Off the Fairway: Graham Spiers' Open Blog - Thursday

It had been a chaotic round on a baked golf course by the world no.1 - including hitting a provisional off the first tee and later putting clean off a green - but Woods prevailed as only he can.

"It was tough - the golf course got more dried out and more difficult as the day went on," said Woods. "I'd have been pleased shooting anything even-par or better.

"On the greens it was so hard to get the ball close - even for a lag-putt it was difficult to get the right speed.

"It was so difficult. I putted a ball right off a green today and it really wasn't that bad a putt. Sometimes, anything four feet by and the putt was gone. The greens were so fast and so dry."

There were quite a few whingeing golfers today - many of them rebuked by Mark O'Meara, who is also among the early leaders, who pointed out that he had played in far worse conditions in an Open Championship.

Graeme McDowell, who played with Woods and shot a 75, described the greens as "glassy".

"They were fair, but so glassy and crispy around the hole," said the Northern Irishman. "They got so shiny. I couldn't single out a pin that was unfair, but if you got on the wrong side of them they could make you look very, very silly."

The views among the players were mixed about the fairness or otherwise of the Muirfield pin positions. Principal among the dissenters were Ian Poulter and Phil Mickelson - both made barbed comments.

Yet Rory McIlroy, despite shooting an eight-over 79, refused to join in the slagging.

Muirfield has turned brown and parched in this unlikely Scottish heat, and players repeatedly watched putts from six feet or less drift wide of holes where subtle slopes brought their undoing.

Poulter, who shot a one-over 72, said on Twitter: "The guys will struggle with some of these pin positions. The 8th hole is a joke, and the 18th needs a windmill and a clown's face."

Mickelson, who three-putted 18, hinted that the championship committee needed to "let go of [its] ego" in the way it had planned certain pin placements.

"It was very difficult," said Mickelson. "On some greens the ball won't stop until it collects on a little level maybe eight feet away.

"I tried to lag my putt on 17 but it still went six, seven feet by. And the 8th is probably the worst."

Other players, however, demurred from attacking the pin placements. Such as O'Meara, the 1998 Open champion who is now aged 56, who shot a 67.

"Listen, I've heard a lot of those comments today - I just didn't see it myself," said O'Meara. "I didn't see it as being unfair out there. Tough, yes. Unfair, no.

"I've seen it worse in an Open. I've played in 27, maybe 28 Opens. I've seen the most horrendous conditions you could imagine: wind, rain, sleet, when you could hardly hold your driver on the tee.

"Yes, the course today is firm and dry, and the greens got pretty quick. But I didn't see it being unfair."

Zack Johnson, who was the clubhouse leader in the late evening after shooting a 66, said similar to O'Meara.

"It's getting a little dicey on some of those pins," he said. "A couple of the pins were pretty tough, very tricky.

"But this game demands resilience. It demands resilience on the golf course, each round, on each hole. The greens were playable. They were what you'd expect of a major."

A RORY LAMENT...

In two or three years' time, when Rory McIlroy perhaps has a clutch of further wins in golf behind him, we might look back to 2013 and realise it was all a false alarm.

In the here and now, though, things don't look good for McIlroy. And this afternoon at Muirfield put the tin-lid firmly on that.

McIlroy shot a disastrous first-round 79, eight over par, to severely harm his chances of making the cut. At a stroke he ended his chances of winning a third major, and set tongues wagging again about the demise of his game.

McIlroy is weary of the questions being put to him but his current record is woeful for a player of his talent. He finished tied-25th at the Masters and tied-41st at the US Open on top of recent missed cuts at the BMW PGA Championship and the Irish Open.

He is at a loss, so he said today, to explain his 2013 slump. In the background, though, is his controversial change of equipment earlier this year, as well as months of legal wrangling behind the scenes.

"I made some silly mental errors in places like four and five, and then I made another stupid mental error on 11," McIlroy said after his round today. "It just all got away from me.

"I wish I could stand here and tell you what's wrong, or what I need to do to make it right. I feel like I've got the shots…it's just a question of being able to go through the thought processes."

Pre-empting any questions about the equipment issue, McIlroy put an added emphasis on concentration and other mental factors as the chief culprits.

"I'm not sure what I can you," he said. "You've just got to try to play your way out of it. It's nothing to do with…it's all mental out there. I just need to concentrate better. Sometimes I feel like I'm walking out there unconscious: I just need to think a little more. It's hard for me right now to fathom it.

"I want to be here for the weekend. So now I need to go out there and try to make a few birdies. What you need to do is go through your swing-thought and make that your primary focus. That's what I'm trying to do."

He remains a very likeable guy, McIlroy. But he is struggling.

ZACH, IGNORING EVERYONE, USES DRIVER AND LEADS…

Many of the top pros have been telling us they won't be using their driver at Muirfeld this week - so someone better tell Zach Johnson, a clubhouse leader at 5 under par, who is.

Johnson, after a scintillating 66 put him in the lead today, claimed that half his battle had been in successfully swinging his driver - flying in the face of many pieces of advice about "course management" at Muirfield.

Johnson used his driver at six holes - the 1st, 5th, 9th, 10th, 15th and 18th - which was about as much as anyone out there.

"I feel like I'm playing great, I'm confident in what I'm doing," said Johnson. "I feel like I'm driving the ball as good now as I was in parts of last year. I'm very comfortable standing on these tees, specifically with my driver.

"I know a lot of the guys are saying they're not using their drivers. But it's one of my best clubs, so I'm going to take advantage of that when I can.

"The one I hit on 18 was the best. I took out the right bunker hitting it up there - the left ones were in play - but I hit a good one. So hopefully I can continue with my driver form."

REMEMBER THIS GUY?

You might remember the name…Todd Hamilton anyone?

The 2004 Open winner at Troon has become famous in golf, not for actually winning The Open, but for promptly fading into swift obscurity thereafter.

But Hamilton suddenly re-emerged yesterday, shooting an opening round 69 at Muirfield to be placed among the early pace-setters.

Hamilton's last win in golf was at Troon nine years ago - that is how bad things have been for him. For years since he has walked off a golf course after a round with scarcely a reporter or spectator batting an eyelid in his direction.

Asked what he made of his last nine years, Hamilton replied: "Terrible…I try not to reflect on it. It has been very trying.

"I definitely thought my golf career might be better than it has been. That said, I've done a lot of things overseas, at places where people might not even know golf exists. I played a lot in Japan, in Asia. When I won The Open in 2004 I was 38, I was close to the end of a decent career. I just didn't do it on the European Tour or the US Tour."

Asked if he was recognised here in Scotland, as a former Open champion, Hamilton offered a fairly dubious testimony of his fame.

"It's funny…I think I get recognised more over here than I do in my own country," he said. "I had dinner the other night and I could hear that the owner knew who I was. The guy looked at me and said, 'you play golf, don't you?' I said 'yes' but he couldn't think of my name. When I told him, he came over and wiped our table."

For a few hours yesterday - as fleeting as it will prove to be - Todd Hamilton's name was back on an Open leaderboard.

PS...

Rory McIlroy currently having a nightmare...4-over through 13 holes.

The amazing Miguel Angel Jimenez just goes on and on.

This remorseless, grinding Spaniard, known unflatteringly as "The Mechanic", claimed the early lead in The Open this morning, scoring five birdies to go to 5-under-par for his opening front nine.

Strange case, "The Mechanic". Jimenez has rarely been a gallery favourite. He speaks a meagre, disgruntled form of English, despite having been travelling on the European Tour for over 20 years.

Yet this guy's talent and natural ability in golf are beyond dispute.

Twenty one years ago now Jimenez finished tied-3rd in The Open here at Muirfield. Last year he finished tied-9th at Royal Lytham. So these are conditions in links golf he clearly relishes.

It would be pretty remarkable if this weekend, at 49, Jimenez could keep this up all the way through to Sunday. But once more this unsung Spaniard hogs at an early headline at The Open.

FANCY A PINT, BRANDT?

Add to which, at precisely 10.45am through five holes, the American Brandt Snedeker was tidily placed tied-2nd on 2-under. A few sups in North Berwick's Auld Hoose pub last night clearly seems to have set Snedeker up for the day.

Quite a few of The Open's 156 players were out enjoying a pint and the local scenery last night. In fact, Snedeker, good on him, brought out a wad of notes from his pocket - sterling, funny money to him - and bought a round.

More on The Auld Hoose in a bit…

JUDGE A POLITICIAN BY HIS GOLF…

I attracted some minor flak yesterday for writing about Alex Salmond in this space. It's not my intention here to labour the point. I don't mind Scotland's First Minister, in fact, I quite like him. Moreover, Salmond loves his golf - no bad thing.

But I was reminded of a point made a number of years ago about politicians and golf, which is this…if you want to judge the merit and honesty of a man, watch him on a golf course.

Which brings me to Richard 'Tricky Dicky' Nixon. The 37th President of the United States loved golf - he called it "my lifesaver" after the Watergate scandal. But Nixon, some felt, revealed his true self on a golf course.

One playing partner reported Nixon disappearing over a hill to fetch his wayward ball and, wandering over to see if he was okay, watched the President quietly nudging his ball onto a nicer lie, thinking no-one could see him.

Then in "Presidential Lies: The Illustrated History of White House Golf" the writers Shepherd Campbell and Peter Landau re-told a Sam Snead story about playing with Nixon.

"He [Nixon] had landed in some really bad rough," Snead said. "No-one could get out of there unless they had a bazooka. I watched him disappear into this thicket thinking he'd drop another ball and take his loss, but, hell no, out comes his ball flyin' onto the fairway. Nixon then comes out of the woods looking real pleased with himself. I knew he'd thrown it out but what could I say? He was the President."

MORE FROM THE AULD HOOSE…

Back here for an Open at Muirfield after 11 years, I have a very vivid memory of 2002, Ernie Els's win, and The Auld Hoose pub in North Berwick.

Into that pub every night that year - my local, as it happened - sauntered the Australian golfer, Steve Elkington. 'The Elk' each night resembled Bovver Boy's Dad out of the old Dick Emery Show - he was clad in tight-fitting denim trousers and jacket, and greatly enjoyed slaking his thirst in the Auld Hoose.

Blow me, as that 2002 Open unfolded, The Elk gamely hung in there, shooting low scores by day and supping by night, until by the Sunday evening he was locked in a four-way play-off for the title with Ernie Els, Thomas Levet and Stuart Appleby.

The sun was hot that final Sunday at Muirfield, and Elkington's face by then was a very vivid purple, given the recreational strains of his previous five days.

With Appleby and Levet, he eventually fell by the wayside in the play-off, leaving Els to win. But the maxim remains true: if you want to do well in an Open at Muirfield you can do worse than prepare nightly in The Auld Hoose.