shirts with pictures of tigers on them. And that's sort of it for their stunt. Woods doesn't appear to notice.

Villegas takes his turn at a birdie this time and they stroll on to the fourth. On the tee a little kid asks Williams for a ball. The normally gruff New Zealander - Woods' fairway metal has a Kiwi bird headcover - proffers the American's missile straight away. Heck, even Woods's security goons seem more like they've come from Woodstock rather than a war zone. One even smiles at me.

Colombian golfer Camilo Villegas watches his drive from the second tee

Villegas has the honour and uncoils his lizard-like body, cracking his driver down the left, the safer side that leaves a tough angle into the green. Rose fires down the middle, Woods - just as heavy drizzle falls - unleashes his own brand of fury down the right, the Tiger line on the tough par four.

Brollies go up, jackets and hoods on. Not for Woods. Water off a duck's back to him. Three pars and they move on. There is a wait on the fifth fairway as Woods and Williams, Villegas and his caddie find something mutually amusing. The white Woods gnashers beam out across the dim links.

Playing up to the par five, Rose and Villegas are short. The Colombian chips on nicely. Rose chunks his into the bank. "Nerves," whispers one man. "I can do that," says another. Woods is through the green with his approach and chips back on and past. Rose putts up and taps in, Villegas makes his par, Woods takes his time over his four footer but safely pouches his par.

On the sixth tee, another vista of gorse and hummocks disguising the way, Rose fades one right and immediately consults his caddie's St George's Cross-emblazoned yardage book to find what might be lurking down there. Woods stings a low iron left and cries "aargh" followed by a stifled "dammit".

But it's time to turn for home. It's a long way back and they look just fine without me.

They're just playing golf.

Everyone's got a view, no-one knows for sure. To help sift through the chaff, we asked a host of golf writers and broadcasters for their expert opinions, informed insights and straightforward honest hunches.

Are they barking up the wrong pot bunker, or do you see a Claret Jug winner among them? Take a look, then let's have your thoughts.

Good week: Lee Westwood. There's still life in Vijay Singh and Retief Goosen to do well and it will be interesting to see how the younger group of British players gets on - McIlroy, Poulter, Casey, Rose, Rhys Davies. A handful are very good and hopefully someone will do something. But John Daly could surprise us for a couple of rounds. I see he's 80-1 in the papers so £5 each way might give one or two people a bit of a thrill. Also, play starts at 0630 and the last people go out about 1630 - that's a tremendous weather window and could play a major part. The draw might be someone's curse or salvation. Golf is so much a game of feel and the moment and feeling confident - it's a very open Open. By the end of Sunday night I'll give you the complete answer.

Sam Torrance - BBC TV
Winner: Tiger Woods. He's the greatest player that ever lived, he's played in two majors this year and played really badly and putted terribly and came fourth and fourth. And this course is built for him. He can get away with his bad drives here - in other major championships he misses fairways and ends up in deep trouble, taking double or even triple bogeys whereas here that won't happen.

Good week: Justin Rose. He's the hottest player on the planet. At the last three events in the US he won two and was five ahead in the other one but just messed up. He's better than anyone at the moment.

Andrew Cotter - BBC TV
Winner: Ernie Els. Has an exceptional Open record. Just that one win but 12 top 10s in 19 Opens and has been runner-up a couple of times, including at St Andrews in 2000. He's in good form and has won a couple of times this year. His putting has improved which was his Achilles heel but with the St Andrews greens being a bit slower it will help him if his putting does start to struggle. And he's good in bad weather.

Good week: Stephen Gallacher. He's won the Dunhill Links around here. His Open Championship record is not great - he's only played in a couple - but he's coming back from illness last year and he's had five top 10s in the last couple of months. He might know how to get it around in front of the Scottish galleries and on a course where he's won a European Tour event. As an outsider who might have a top-10 finish he isn't a bad bet.

Geoff Sweet - The Sun
Winner: Miguel Angel Jimenez.The weather is going to suggest that we'll get four different days - calm, rain, blustery, showers, sun - a bit of everything. Jimenez is one of the most consistent golfers under all conditions. He's not one of the world's best and does blow out a few crucial putts but the greens are enormous here and he will hit them more regularly, so stands a good chance of causing a major upset.

Good week: Justin Rose. He will feed off the crowd interaction of being with Tiger Woods which will be a plus for him. He's in phenomenal form after his two wins and another near miss in the States and to be that consistent that often he won't lose it here.

Derek Lawrenson - Daily Mail
Winner: Ernie Els. I think it will be his year and I was the only one to get the Masters prediction right. Also, I was having a drink with his caddie on Tuesday evening and he says he'll win.

Good week: Padraig Harrington. The weather will not be that great and he's a man for all seasons. He's had a few top 10s recently and is well overdue another victory.

Doug Ferguson - Associated Press
Winner: Ernie Els. It's destiny. The golfing gods are not going to let him win any more of the other majors but the trade-off is that they will reward him with the Open Championship at St Andrews.

Good week: Tiger Woods. He might be leading through 54 holes and will give it up as a sign he's not quite there but close.

Neil McLeman - The Mirror
Winner: Rory McIlroy. I would have said Justin Rose before this week but I don't think the draw with Tiger Woods will do him any favours. But McIlroy's got a really good record at St Andrews. All his rounds as a pro have been under 70 and he will be inspired by Graeme McDowell's US Open win. But it's even more wide open than usual.

Good week: My outside bet for a top 10 is Tom Lehman. He's played well here before and he's just won a seniors' majors and he's in good nick.

Scott Michaux - Augusta Chronicle
Winner: Part of me still believes Tiger Woods will do it. I have a feeling he'll put it together here like he did at Hoylake after his father died.

Good week: Ernie Els. He's played consistently well in majors for the last two years and just hasn't finished one.

Els was runner-up in the St Andrews Open of 2000. Photo: Getty.

Mark Reason - Daily Telegraph
Winner: Padraig Harrington. I'm hearing very good things about his swing, and as we know from Royal Birkdale if it gets a bit mucky with a bit of wind and rain he's well equipped to handle it. But then I could equally make a case for Rory McIlroy, Tiger Woods, Justin Rose or 500 unknown Americans.

Good week: Rory McIlroy. He loves the place and has never failed to break 70 around here. He came into form at the French Open a couple of weeks ago. The only thing against him is that everything is in his favour, which might worry him.

Iain Carter - BBC Radio 5 live
Winner: Padraig Harrington. He knows how to win majors and as an added motivation he wasn't here in 2005 because of the death of his dad. Has a good game when conditions are difficult. Won twice in Dunhill Links events and although not a great form line coming in he's the form man of the last three years in Opens having won two of them.

Good week: Rory McIlroy will have his highest Open finish. He's already shown he's capable of handling the Old Course in the Dunhill Links and did the right thing by not playing in the Scottish Open last week. Will be spurred on by the success of his great mate Graeme McDowell at Pebble Beach.

Wayne Grady - BBC TV
Winner: Lee Westwood, as long as he keeps it out of the bunkers. Ball-striking wise he's as good as anyone in the field if not the best at the moment.

Good week: I know it's easy to pick someone who won last week but at this place you've really got to putt well and Steve Stricker just shot 26 under par - that means you're making a lot of putts and a lot of birdies so you've got to look at someone like that. Also Phil Mickelson. I don't know about his strategy - from what I've heard he's going to try to bomb everything. He's so brilliant he can do anything but I don't know if that's the way to play St Andrews.

Lawrence Donegan - The Guardian
Winner: Rory McIlroy. He's a great ball striker and hits it a long way, two of the requirements for doing well at St Andrews. He's of the calibre of player that usually wins here as long as he can get his putting sorted.

Good week: Stephen Gallacher. A past winner of the Dunhill Links at St Andrews and having a good run of form on the European Tour.

Miles Evans - Reuters
Winner: Phil Mickelson. A beautiful shaper of the ball who works his trajectory well. His record in this tournament is pretty shocking but he's a player you'd think would do well, although if the weather's bad he might suffer. But 18-1 is a brilliant price, so why not?

Good week: Darren Clarke. A good bad weather player. Found some form and would be a very popular winner here. I think the Irish might do well this week. And 100-1 stuck out for me.

Stephanie Wei - Wall Street Journal
Winner: Lee Westwood. He hits a low draw and has contended in three of the last four majors. It's just a matter of time before he gets it together, as long as he doesn't choke. If the tournament ends on Saturday he'll be fine.

Good week: Ryan Moore. He's playing really well, hitting the ball well and the course suits his eye. He might come across a bit of trouble because he's never played here before but he's a shot-maker and he's confident.

Brian Keogh - Irish Sun
Winner: Padraig Harrington. He's starting to swing the club very well, according to his coach. He's been targeting this since the start of the year, he's got good form around here and would love to have an Open at St Andrews on his CV.

Good week: Ernie Els. He's a great links player, he's played well over the past year, he's up for it and he would love a second Open Championship.

Shane O'Donoghue - BBC TV
Winner: Rory McIlroy. He doesn't want to be the only Irishman on the Ryder Cup team not to win a major and that's a huge motivation for him. He loves links golf and following Graeme McDowell's success has gone back to preparing by playing with his friends at home - that's what worked for him before his win in America. It's all about going back to basics and playing like a kid who shines.

Good week: Stephen Gallacher. In a good run of form after surmounting some serious hurdles with illness last year. Has his mojo back and that crucial X-factor of having won at St Andrews. This is his patch and he's as pure a striker as you would want. There's nothing he doesn't know about links golf.

Mark James - BBC TV
Winner: I don't think Tiger Woods because although he's used to making loads of birdies I don't think he is putting well enough and around here you have to putt well. So I think someone like Ian Poulter. He's been a little quiet for a few weeks but he's got the game and temperament above all, and I think the weather will deteriorate after Thursday and someone like him will come to the fore. And I just like to disagree with Sam Torrance.

Good week: Justin Rose. The only thing that is suspect is his putting which will be crucial around here.

Rob Hodgetts - BBC Sport website
Winner: Tiger Woods. Original it may not be, but then again, is he the player he was? To come fourth in last two majors after everything that's been going on is impressive. Add to that his dominance on the Old Course over the last two Opens here, his competitive drive and his yearning to silence the doubters and reignite his career. May have too much on his mind, but this may be the perfect escape. Wind might be against him.

Good week: Ernie Els has the most top-10 finishes in Opens in the last 10 years, but despite being back in form this season with two victories and going close at the US Open I just can't quite see him adding to his major tally.

The Old Course at St Andrews is certainly an enigma. Tiger Woods insists it's his favourite course in the world, while Phil Mickelson said he'd hold the Open here every year if it were up to him. He quickly retracted this when he realised the press were sniffing a story, but the sentiment was already out there. On the other hand, Lee Westwood once claimed it was not among the 100 best courses in Fife.

St Andrews certainly has an aura as you drive over the hill on a sunny day and see the great links - the thin, hook-like shape of the Old Course nestled in there somewhere among the dunes along with five other courses - bounded by the Eden Estuary to the north and the Bay, with the West Sands of Chariots of Fire fame to the east. Guarding over the greensward is the unmistakeable skyline of spires, towers and roofs of the Auld Grey Toon.

"I get a good feeling in my bones when I come here," says Justin Rose. "That's half the battle."

Woods get to grips again with the unique St Andrews course

"It's just a fantastic golf course," says Woods, who is going for a third straight Open win on the Old Course this week. "What genius it took to lay it out that way."

"It's a spiritual place as well as a wonderful course," adds Mickelson. "You can't help but feel emotion come over you as you play, knowing that this is where the game began. [Jack] Nicklaus said that a career doesn't feel complete unless you've won here. I think all the players feel the same."

Most critics, and there are some, say the Old Lady relies solely on the wind to protect her modesty. Wind is key and can change the strategy from day to day, even in the space of a couple of hours, but there are 112 deep pot bunkers, vast, undulating double greens - Mickelson jokes of 150ft lag putts - and tricky pin positions to contend with.

"I think it's the angles [of shots] and the wind," says Woods. "People say hit
miles left, but if you hit miles left you have no angle. On a calm day you feel like you can shoot 65 every round. You get a windy day like Sunday, the leader might be 80. It's just amazing what the wind can do.

The revamped 17th is likely to claim a few victims during the Championship. Photo: AP

"You're going to have to hit some real long putts here, too, and you just have to get down in two. You can hit 18 greens and still shoot a high number.

"That's the brilliance of how this golf course was designed, that it's still able to withstand the test of time. Players have gotten longer, equipment has changed but this golf course is still very relevant and it can still be very difficult."

There's a famous quote that does the rounds from legendary golfer Bobby Jones, who also designed Augusta National, about how the more he studied the Old Course, the more he loved it, and the more he loved it, the more he studied it.

BBC commentator Ken Brown agrees that it takes time to get acquainted with the nuances.

"The first time you play here you'll find it hard to understand it. And you'll probably hate it," he says. "The first fairway is 130 yards wide and it looks simple.

"Standing on the second tee without someone who knows where they are going you wouldn't have a clue, a wondrous clue, and that's when the magical mystery tour starts."

As is the way with modern golf, the bigger hitter generally has an advantage, but St Andrews is not necessarily all about power.

"This golf course requires placement," says Woods. "Just because it's wide off the tee doesn't mean you can blow it all over the place."

Mickelson sounds more more gung-ho, but you know he's not really advocating just using brute force to subdue the Old Girl. "You can hit driver on just about every hole and there's plenty of room on a number of holes. I don't feel restrained on the tee at all.

"I feel like it gives you a much bigger option off the tee, and it's a great second-shot golf course.

"You have so many different shots you can take off the tee but also into the green. You can take a two iron and just chase it along the ground for 180 yards and the ball will feed and filter down on to the green if you avoid the right bunkers. Or you can try to fly a set of bunkers and run it up 60 yards or you can fly it the whole way on.

"I just love the course management and strategy that's involved playing this course.

"And the great thing about St Andrews is it doesn't limit you as a player on ways you can win. All players can win. But I do think there are distinct advantages to length out here."

Ernie Els is another disciple. "Some flag positions just change the hole so dramatically, it's crazy. Some of the short par fours where you can almost drive the green - if they put the flag in a certain position you can be 15, 20 yards away and you might not get the ball up and down for birdie. It's just an amazing golf course."

But as with all things at St Andrews, it's not quite as straightforward as just having some wind to test the players. Varying wind speed and direction throughout the day can sometimes make the draw a bit of a lottery.

"A steady 10-15mph from one direction is no good, they get used to it," says Alliss.
"Ideally you want a different wind direction every day, blowing from 7am to 8pm."

Alliss is all too aware that the Old Course is not perfect, but reckons that's part of her unique charm, along with the fact that as public land anyone, from dog walkers to romancing students, can wander over the hallowed turf.

"It's never had severe rough and relies on the wind, bunkers and greens," he says. "It's not a great viewing course and it's a slow course to get around with the double greens. It has its drawbacks but that's all part of it."

Westwood these days has also tweaked his opinion. "I didn't think it's that poor a course. My frustration lay in the fact I couldn't see how to shoot a low score. I could see the birdies but I would play so aggressively that I would run up bogeys as well."

Despite his reservations, Alliss certainly wouldn't advocate making any more changes.
"I'm not sure the 17th required it, but as long as no-one suggests putting a lake in the Valley of Sin. That would be the end of the world," he says.

"St Andrews should be more or less left alone."

General consensus this week is that the Old Course is in great shape - "pristine" according to Mickelson, while the greens are "the best they have ever been" (Els). Woods says they are playing slower than normal. "For now," he adds.

The players are braced for rain for the first two days of competition with winds building to as much as 35mph by Friday.

The Old Lady is likely to show her capricious nature and will certainly play hard to get. And that will make winning the 150th anniversary Open all the sweeter.

The 29-year-old Englishman has hit a rich vein of form and will go into the Open at St Andrews as one of the key men to watch.

Perhaps, with world number three Lee Westwood nursing an injured calf, Rose represents mainland Britain's best chance of a major winner since Paul Lawrie in 1999 and a first English Open champion since Nick Faldo won at Muirfield in 1992.

Not many would have said that five weeks ago, mind. Rose was becoming a forgotten man, trailing in the wake of the English assault on the world golf rankings.

You'll remember, of course, that he came fourth as an amateur in the Open at Royal Birkdale in 1998 and then went on to miss his first 21 consecutive cuts as a professional. But he was learning his trade and climbed to European number one in 2007. Several fallow years followed, a mixture of injury and struggling to find the keys.

But at Nicklaus's event in Ohio at the beginning of June, Rose carded a final-round 66 to win by three shots. He then defied a mid-round blip to par the last seven holes and hold off a charging Ryan Moore to triumph by one at the AT&T National in Pennsylvania at the start of this month. He's now up to 16th in the world.

So what's occurred?

"Last year I put in a lot of really good technical ground work and I've got down to the point with my swing where I'm just playing, I'm not constantly tinkering or changing things, that's a nice place to play from," he told me in St Andrews.

"The shift has been slightly mental, too. I'm not adding anything in but getting rid of anything else that's not important. Dropping all the baggage that's associated with professional golf.

"The rest of it - leaderboards, money, TV, people - that's inclined to get in the way.

Rose will hope to have his name on the leaderboard on Sunday afternoon. Photo: Getty

"It's just getting down to the bare basics of me, my golf clubs, my new Ghost putter, my golf ball and being clear and committed on my shots and accepting really.

"No-one's perfect out there. If you make a mistake, don't beat yourself up about it. You are going to make mistakes. Let it go."

Rose, with his tall, athletic frame folded into a leather sofa, is a good talker. He considers the question, and delivers an in-depth answer, illustrating and emphasising his points with hand gestures and rubs of the head.

"Do you know what I mean by that?" is a classic Rose-ism - he's keen to make sure the point has been properly conveyed and understood.

There's lots of a talk of getting rid of baggage - tell-tale signs of a man with a new mind coach.

So who is he, I ask? Rose tells me he has been working with mental guru Dr Gio Valiante since just after the PGA Championship at Wentworth in May. Valiante's trademark, by the way, is "Fearless Golf".

"It was the right time for me. He's just nudged me over the top, helped me get momentum and confidence," admits Rose.

Sandwiched between Rose's two victories was a win that got away after he squandered a three-shot lead going into the final day of the Travelers Championship

Rather than cursing the missed opportunity, Rose used it as a springboard.

"My goal was to put in place what I had learned. I was getting tight and quick and out of rhythm. Gio recognised it and the next week I was more relaxed and let it flow. It makes it an easy place to play golf from if you're not scared of losing. Maybe the biggest lesson I've learned is about failure and not being scared of it. If you're learning the right things, you're not losing, you're winning.

"Memorial was fantastic elation but I got more self-satisfaction from the second win because of the way I did it and what I had to overcome the week before."

After Memorial, Rose had a chat with Jack Nicklaus. No hints from the old master on how to play the Old Course (Rose hadn't qualified then), but he allowed the Englishman a glimpse into the mindset that won 18 major titles, including two at St Andrews.

"Jack told me he always felt winning became habit, that he never got bored of winning," said Rose.

"It's that mentality of never resting on his laurels, to keep pressing on but not go out and try to win but keep doing what made you win. That's the real key. You can't focus on the end result. Keep doing the processes. That's what he never got bored of and why he was so fantastic.

"In '07 I was more focused on results. Right now I'm not really loving the glory, that's the cherry on top. I'm enjoying the ingredients of making it happen.

"At Memorial I could have played another nine holes, even though I had won. I was enjoying playing."

As well as Nicklaus, Rose has been tapping up Faldo for advice of late, and was supposed to practice with the six-time major winner at St Andrews last week before a change of schedules.

After missing the Open at St Andrews in 2000 and 2005, a bunt around the Old Course with a former champion would have been no bad thing, but Rose has won here as an amateur in the St Andrews Links Trophy. And anyway, he reckons the course can change so much from week to week, even day to day, with different weather conditions that the strategy is constantly changing.

So as the form player coming into the Open, I wonder if Rose sees himself as one of the favourites?

"I guess so, I guess so," he nodded. "But with all due respect, that's your guys' job. Like I said about the whole baggage stuff. It doesn't matter to me. That's not going to help me on Thursday morning. All that will help me is a clear game plan and good execution."

Of course, Thursday will present more potential baggage than a pre-cheap flights airline - Tiger Woods's first appearance in Europe since his misdemeanours will ensure that.

"You've got to recognise it's there and you can't deny it's a different atmosphere but it's not the first time. I've played six Open rounds with him," said Rose.

"St Andrews is really different because the crowds are only on the outside perimeter of the golf course so there's a feeling of space. From that perspective it might even be a bit easier here.

"Playing with him at the Masters first time back would have been a big deal and a bit weird but I think it's past that now.

"I've seen him around at a few events and said hello to him. I've always got on well with Tiger, even though we're not close friends.

"But Tiger is always great to play with. He's out there doing his own thing, as are you, but if you hit a good shot he'll complement you and if you strike up a conversation he'll reply and ask a question or two. You know, he's polite."

Rose says he loves St Andrews as a place, and reckons that's half the battle. The other half is getting to grips with a quirky course that can be benign one day, vicious the next in the wrong conditions.

"The ultimate competitor this week is the golf course, not anybody else," he said. "How can you get around this golf course, accept the challenge, not be bullied by it, and go around in as few shots as you can. That's tournament golf right there in a nutshell. Everything else is baggage.

"Do you know where I'm going with all that?"

Loud and clear, Justin.

The heartache that ended the fairytale of Turnberry - for all but Stewart Cink's immediate family - was felt around the world, and long after we have forgotten the name of his countryman, we will remember 2009 as the year Watson didn't win.

This year the Open returns to the iconic St Andrews, the home of golf, for the 28th time.

The Auld Grey Toon, which first staged the Open in 1873, has history wherever you look and has hosted some of the most memorable Open moments of them all. It's also crowned some of the greatest names in the game as its champions.

The figure of Tiger Woods looms large over the Old Course these days, after winning the last two Opens to be staged at St Andrews in 2005 and 2000.

The world number one's star has since lost some of its sheen because of off-course shenanigans, but Woods has a liking for the Old Course and three wins there in 10 years to take him to 15 majors is a distinct possibility.

Five years ago Woods dominated all four days in warm, sunny conditions, carding 66-67-71 before dousing the home crowd's hopes of a famous Scottish winner as he held off Colin Montgomerie with a closing 70 to win by five.

The poignancy was there for all to see as Woods strolled to his second Open title and a 10th major in all, two days after 18-time major champion Jack Nicklaus, inextricably linked to St Andrews, waved an emotional goodbye to the tournament on the Swilcan Bridge.

In the Millennium Open of 2000, a fresh-faced 24-year-old Woods was equally unstoppable, leading by three at halfway and building a six-shot lead going into the final day.

Playing partner David Duval started quickly and closed the gap to three shots after seven holes but the American could not sustain his surge and fell back as Woods, who did not find a single bunker all week triumphed ahead of Thomas Björn and Ernie Els.

In 1995, colourful American John Daly, the man known as "Wild Thing" and "Long John", showed he had a sweet short game to match his prodigious power off the tee and added the Open Championship to his breakthrough 1991 US PGA win.

Italy's Costantino Rocca needed a birdie on the last to tie with Daly and hit his drive just short and left of the green, into the area known as the Valley of Sin. But he mis-hit his chip and watched in horror as the ball dribbled back. Now needing to hole his third from all of 60ft, Rocca took out his putter and sent the ball on its long journey over the humps, hollows and contours of the 18th green - and into the cup. But the Italian could not hang on in the four-hole play-off and the mullet-haired Daly lifted the Claret Jug.

The 25th Open at St Andrews was also the stage for Arnold Palmer to say his goodbyes after first competing in the event in 1960, when he finished as runner-up to Australian Kel Nagle.

Twenty years ago, the Old Course crowned an English winner as Nick Faldo calculated, plotted and caressed his way to victory. Faldo laid the foundations with rounds of 67 and 65 and then fired a third-round 67 to sink the challenge of co-leader Greg Norman, who amassed a 76. Faldo ended with a 71 to win by five shots from American Payne Stewart and Zimbabwe's Mark McNulty.

To this day, one of golf's most iconic images came at St Andrews in 1984 when Seve Ballesteros holed out for a birdie on the last to take a one-shot lead with one group to come. The images of him excitedly punching the air in celebration will always be associated with the flamboyant Spaniard, who will sadly not be able to attend this year because of ill health.

Back on the 17th, Tom Watson, who had been tied with Ballesteros on the tee, was in trouble after firing his second shot through the green. Pitching back from near the wall by the road, Watson could only make a bogey as his dreams of a third straight Open title were all but ended.

The American, inevitably, was unable to hole his second shot on the 18th to force a play-off and Ballesteros won the second of his three Open titles by two from Watson and Germany's Bernhard Langer.

In 1978 Nicklaus came to St Andrews poised on 14 major titles (ring any bells?) and had not won one since 1975 after narrowly missing out to Watson in the 'Duel in the Sun' at Turnberry the year before.

Watson led again going into the final round on the Old Course and was joined by Britain's Peter Oosterhuis. Nicklaus, fellow American Ben Crenshaw, New Zealand's Simon Owen and Japan's Isao Aoki were one stroke behind. But by the 17th Nicklaus was clear on his own and held on to win by two from Crenshaw, Owen and Americans Tom Kite and Ray Floyd. It was his second Open title at St Andrews, and third Open in all, coming 12 years after his first at Muirfield and 16 years since he had won his first major, the 1962 US Open.

Nicklaus's Open triumph in 1970 was due largely to the misfortune of another, as Doug Sanders missed a downhill three-footer on the 18th which would have secured victory. Sanders had to settle for a play-off with Nicklaus on the Monday and the Golden Bear, as Nicklaus was known, was one ahead going up the last.

After driving the green, Nicklaus holed out for a birdie to Sanders's par. Nicklaus celebrated by throwing his putter high in the air, nearly braining his rival with it on the way down and Sanders was consigned to a second runner-up spot behind Nicklaus to go with 1966.

A young Nicklaus was himself a runner-up behind "Champagne" Tony Lema at St Andrews in 1964. The American had never seen St Andrews before, but armed with local caddie Tip Anderson, and benefitting from the withdrawal of Palmer, Lema beat Nicklaus by five shots to win his only major title. Tragically, Lema died in a plane crash two years later.

Back in 1957, South African Bobby Locke stopped Australian Peter Thomson's run of three straight Open titles. Thomson, who won five Opens in all, came second, two years after winning at the Home of Golf himself. Other illustrious winners of the Open at St Andrews include Sam Snead (1946), and Bobby Jones (1927).

These are just the highlights, now over to you. What are your favourite memories of the Open at St Andrews? Were you there to witness any of these Opens, or remember watching on TV? Let's hear your thoughts.

Mickelson proved that you can be a class act and still win. The contrast between the pair could not be more stark.

Woods, emerging from a self-imposed break following his sex scandal, said at the beginning of the week that he would mend his ways. That he would be more aware of those around him, that he would treat the game with more respect. If wins came along, fine, but they would be irrelevant if he was not a better man. The jury is still out as to whether he has begun to change for the better.

But Mickelson is the total package. A family man, loved by fans for genuinely engaging with them, a brilliant player, an accomplished winner.

Westwood congratulates Mickelson after his victory at Augusta

But when Mickelson also hit someone on the same hole, he bounded over, grinning from ear to ear and handed the guy a glove, with a bit of banter thrown in for good measure.

Woods was warmly welcomed back by the Augusta crowd and he is clearly trying to be more engaging, though it obviously doesn't come easy. Not everyone can be open and still maintain their focus, and he claimed after his final round that the issue is "becoming overblown", insisting it is unfeasible to expect him to appear happy when he is not playing very well.

The 14-time major champion will now take time off to revaluate his future and the golfing world will wait on tenterhooks to find out where we will see him next. Whichever Woods turns up, the game is clearly richer for his presence. And anyone who can finish tied fourth at the Masters after that long off is no ordinary golfer. Although we knew that anyway.

Mickelson may trail Woods by one Green Jacket - three to four (only Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer have more) - but he is fast-becoming Mr Masters, with four thirds and two fifths also to his name. "I am in love with this place and it brings out the best in me," he said.

After the fireworks of his back-to-back eagles which reignited the Augusta roars on Saturday, Mickelson conjured one of those special shots that will be talked about for years as he put his stamp on the tournament during the final round.

After driving into the pine needles at the corner of the 13th, he hit a six-iron through a gap between two trees, over Rae's Creek and to within three feet to set up an eagle, although he would miss the putt.

"How big was the gap?" he was asked. "It wasn't huge but it was big enough for my ball to fit through," Mickelson replied modestly, before adding that it wasn't as tight as it might have seemed from beyond the ropes or on TV. "About five feet." It was the sort of shot that commands a plaque, or at least a name.

With all the hullabaloo over the Woods affair, it was easy to forget that Mickelson has also endured a difficult year since he was last at Augusta, after both his wife Amy and his mother were diagnosed with breast cancer.

Amy was waiting behind the 18th green and the pair hugged in tears. Mickelson described the victory, after coming so close at a poignant US Open last year shortly after the diagnosis, as a "very emotional moment and something I shall cherish".

Mickelson now has four major titles but he was stuck as "the best player never to have won a major" after a string of second and third places before his breakthrough victory at the Masters in 2004.

That was his 12th appearance at Augusta, so when he consoled Lee Westwood in the scorers' hut afterwards he was coming from a position of experience. The Englishman, playing in his 11th Masters, went into the final round with a one-shot lead and a maiden major title beckoning. He kept fighting to the end but his one-under 71 couldn't match Mickelson's magical 67. In fact, make that three 67s.

Westwood has now finished second, third, third in the last three majors and was third at the US Open in 2008. He must surely now be deemed the best player in world golf without a major title. It's a back-handed compliment but one Mickelson feels sure he will put right soon.

"I've been in that position and it sucks," he said. "But I also told him that he is playing some of the best golf of anybody in the world, he's an incredible player and I pull for him because I want him to win his first major soon, because he is that kind of talent and a quality guy."

Westwood would have become the first Englishman to win the Masters since Nick Faldo in 1996, and the first Briton to win a major since Paul Lawrie clinched the Open in 1999. The search goes on, though Westwood can rest assured he didn't wilt or throw it away. Mickelson won it in his own swashbuckling style. And Westwood is certain it is only a matter of time before he clinches a big prize.

"I didn't do too much wrong," he said. "I can walk away with a lot of positive thoughts and memories from this Masters. The more I get closer to winning these majors the more I want the next one to come around. Law of averages says the door is going to open one day."

His down-to-earth humour was already returning when a questioner began: "Phil..."

Westwood fired back: "I'm Lee. Phil is coming in a minute. He'll be wearing a green jacket."

British fans may have yearned for a Westwood win, while a Woods victory would have been another twist in a remarkable tale.

But Mickelson's Masters was the heart-warming story to end a week that began with so much angst and unseemly clamour.

In the pecking order, they vie for top-dog status with the expensively trousered agent.

But while the manager looks good and is handy on the phone, the coach is imbued with deeper knowledge which gives him a special aura.

One coach who has achieved guru-like status is Pete Cowen. His man Lee Westwood is leading the Masters going into the final round so he clearly knows a thing or two.

In fact Cowen could claim to be the hardest working man at Augusta, with seven players to look after. And though not all of his men are flying high - Graeme McDowell, Henrik Stenson, Simon Dyson and Louis Oosthuizen missed the cut - Westwood, Sergio Garcia and Soren Kjeldsen are still fighting.

But how much does a coach, well, coach at a tournament? What, for instance, does he say to his players on the range before a round?

"We visualise and play the nine shots - low draw, low fade, low straight, mid draw, mid fade, mid straight, high draw, high fade, high straight," he says. "We can't get mixed up in technique, it's a warm-up, simple as that. You're there as a safety valve."

What about earlier in the week, how much actual swing work is done during tournament time?

"There shouldn't be an awful lot. They should be ready when they come here," says England's Cowen, a former Tour pro turned PGA Master Professional. "Most of the work is done away from tournaments but I'm here because they like you to be there.

"Sometimes they'll say, 'I'm alright, leave me alone'. I'm quite happy with that."

Often a player will come in after a poor round and head straight back to the range for diagnosis and then surgery, often working until it gets dark.

"It's very important to talk to the caddie because sometimes you get a lot more sense out of the caddie than the players," says Cowen."Players are not as objective as the caddie, so you'll sit and talk to the caddie before the player even comes on the range.

"It's mostly positions of the club head. We'll get them trying to play shots and move the body to get the club in better positions. It's tying the body and hands together, which is what the golf swing is all about.

"Often the change in direction of the swing - from backswing to downswing - gets a bit quick out there because they get nervous. We can fix that in an hour and half, no problems.

"I'll get them to calm it down. 'Let the club fall, don't rush it,' I might say. Simpler the better, really.

"I'll say 'good swing' maybe four times in a session. If I say it too often, it won't have the same impact."

With so many players, Cowen must have a photographic memory for all their swings. And he admits he can instantly spot whether they are swinging properly.

"They are all individuals but I'm one of those people that can drive to a certain spot in the country and then remember it for the rest of my life. If I've been there before, I don't need a map. I know where it is."

Navigational skills like this come in handy for Cowen's globe-trotting lifestyle. He goes to about 30 tournaments a year, and flies to Spain to work with Garcia and Lake Nona in Florida to see Stenson. He was only back in the UK for 20 days last year.

Cowen lives 15 minutes from Westwood in the UK and visits him about three times a week when they are home.

"He's got a great range. He's got facilities like here, not quite as big, but 50 acres," says Cowen.

Westwood admits Cowen has had a "massive impact" on his game. "I've worked with him on and off since 1996. More recently he's had a big influence on my short game. My chipping, pitching and bunker play has improved immensely. It's there for everyone to see," he said.

Early on in a tournament week the player, coach and caddie might talk through their gameplan for playing that particular course.

"There are maybe four holes on any golf course that most people don't like," says Cowen. "The best thing is to work out how you're going to play those holes to your strengths, not the course's strengths.

"The designers set you an exam and you've got to make sure you pass any way you can. Golf is problem solving. How are you going to get the ball from A to B, B to C, C to D? You answer each question as it comes along. But life's problem solving. Every day you get up and have to solve problems."

Part of that problem-solving exercise at the top level is the ability to control your ball flight. This is the same for any week, but especially at Augusta where you have to hit specific parts of the green or even have to play away from certain flags. For the Masters, players will often turn up with a specific shot in their armoury.

"The 10th is a classic example," says Cowen. "McDowell always felt his drive stayed on the downslope so he wanted to get it around the corner to the bottom of the hill so he had a flatter lie.

"In Lake Nona we practised drawing a three wood for about three hours for that."

One area that Cowen is having to work on with all his players is the transition from v-groove wedges to ones with u-shaped grooves after the "v" grooves were banned on tour. The new ones generate less spin and players have had to rethink their short-game.

"It's changing the shape of shots, changing the way they see the shots," he says. A short-game practice session will focus on fine-tuning both the chip that checks on the green and the one that releases and rolls forward on landing.

"Nowadays you've got to use the bounce [sole of the club] more for flighting the ball, rather than checking the ball," adds Cowen.

At Augusta, the grass is always cut away from the green, meaning if you miss the putting surface you are always chipping into the grain.

"It's so different at the Masters," says Cowen. "You've got to make sure you chip it far enough. You can't get mixed up hitting into the green. So many times the ball will come back to you. Bunkers are more difficult here, too. They are firmer, so players struggle with that."

If you hang around the practice putting green at a tournament, soon enough you'll see a coach - sometimes a specialist putting coach - just standing, hands in pockets, watching their man putt.

Other than saying, 'you should have hit that one a bit harder' or, 'left a bit next time' I wonder what they are actually doing.

"It's like a musician listening for the perfect pitch. You're listening for the perfect strike," says Cowen, clicking his fingers to demonstrate when a putter has hit the right note.

"You're not always going to have a perfect stroke but you can have a perfect strike. You might use a few gadgets to make sure the putter head is on line, but it's mainly listening.

"Here at Augusta it's all about the pace. These greens are miles faster than anything else they putt."

Some players also employ mind coaches, but not Westwood.

"He has always been so strong, mentally," says Cowen. "He knows exactly what he's doing. It's not an area I even need to talk about. He will say,' why do I need somebody to tell me how good I am when I know how good or bad I am?'

It doesn't take a genius to work out he's quite good at the moment.

Make that multiple roars, as Phil Mickelson sparked a scintillating spell of golf that had fans shaking their heads in disbelief.

Mickelson ignited the fireworks with an eagle at the par-five 13th and stoked the fire further by holing his second shot to the 14th for back-to-back eagles - for only the third time in Masters history. He nearly added a third at the very next hole as patrons went into delirium.

"That was no birdie," said another. With no radios, eyes strained to see distant leaderboards. Those with binoculars became their guides.

"Here it comes, they're changing it now...oh man, he dunked it. Mickelson dunked his second." Word spread like wildfire. But after the earthquake came the aftershocks.

Fred Couples, who had just birdied the 14th, chipped in for an eagle on the 15th before Mickelson kept the party going, just missing the hole with his second over the water at the long 15th. And those were just the headline acts. "That's about as fun as it gets," said Mickelson.

Back down at the 12th, patriotic English fans witnessing Lee Westwood drop a shot and Ian Poulter leak two felt like they were watching a different tournament. "We're in the wrong place here," said one resignedly.

The roars reverberating around the Georgia pines made you quite forget it was a Saturday. This was Sunday stuff, eclipsing the final round last year when Mickelson and Tiger Woods went on a charge to restore the Masters' mojo after some barren years.

"Those roars are Augusta roars," said the 60-year-old two-time champion Tom Watson. "I'm glad they're back."

Out on the isolated 13th tee, Westwood looked a peripheral figure, having gone from being the four-shot leader to tieing with Mickelson. And by the end of the 13th, Westwood was one behind the charging American, all in the space of 30 minutes.

"It was probably one of those great days in golf. I obviously wasn't privy to it but I was well aware that somebody was making a charge and I figured it was Phil," he said. "That's why major championships are tough to win because great players do great things at majors."

But the 36-year-old Westwood has become hardened to major golf over the last few years and knows better than to concern himself with what others are doing.

"I've got my own little bubble in my own little world that I wander around in now," said the world number four. "What Phil Mickelson does is out of my control. The only thing I can control is where I hit it."

Westwood, who has finished third in three majors in the last 18 months, continued to plough his own steady course, like a huge tanker steering an unerringly straight course across a rough sea.

He put that single blemish at 12 behind him and remained patient until a birdie at the 15th set up his one-shot lead over Mickelson going into the final round, with a maiden major title beckoning.

Westwood admits that a few years back he was caught up in trying to take his game to "the next level", but has since discovered there is no such thing. Only the ability to put yourself into contention and then keep playing until they hand out the prizes at the end.

"It's very boring, I'm just going to keep playing to my gameplan," he said. "I'll try to hit that first fairway and we'll go from there, try to hole the odd putt and see what the situation is at 7pm on Sunday night."

England has not had a Masters winner since Nick Faldo won the third of his Masters titles at Augusta in 1996, while Britain is still chasing its first major champion since Paul Lawrie won the Open in 1999.

Poulter fell away on Saturday, though he is still just about in touch, but Sam Torrance, the former European Ryder Cup captain and BBC commentator, believes Westwood's time has come.

"Lee Westwood really handled himself well out there and put himself in perfect position to win his first major," he said. "I think he's absolutely ready now - 100% ready."

But Mickelson, who won the second of his two Green Jackets in 2006, is developing a deep love affair with the Masters and its fans and will feel he is ready for another, while the ever-tenacious Woods just will not go away.

He has won all 14 of his majors when leading going into the final round, but is well-placed at four back to launch a strike which could break that pattern.

As Mickelson proved, things can change fast at Augusta. But the Good Ship Westwood may yet just steam straight to victory.