Woods happy to face the sceptics

No luck, there, either. "I feel pretty good," he said, for the only time sounding a mite irritated.

The truth is he has looked pretty good too. Those among the usual hordes who have been pursuing him on the links reckon he has been in scintillating form. Today, Woods noted without a hint of the show-off how, on the 550-yard 14th, he had struck a two-iron drive and plopped a four-iron approach on to the green. Easy as that.

Talking of Easy, how about the eagerly-awaited prospect that come Sunday it might all come down to a duel under the sun with defending champion Ernie Els? Woods wasn't having any of this either. "I can understand people thinking it but there are more than just the two of us playing the tournament. Anyone who's qualified and earned their right in this event can win."

Still, Woods sounds as if he believes he has found his best game at exactly the right time. The past year, he reckoned, had been perhaps the toughest for him psychologically in his career because of the uncertainty of the knee surgery he had. "There's always doubt every time you go under the knife," he reflected. Yet he said he was over the hurdle once he had got off to a flyer this season, winning three of his first four starts.

His failures in the Masters (tied for 15th) and US Open (tied 20th) reflected a lack of consistency in his game, he believed. He played well only in spurts. Yet his most recent performance, the tape to gun victory in the Western Open, may have changed everything.

"The things I'm working on started to come together victory and finally there it all came together and I played well." Played well? He played as only he can.

Here, he's smashed a few drives straight down the middle only to find the familiar Sandwich curse of a preposterous bounce plonking his ball in the rough. Once, this would have driven the young, impatient Tiger mad; these days he sounds fantastically philosophical about what he describes as the "flukiness" in the course's nature. Playing and creating on the links, he said, still excited him in the way it always did.

Indeed, the whole Open experience seems to genuinely still stir him. Here, amid the madness that routinely surrounds him, he was asked ball ends up in the rough or a bunker. You can hit some fluky bounces, good and bad. That's just part of playing this golf course.

"It's in great shape, but it certainly puts a demand on trying to get the right bounce. It comes down to getting the right bounce and a guy getting a little bit of luck."

Eager to end talk that he's suffering a slump in form by lifting the famous Claret Jug for a second time on Sunday, Woods said this links was far harder than the Old Course at St Andrews in about why there were so few great new characters in the game today and he explained that he believed it was because the media circus surrounding the sport these days forced players to be ultra-careful about everything they said and did.

Him in particular. If he sometimes appears a bit antiseptic, it's because, more than anyone in world sport, he has learned to hold back his true persona from public view. "You have to. I've been ripped before by you guys. No matter what you do, you're going to get ripped. If you show too much, you get criticised. If you don't show enough, you get criticised.

"But I've become more comfortable with my responsibilities. When I first turned pro, I was very uncomfortable with the whole idea of the responsibilities of being a professional golfer at the elite level. Outside of college, I didn't really know anyone and then all of a sudden I come out and the Scotland where he won the Millennium Open. He explained: "This is much more difficult because of all of the mounds down the fairways.

"But it will reward quality golf shots. You're going to have to play solidly for all four rounds." Woods, 9-4 favourite to win a ninth major title, will begin his challenge on Thursday in the company of precocious Spaniard Sergio Garcia and emerging British prospect Luke Donald.

Woods said he hadn't played in the same group as the 25-year-old former Walker Cup star, but he added: "I've had lunch with him a number of times. Luke is a real nice guy and a class act." attention level is turned up. It was a totally different atmosphere than I was accustomed to. I didn't understand the responsibilities I had and I did some things right and I also made my share of mistakes.

"You learn from both and I am certainly a lot more comfortable now and I accept my responsibilities."

That's why nothing seems to faze him any more. It's why every year, he appears more at peace with his place in an insane world.

"I think we're due for some rain," persisted one of his interrogators, desperately hoping to rekindle a few memories of Muirfield's horrors.

Woods grinned and responded: "Good". Just a hunch, but he seems in the mood to ensure even the elements don't get in the way of the supernatural this year. They will get under way at 9.09am on Thursday, just over two and a half hours after Leeds' Iain Pyman, leading amateur the last time the Open was here in 1993, receives the honour of hitting the first stroke of the competition.

England's Justin Rose, who partnered Woods on Thursday and Friday at Muirfield last year, will be under less pressure this week in the company of veteran Nick Price of Zimbabwe and leading American amateur Ricky Barnes.

South Africa's Ernie Els, the defending Open champion, has been drawn with Shigeki Maruyama of Japan and American David Toms.