The eight years since the Open Championship was at Hoylake seem like an age. They may have been an era, or at least the end of one.
When Tiger Woods lifted the Claret Jug at Royal Liverpool in 2006, not even the distractions of the constant clicking of camera phones from the record crowd throughout his final round could throw him off his stride.
Woods then was on the third different swing of his career Tiger v3.0 we might call it. That guy maybe wasn’t as good as v2.0, which from 2000 to 2002 was probably the greatest player to have played the game, but v3.0 from 2005 to 2008 has a very strong case for being the second greatest player ever.
Yet everything’s changed in eight years. The R&A’s response to that camera clicking was to ban mobile phones for six years, but now they embrace them and this Open course is tech-heavy, wifi on every stand, superfast optic cables linking video boards across the course.
The old championship now claims to be the most technically advanced in all of sport.
Between the ropes, it’s very different too. Tiger has won no more Claret Jugs when we all assumed the shelves at his big house in Jupiter, Florida, would be heaving with them by now. He won three more majors until the knee injury and subsequent fall from grace in 2008, and nothing since.
In the end, v3.0 broke down. The next, v4.0, was good at times but stalled at the very points when the previous models had roared into full gear.
Now he comes back from back surgery which threatened to derail his career, and he himself quotes his miracle, leap-off-the-sick-bed victory at the US Open in 2008 as irrefutable evidence he can do the same thing again.
And just about nobody believes him any more. Certainly the field are no longer scared of him, even before they have seen v5.0.
His haste to come back at Hoylake, three months and just two rounds since major surgery, has not convinced many. He sits at 22-1 for the championship, fifth in a market he usually dominates.
Instead, creeping up the oddlist in the last few hours, is Adam Scott, the runner-up in 2012 at the quite similar Lytham and since then a Masters champion and current World No 1.
Scott, now the championship favourite at 14-1 – the R&A’s efforts to stop caddies betting on the championship are sincere but surely fruitless – is a man in a hurry. This week once more he admitted he had not even attempted to work with the shorter putter that he will require once the moratorium on anchoring comes into effect in 18 months’ time.
“I take the view that I’ll deal with that issue when I have to,” he admitted.
Scott changed to the anchored putter for a good reason, and he will not make the switch back seamlessly. So if he wants to win more majors to add to his 2013 Masters, he’s running out of timejust six left.
One aspect that might hamper Scott is the luck of the Open draw. He’s in the afternoon wave today in the first round, which may catch stronger winds on Thursday which are set to stiffen for their second round on Friday morning. The forecast has early starters today benefitting by less wind on both the first two days.
That gives the opportunity for Woods, given his usual, favourable primetime draw at 9.04 am as the BBC come on air, for Henrik Stenson (16-1) and my favourite underdog Angel Cabrera (50-1) who are in the same group, and for Rory McIlroy (18-1) just two groups behind.
Later Graeme McDowell, who has a solid gameplan for the course, plenty of confidence after his French Open win and believes this is a plotters’ rather than a bombers’ course, even with the rain softening it, has a definite case at 25-1. He’s led the Open several times now, and has a Ryder Cup place to nail down.
It would also be unwise to write off Sergio Garcia, well fancied at 22-1. He was second going into the final round eight years ago and no one would dispute he is a more mature player in all aspects since then.
Defending champion Phil Mickelson is 22-1, with some signs of form from Royal Aberdeen but it would be the ultimate oddity of Phil couldn’t get arrested in US conditions but thrived here. Better US bets would be Rickie Fowler (35-1) who would appear to have the game for links or maybe Jordan Spieth (33-1) an outstanding talent who after his Masters adventure may be ready for the next step.
Martin Kaymer (22-1) seemed to be dining out on his US Open victory in the weeks that followed, but threatens to be re-focused and dangerous. His Open record could do with some improving.
Woods? Playing four rounds would be a good result for him. Top 20 would be exceptional, and sufficient grounds for the rest to take notice as we go on through the second half of the season.
But it’s much more likely that Scott, the best player in the world at the moment, will be the man lifting the Claret Jug.