At least he didn't get turned away from the media centre.

A day after being told by a security guard that he couldn't have a hit about at Muirfield until the course officially opened, Tiger Woods marched unhindered into this vast, glorified beer tent for his pre-Open Championship natter with the assembled masses.

It's been 11 years since Muirfield last mangled Woods. An 81 on that stormy Saturday in the 2002 Open was his worst as a professional and no-one will forget it in a hurry.

"You got caught in that horrendous piece of weather," stated one inquisitor. "Really?" came the deadpan response as a relaxed Woods replied to a fine example in stating the obvious.

The chances of all hell breaking loose on the weather front this week look slim. Then again, this is Scotland. "I think in 2002 they said there was a slight chance of a shower," said Woods with a broad smile.

The forecast is set fair so far and Woods is viewing his assault on Muirfield with the same kind of considered, tactical approach that he adopted at a burnt and bouncy Hoylake in 2006. That year, Woods hit one driver all week on his way to the last of three Open Championship wins over a course that was as hard and fast as the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

"This course is playing similar to that," observed Woods after his early reconnaissance missions around Muirfield. "I've played a couple of days now and I've only hit a couple of drivers. I played with Jason Day and he said he hadn't hit a driver yet. On some of the holes, a 4-iron is going 280 yards. A 3-iron is going a little over 300. It's quick."

With all its quirks and qualities, Woods is eagerly anticipating this thinking man's test. Running balls into the greens, landing it in the right spots, making the most of those lucky bounces? This is not run of the mill target golf, this is golf in its purest sense and Woods is in his element.

"There are only certain places in the world in which we can play this," added the world No.1. "Here and maybe the Australian sandbelt, courses where we can bounce the ball up, shape shots and really be creative. Generally, everywhere around the world we play an airborne game, where you have to hit the ball straight up in the air and make it stop. Here it's different. A draw will go one distance, a fade will go another. They're so dramatic. And I just love it."

Woods has won four times on the PGA Tour this season but his well-documented major drought continues. He didn't contend in the US Open at Merion last month and his assault on the green jacket in April's Masters was shrouded in controversy when his dodgy drop on the 15th during the third round ended with a two-shot penalty instead of disqualification. It's been five years since he won the last of his 14 majors and it's certainly not getting any easier.

"I think it's just a shot here and there," he said. "It's making a key up-and-down here or getting a good bounce there. This year at Augusta I had a good shot and ended up with a bad break [he hit the flag, rebounded into the water and took the drop which led to a penalty]. It's not much. It could happen on the first day or the last day. But it's turning that tide and getting the momentum at the right time or capitalising on one opportunity. That's what you need to do."

Nobody needs to tell Woods how to win a major, of course. He still goes in to any of the big four as favourite, but even the bookies have changed their approach. Woods is still the shortest price to land the Open this week, but Ladbrokes have him at 10/1, the first time he has been given a double-figure quote this century.

Who will triumph in East Lothian is anyone's guess, but if anyone knows how to do it then it's Woods. "There's a lot of pressure in majors and you're also playing under the most difficult conditions," said Woods, who seems to have shaken off the niggling elbow injury that has plagued him since June's US Open. "Generally, you're getting close to the top 100 players in the world. You combine the strength of the field with the most difficult conditions and the most heightened pressure and you're going to get guys making mistakes. Conversely, when you have all of those conditions you get guys who play fantastically. You see guys who execute on the back nine and win and you see guys who have leads and throw it away. It goes both ways. And that's the neat thing about the majors. You just don't know until the back nine on Sunday."

Woods knows what he is doing and he believes the young man directly behind him on the world order does too. The intense scrutiny of Rory McIlroy's every golfing move is unrelenting and the questions about his high-profile switch of equipment in the wake of his most successful season continue to rain down on the Northern Irishman.

"I won my first major as a professional [the 1997 Masters by 12 shots] and then proceeded to alter my swing a bit," recalled Woods. "It took me the better part of a year and a half, maybe two years, before it really clicked. I was being questioned. How could I change something that had won the Masters by 12 shots? I've gone through that and he [McIlroy] is making some alterations. People speculate, analyse and hypothesise about what he should and shouldn't do but, deep down, he knows what he's doing."

And that was us press folk telt.