Tiger happy to see the nice side of Carnoustie

Tiger Woods gave his rivals cause for concern by revealing that he is deeply impressed with the way Carnoustie has been set up for this week’s British Open.

Tiger Woods gave his rivals cause for concern by revealing that he is deeply impressed with the way Carnoustie has been set up for this week’s British Open.

The world number one, who will be bidding for his third successive triumph in the world’s oldest major, was undone by the ‘Carnasty’ rough when the Open was last played at the east coast venue in 1999, finishing seventh in a tournament won by Paul Lawrie. Organisers have not allowed the rough to get out of hand this time around and, after a first practice round yesterday, Woods declared the old links to be an excellent test of golf.

“It’s really nice, really fair,” Woods said. “Has it changed from the last time I was here? — you might say that!”

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Former Open winner Sandy Lyle has meanwhile backed Woods to celebrate the recent birth of his daughter Sam by winning his 13th major here.

“For someone who has not grown up on links courses, Tiger’s ability to play on them has never failed to amaze me,” said Lyle. “His course management is so good. He generally comes over earlier and plays the Irish courses like Tom Watson used to do and he adapts very quickly to links and his record proves that. “When you get someone like a Tiger or a Tom Watson, when he was playing well, they just seem to perform so well when they play in the Open Championship, even though they play on a different course every year.”

Lyle added to Woods’s praise for the course. “The course is very good, playing very fair and everything that was said about the course eight years ago has been taken to heart and it has been sorted out. It is long in places and there is a run on the fairways but the greens are very good.

“It will be a test but it is an open competition and the course could suit a number of players. It brings a lot more players in to the game rather than it being so tight that you are down to a handful of potential winners. The wind will be a factor but there will be a lot of big hitters out here who hit the ball a million miles with no nerves so we will see. But in general, course conditions are as good as you can get.”