In heading out onto the links this week, Matt Kuchar believes those lining up at the Scottish Open are preparing for the year's biggest event in the same way as their tennis counterparts play in grass court tournaments to adjust from the clay-court season ahead of Wimbledon.

The 37-year-old American's track record in the Open Championship is far from impressive, having claimed just one top-10 finish - a tie for ninth at Lytham three years ago - and also having missed the cut more often than he has made it, but having been a regular at the Scottish Open for several years he sees the event as perfect preparation for the big one.

"The great thing is it's both," he said, when asked whether his main motivation this week is to hone his competitive edge or gain links experience.

"You're here, you acclimatise to the time, the weather, the golf: it's like a great tune up.

"I played Loch Lomond a number of times and I love it, but I think what they have done with moving it to links golf is such a better formula to have players prepare to go to the British Open.

"It's similar to the way we always talk about Wimbledon. You don't play a clay-court tournament the week before Wimbledon, you get to Queen's and play the grass court there. I think coming over and doing a links Scottish Open is great."

The impact on the psyche of this tournament clashing with Wimbledon for the first time was also apparent when Kuchar was, inevitably, asked whether the absence through injury of world No.1 Rory McIlroy this week would have any impact on the field.

"We are not playing tennis, we are playing golf. It's not like Djokovic is now out of the draw and now everybody can breathe easy," he said, making another tennis analogy.

"You've got a golf course here in Gullane that everybody plays against. You've got 130 to 140 players to compete against. If you're worried about one guy you're probably not going to be here very long."

Regardless of his past record on links courses Kuchar expressed delight at being back in Gullane, to which he has been a regular visitor since his junior days.

"It's good to be back," he said. "We were here at Muirfield just down the road a couple of years ago. This area is great. I've got a lot of good friends here and I'm going to visit some of them for dinner tonight.

"I enjoy the golf, I enjoy the people. This area in particular has got some fantastic golf. I'm looking forward to a great week."

He also suggested that his form is of a different level to that on any previous visit.

"I'm quite excited, maybe as excited as I've ever been. I feel as if my game is in very good shape, so I'm looking forward to playing," he said.

"I played well at the US Open, felt like I was doing a lot of good things. I then had two weeks and it was hard not to play because I knew I was on good form, so I'm excited to be here still on good form.

"There's a big part of the schedule still left for me, starting through the British Open and then it's just kind of one big tournament after the next starting from this week."