The Open: Tiger Woods good to go

July 16, 2013. Tiger Woods made light of being prevented from making his usual early start to his Open Championship preparations at Muirfield.

The World Number One’s tendency has been to start his practice rounds almost as soon as the sun, but yesterday he had to follow the rules which state that the course is not open until 7am after attempting to tee off 10 minutes earlier.

“I like getting up early, especially over here where the sun comes up at four or five in the morning,” Woods said. “It’s hard to sleep in.

[highlight] Woods has not played since the US Open Championship at Merion last month, where he exacerbated an elbow injury first suffered during his victory in the Players Championship at Sawgrass in May. [/highlight]

“Peter (Dawson, chief executive of the R&A) was explaining that he is having the groundstaff cutting it (the course) from 1-18 to get used to it for the championship and that’s why he wants us off the first tee at seven. I totally understand it.”

Woods has not played since the US Open Championship at Merion last month, where he exacerbated an elbow injury first suffered during his victory in the Players Championship at Sawgrass in May.

But asked if yesterday’s incident had disrupted his preparation, the 37 year old added: “I was always just going to play nine holes each day. That was the plan, not to push it in the amount of holes, especially on this hard ground.

“I have been playing a lot at home but it’s Florida, it rains every day and the ground is soft. Here it’s totally different conditions.