THE OPEN: Tiger warns his critics, and Spieth

BY BRENDAN JAMES IN ST ANDREWS

Tiger Woods is not the headline act in St Andrews this week. Despite winning The Open on the Old Course twice as part of his 14-major resume, the now World No. 226 is barely mentioned in dispatches as a chance to add to that major haul this week.

Instead, the buzz around St Andrews is all about Jordan … Jordan Spieth that is – the 21-year-old who heads into The Open Championship as the holder of the first two major championships of the year. If he wins this week, he'll be the first golfer ever to play the PGA Championship next month with a chance to complete the single-season Grand Slam.

Tiger Woods pours out some balls on the range before another long practice session. PHOTO: Andrew Redington/Getty Images.

Spieth has now played the Old Course a grand total of twice, all in the past two days. He opted not to fly to Scotland early and learn the nuances of the course but preferred to stay home and played the layout on a $50,000 indoor simulator. He then teed it up in the John Deere Classic last weekend and won.

Woods was the last player to achieve the rare feat of winning the first two majors of the year, back in 2002, and he warned Spieth to develop a game plan and stick with it this week. He also doubts he could have learned much playing the course on a simulator.

“It's about understanding how to play the golf course under various winds,” Woods said. “You can see the golf course on a simulator and it's fantastic. I've seen it.

“But playing in the different winds and having to hit the different shots, shaping shots completely differently from one day to the next on the same hole, it does help seeing the golf course under different winds.

Woods says his ball-striking is better than at any time during the past two years. PHOTO: Streeter Lecka/Getty Images.

“Over the years, this is my fifth Open here, and I've seen a lot of different winds.”

Woods is an unabashed fan of the Old Course and when he was World No.1 he tore up the old dame, leaving the field in his wake in the 2000 Open when he won by eight shots and then by five strokes in 2005.

Given the intricacies of playing this course, Woods believes experience counts for more than form this week.

“I think experience counts a lot with the varied wind conditions. I think that's where experience comes into play,” he said.

“You have to hit the ball well. You have to really lag putt well here. But if you haven't seen the golf course in various winds, bunkers that you don't even see on the yardage book because you're not playing it, you don't see it with that wind, all of a sudden become apparent.

“That's one of the things I've noticed over the years that I've played here is that it does help playing practice rounds with, for me, some of the older players and getting their experience at how do you hit shots, where do you play here.

“Sometimes you've got to play into adjacent fairways. That's not something you try and do on purpose back in the States. I've hit shots in adjacent fairways but never on purpose, but here, it does work to your advantage at times because then that will actually give you the best angle. It's also sometimes the shortest route to carry bunkers or mounds or rough.”

Heading into tomorrow’s start of the 144th Open Championship, Woods knows there is uncertainty and criticism about his form. He hasn’t won for two years and his last top-10 finish was way back in August 2013. And there are those three rounds in the 80s in recent times. Despite all this, Woods is buoyant about his chances this week, especially after finishing tied for 32^nd at the Greenbrier Classic a few weeks ago.

"I knew it was coming," Woods said of Greenbrier where he completed his tournament with a 67. "The last round there, that was probably the best I've hit it in two years. The scores I shot at the Memorial (85) and the US Open (80), I just didn't have quite the feel yet. I shifted the balance so much in the swing I just didn't quite have the feel yet. I put it together at Greenbrier and I hit it really good.

Tiger says all parts of his game, including his putting, is starting to come around. PHOTO: Stuart Franklin/Getty Images.

"I feel like everything's coming around."

Blisters on one finger of each hand are testament to the work he has been putting in on the eve of this Open.

“I'm playing better. I'm hitting the ball much, much more solid. I'm controlling my flights,” Woods said.

“Coming in here, being able to shape the golf ball not only both ways but also changed my trajectories, as well, and being very comfortable changing my trajectories. That's something that I feel you have to do here on this golf course. You have to be able to manoeuvre the golf ball because there's a big difference of hitting the ball low with a draw and hitting the ball low with a cut.

“Sometimes it can be 30 to 50 yards' difference in how the ball reacts on the ground, and to be able to understand that and to be able to control that, I think that's very important.”

After a wet few weeks, the Old Course is much softer and greener than it was back in 2010. The softness of the course shocked Woods because, he said, it was dry, hard and running fast last month.

"I'm going to have to do a little bit of feel around the greens with my putting. I wasn't expecting the course to be that soft," said Woods, who added he's made ball marks on the greens here for the first time. “This Open is going to be different.”

And as for his ability to add to his 14 major titles with a fourth Open Championship, Woods fired another warning to his critics.

“I'm still young. I'm not 40 yet,” he said. “I know some of you guys think I'm buried and done, but I'm still right here in front of you. Yeah, I love playing. I love competing, and I love playing these events.”

And he also loves the Old Course.

“You have to put the ball on certain sides of the fairways in order to get the ball close. To me that type of thinking and the strategy that goes into that is something I've always loved,” Woods said. “Yeah, you can run the ball up here on a lot of the holes. It won't really be doing that this week because it's a little bit softer, but still, you have that option. But a five-degree wind change here changes the whole golf course completely. I've always found that very fascinating.

"(And) it's the Home of Golf. It's history. And just to go out there and see all the different shots you can play is great. It's always special here.”