Open for business - the leading contenders at St Andrews?
We've looked at the British contenders elsewhere, but outside of the home players, who else is lining up to impress at St Andrews?
Tiger Woods' first win at St Andrews in 2000 was a masterclass in links golf play that saw the rest of the field shrink away into insignificance as Woods won by eight strokes. Five years later he repeated the trick, if not the score, comfortably beating nearest challenger Colin Montgomerie by five strokes. But this time?
Before the car crash that sent his life spiralling into chaos last November, Woods must have looked the outstanding candidate to pick up his third win at St Andrews this year. Indeed, such is Woods' cachet that the world No. 1 remains favourite according to the markets, despite play this year that has ranged from the intermittently impressive to the occasionally abject.
Only at this year's majors has the old Tiger really shown himself, and then in fits and starts, with Woods finishing fourth at both the Masters and the US Open. It's almost certainly the case that winning golf tournaments is not the overriding concern in the 34-year-old's life right now. Nonetheless, Woods still yearns to break Jack Nicklaus' record of 18 major wins, and he knows that every opportunity to do so must be seized.
Expect Woods to pour every ounce of his considerable willpower into producing a good finish here. If he can consistently reproduce the form of his third round at Pebble Beach last month, the Californian is capable of bagging his first victory of 2010 at St Andrews.
Phil Mickelson is gearing up for his second major win of the year, having triumphed at the Masters in barnstorming style at Augusta. Mickelson also finished tied for fourth at the US Open - yet at times his general game has been almost as erratic as Woods this year. The current world No. 2 started the year in anonymous form, just as he was being given top billing, thanks to the absence of the PGA Tour's star attraction.
Mickelson made a nonsense of his earlier, indifferent form when he played out of his skin to win the Masters in April, but the 40-year-old has long been enamoured with Augusta's lush, pristine fairways. St Andrews' unruly surfaces are a whole other proposition; last time Mickelson played here, he finished in a tie for 60th place in 2005.
Five years before that he finished tied for 11th place, which might suggest Mickelson 's Open game is going backwards. Mickelson does have a third place finish at this tournament, if not this course, but even that rare note of good cheer dates back to 2004. Otherwise, the Californian has a bemusingly poor track record at the Open, and there seems little reason to expect that to change this week.
Ernie Els has bounced back from a tough year, having failed to win a tournament in 2009 - he won twice in successive tournaments, at the WGC-CA Championship and then again two weeks later at the Arnold Palmer Invitational.
Els seems to be in decent form at the moment, finishing third at the US Open, where he could have challenged for victory had his game not temporarily deserted him during the final round. A previous Open winner in 2002 at Muirfield, Els was also second behind Tiger Woods at the 2000 Open at St Andrews (eight strokes behind Woods, but still).
A note of caution, however; last time Els played the Open here he fared less well, tying for 34th place. The three-time major winner would be a popular victor, and he's playing well, but outright success may be too much to ask of the South African.
Padraig Harrington has four top-10 finishes on the PGA Tour already this year, having tied for fifth place during his most recent outing at the Travelers Championship. Harrington's form at the majors hasn't been outstanding of late, missing the cut at the Masters and tying for 22nd place at the US Open, but two of his three major wins have come at the Open.
Harrington's record at St Andrews is unremarkable at the Open; he tied for 20th place at the course 10 years ago, and missed out on the tournament in 2005 because of the death of his father. But having won at the Old Course during the Dunhill Links Championship, Harrington is clearly proficient at links golf, having the Open at Carnoustie and Royal Birkdale. The amiable Irishman's legion of fans may feel it's high time the 38-year-old added to his haul of majors, and we can certainly see Harrington going close.
Steve Stricker is off the radar of many UK golf fans, having found most of his success on the PGA Tour. But the world No. 4 won his second tournament of the season last week, taking the John Deere Classic in gung-ho style, Sunday's unexceptional round aside, which suggests he's in the right form to tangle with the Old Course's foibles.
That victory could be a little misleading, though - his form prior to the John Deere has not been great, suggesting the 43-year-old may be at his best when he doesn't feel overly threatened by the rest of the field, with many of the PGA Tour's bigger stars otherwise engaged in Scotland for the Scottish Open last week.
Stricker's record at St Andrews is both limited and unimpressive, the American missing the cut 10 years ago and not taking part in 2005. But he does have a couple of top 10-finishes at the Open Championship, coming eighth at Carnoustie in 2007 and going one better at Birkdale a year later, tying for seventh place in '08. Stricker's performances thus far at the majors in 2010 don't offer much encouragement though, a tie for 30th place at the Masters followed by a 58th spot at the US Open.
Tom Watson is hardly a favourite, but there will be some who fancy him here after last year's heroics. The 60-year-old has had an illustrious career, but for all those innumerable highlights it's his play-off heartbreak against Stewart Cink at Turnberry in 2009 that looms largest right now.
Watson's chances of putting in another strong challenge at St Andrew's probably owe more to romance than reality, but certainly the older guard will be cheering him on - while hoping the pesky Cink doesn't sully another Indian Summer for the eight-time major winner. Such a development seems unlikely, given that the 37-year-old from Alabama is a solid but hardly outstanding player whose form has been unremarkable this year.
With his best finish at a major being his underwhelming tie for 40th place at last month's US Open, Cink scarcely looks liable to repeat last year's feat. Watson might have trouble recreating last year's magic, but we won't be wholly surprised if he can engineer a better finish than last year's victor supplies in the next few days.
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