Open Champion, Mark Calcavecchia, all parred the 354-yards opening hole at Scotland's Turnberry links as benign conditions greeted today's early starters. Tiger Woods will again be the spotlight of attention but will have to share the media focus with his teenage Japanese playing partner Ryo Ishikawa, who is playing his first Open Championship, when he tees off at 9.09am. British interest will centre around Lee Westwood, who plays with Woods and Ishikawa, and world No 3 Paul Casey, who had his best Open finish last year at Royal Birkdale. Woods, predictably, is the bookies' favourite to win the Open after missing last year's event through injury where, in his absence, Padraig Harrington successfully defended his title. Over the next four days Harrington will attempt to put a difficult season behind him by becoming the first man since Peter Thomson in 1956 to win three successive Opens. Harrington plays with two former US Open champions, Jim Furyk and the Australian Geoff Ogilvy, teeing off this afternoon at 2.20pm.
In total, there are 39 Britons in the field, among them three golfers from Northern Ireland, including Rory McIlroy, who in his first year of Major tournament golf has recorded finishes of 20th at the Masters and 10th at the US Open, who begins his round at 1.31pm alongside Anthony Kim. "There's no point in trying to rush into things. I sort of say that to myself sometimes, but there's also a part of me that says, well, you know you've got the game to do well here. I think it's a balance between having the right expectations and then obviously going and trying to fulfil those."
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