Woods Has Fared Well in These Events

ST. ANDREWS, Scotland — So far this week, it has been unseasonably warm -- it is Scotland, after all, where summer lasts a week or so -- but the forecast for the British Open calls for partly sunny and a chance of Tiger, maybe a very good chance.

He won the Open Championship in 2000, the last time it was played on the Old Course, so Tiger Woods is the safe choice this week when the 134th edition of the world’s oldest major championship begins.

And, as these things usually go, he’s chasing history as well. Coinciding with Jack Nicklaus’ last British Open, Woods is trying to join Nicklaus as the only players to win all four majors twice.

If Woods comes through this week, he will be the youngest to have accomplished the feat, beating Nicklaus by two years.

No one has won the Masters and then the British Open at St. Andrews in the same year since Nick Faldo in 1990, but that’s the job, if Woods is up to it.

To get into the mood, Woods said, he had a scoring goal in mind.

“If I shoot 72 under, I should be pretty good,” he joked.

When he won here five years ago, 19 under was pretty good, and that’s what Faldo remembers. It was Faldo’s record that Woods broke.

“He wasn’t worried about winning the British Open, he wanted to beat my 18 under,” Faldo said, adding that he too was joking, then pointing out that Woods’ play this week is no joking matter:

“I think Tiger is the favorite, obviously. He’s played, he’s won, and he comes here with a mission, as always, and his record of every event where Nicklaus is basically handing over the torch, he’s the one who wins every time. So we shall see.”

When Nicklaus played his last PGA Championship at Valhalla in 2000, Woods won. And when Nicklaus played his last U.S. Open at Pebble Beach in 2000, Woods won there too. Nicklaus also has indicated that he played his last Masters in April, and Woods won that one as well.

“I wish he’d keep retiring,” Woods said. “It’s been very good so far.”

And so has Woods, who has returned to No. 1 in the rankings as he tries for his 10th major title. He will do it over a somewhat altered Old Course, site of the Open Championship for the 27th time since 1873.

The new Old Course is 164 yards longer than when Woods beat it up five years ago, thanks to four new tees, including the extremely beefy par-five 14th. With 37 yards added, the hole is now 618 yards -- the longest on any British Open course.

Woods doesn’t sound intimidated.

“Any time you lengthen the golf course, you have to use driver more often,” he said. “But any time a longer hitter -- any golf course -- if a guy hits the ball further, he’s going to have an advantage if he’s hitting it well, even if it’s a short course.

“On shorter holes, he can maybe possibly take a run at driving to a green or two. Or other guys are hitting driver, you’re hitting a one-iron or three-wood in the fairway, which is a little easier to hit than a driver.

“So any golf course, anywhere in the world, a longer hitter is going to have a little bit of an advantage if he’s hitting it well.”

There is more than just a longer course, though. Woods has been reminded that he missed every one of the 112 bunkers on the Old Course in 2000 and that his 19 under was an Open record. There is the constant reminder that his record will be viewed in comparison to Nicklaus’.

Woods is halfway to Nicklaus’ record of 18 major titles and even if he wins Sunday, he’s not going to catch up this week.

“In order for me to ever have the opportunity to be lucky enough to have either tied or come near or past Jack, it’s going to take an entire career,” Woods said. “It’s not something that’s going to happen with a short period.

“So it’s going to take me awhile. At least I’m heading in the right direction.”

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British Tiger

Tiger Woods’ performances in his 10 appearances at the British Open:

Year; Pl.; Score; Earnings

1995; T68; 295 (+7); Amateur at St. Andrews, Scotland

1996; T22; 281 (-3); Amateur at Royal Lytham and St. Annes, England

1997; T24; 284 (E); $17,362.37 at Royal Troon, Scotland

1998; 3; 281 (+1); $222,075.00 at Royal Birkdale, England

1999; T7; 294 (+10); $78,115.00 at Carnoustie, Scotland

2000; 1; 269 (-19); $759,150.00 at St. Andrews, Scotland

2001; T25; 283 (-1); $39,338.75 at Royal Lytham and St. Annes, England

2002; T28; 284 (E); $37,924.80 at Muirfield, Scotland

2003; T4; 285 (+1); $294,076.00 at Royal St. George’s, England

2004; T9; 281 (-3); $167,597.70 at Royal Troon, Scotland

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British Open tee times

Thursday’s first-round tee times for the British Open at St. Andrews, Scotland (all times PDT; a-amateur):

10:30 p.m. (Tonight) -- Simon Dyson, Rory Sabbatini, Mark Calcavecchia

* 10:41 p.m. -- Joe Durant, Marcus Fraser, Sandy Lyle

* 10:52 p.m. -- Rich Beem, Peter Baker, a-Lloyd Saltman

* 11:03 p.m. -- Jerry Kelly, Craig Parry, a-Brian McElhinney

* 11:14 p.m. -- Retief Goosen, Todd Hamilton, Lee Westwood

* 11:25 p.m. -- Shaun Micheel, Andrew Oldcorn, Peter Hanson

* 11:36 p.m. -- Kenny Perry, Tim Clark, Brian Davis

* 11:47 p.m. -- Jack Nicklaus, Tom Watson, Luke Donald

* 11:58 p.m. -- Stewart Cink, Thomas Levet, Peter Lonard

* 12:09 a.m. -- Bart Bryant, Soren Hansen, Alastair Forsyth

* 12:20 a.m. -- Tiger Woods, Jose Maria Olazabal, Robert Allenby

* 12:31 a.m. -- Charles Howell III, Stephen Ames, Stephen Dodd

* 12:42 a.m. -- Bob Tway, Scott Drummond, Charl Schwartzel

* 12:58 a.m. -- Toru Taniguchi, Mark O’Meara, Michael Campbell

* 1:09 a.m. -- Colin Montgomerie, David Toms, Paul Lawrie

* 1:20 a.m. -- Zach Johnson, Jean-Francois Remesy, S.K. Ho

* 1:31 a.m. -- Davis Love III, Angel Cabrera, Thomas Bjorn

* 1:42 a.m. -- Tim Herron, Geoff Ogilvy, Stephen Gallacher

* 1:53 a.m. -- Adam Scott, Bernhard Langer, Scott Verplank

* 2:04 a.m. -- Chris Riley, Ignacio Garrido, a-Eric Ramsey

* 2:15 a.m. -- Patrik Sjoland, Danny Chia, Sean O’Hair

* 2:26 a.m. -- Yong-Eun Yang, Douglas McGuigan, Tino Schuster

* 2:37 a.m. -- Richard Moir, Peter Oakley, a-Oscar Floren

* 2:48 a.m. -- Wilhelm Schauman, Euan Walters, Murray Urquhart

* 2:59 a.m. -- Simon Khan, Andre Bossert, David Diaz

* 3:10 a.m. -- David Smail, Lars Brovold, Andrew Butterfield

* 3:41 a.m. -- Duffy Waldorf, Scott Hend, John Bickerton

* 3:52 a.m. -- Tim Petrovic, Robert Rock, Richard Green

* 4:03 a.m. -- Peter Lawrie, Mardan Mamat, Tom Byrum

* 4:14 a.m. -- Ted Purdy, a-Matthew Richardson, Chris Campbell

* 4:25 a.m. -- Ernie Els, Darren Clarke, Fred Funk

* 4:36 a.m. -- Nick Faldo, Chad Campbell, Rod Pampling

* 4:47 a.m. -- Joe Ogilvie, Steve Webster, Nick O’Hern

* 4:58 a.m. -- Phil Mickelson, Ian Poulter, Trevor Immelman

* 5:09 a.m. -- Tony Jacklin, Greg Norman, Paul Casey

* 5:20 a.m. -- Chris DiMarco, Nick Price, Henrik Stenson

* 5:31 a.m. -- Mike Weir, David Duval, Alex Cejka

* 5:42 a.m. -- Vijay Singh, Shigeki Maruyama, Jim Furyk

* 5:53 a.m. -- Fredrik Jacobson, Ben Curtis, Ian Woosnam

* 6:09 a.m. -- Sergio Garcia, Tom Lehman, Paul McGinley

* 6:20 a.m. -- Justin Leonard, Mark Hensby, Graeme McDowell

* 6:31 a.m. -- Tadihiro Takayama, Fred Couples, Kyoung Ju Choi

* 6:42 a.m. -- Steve Flesch, Joakim Haeggman, Hiroyuki Fujita

* 6:53 a.m. -- John Daly, Miguel Angel Jimenez, Stuart Appleby

* 7:04 a.m. -- Tom Pernice, Thongchai Jaidee, Jean Van de Velde

* 7:15 a.m. -- Kenneth Ferrie, David Frost, Brad Faxon

* 7:26 a.m. -- Pat Perez, Graeme Storm, Peter Fowler

* 7:37 a.m. -- Daniel Chopra, Bo Van Pelt, a-Robert Steele

* 7:48 a.m. -- Richard Barcelo, Sean McDonagh, Maarten Lafeber

* 7:59 a.m. -- Scott Gutschewski, Thammanoon Srirot, John Wade

* 8:10 a.m. -- Robert Coles, a-Edoardo Molinari, Nicholas Flanagan

* 8:21 a.m. -- Martin Doyle, Jason Allred, Andrew Marshall