ST ANDREW’S and the Open Championship. It certainly has a very special ring to it.

TOM WATSON could spend the rest of his life going on trips down memory lane.

IT says everything about how strong European golf is going into this week’s British Open Championship that Paul Casey, the world number 10, talks of not wanting to be left behind.

IT IS hard to imagine a player cracking a joke after finishing third, third and second in his last three majors but Lee Westwood managed it on Sunday night.

The European Tour would have been no place for Tom Watson this week – the SAS Masters in Sweden is being played on the longest course in the circuit’s history.

THE debate raged on in Turnberry bars and in national phone-ins long after Tom Watson had fled the scene of his flirtation with history.

Padraig Harrington’s bid to make history may effectively be over but Tom Watson’s remarkable attempt to become the oldest ever winner of a major championship continued unabated at Turnberry today.

FIVE of the seven Irish starters have qualified for the final 36 holes of the Open Championship at Turnberry. They are led on one over par by Graeme McDowell followed by Darren Clarke and Paul McGinley, both two over, and Pádraig Harrington and Rory McIlory, three over.

IT may be 32 years since his epic ‘duel in the sun’ with Jack Nicklaus and 26 years since he won his most recent Open Championship but Tom Watson is proving his pre-tournament belief he has a puncher’s chance at Turnberry this week.

Turnberry turned from a pussycat into a beast today - but while Tiger Woods became its biggest victim, Tom Watson continued magically on his merry way.

Little-known American Steve Marino today set the early clubhouse target in the second round of the Open as a previously defenceless Turnberry exacted a measure of revenge on the world’s best players.

Miguel Angel Jimenez’s overnight lead did not last long today as a previously defenceless Turnberry exacted a measure of revenge on day two of the 138th Open Championship.

A NUMBER of the world’s finest fell foul of Turnberry’s treacherous 16th hole yesterday. The 455 yards par 4 is fronted by the menacing Wilson Burn and even if the player clears it, anything but a perfect approach almost invariably rolls back into the hazard.

THE ‘Duel in the Sun’, the amazing head-to-head in 1987 between Tom Watson and Jack Nicklaus, underwent an unofficial and jovial reenactment late on Sunday night, but nobody is admitting who won this time around.

Miguel Angel Jimenez equalled the lowest first round in Open Championship history with a six under par 64 today – but Tom Watson was still the talk of Turnberry.

IF Tiger Woods gets his putter working and manages to keep his golf ball in play for a reasonable amount of the time over the next four days, there can be no doubt as to who will be holding the claret jug on Sunday evening.

“THERE are many people thinking that because I’ve played a lot of links golf that this is going to suit me but there are also a lot of guys who have played more Open Championships”.

IT was an inquiry regarding an Open Championship long ago, the 1999 debacle at Carnoustie. Wasn’t it Davis Love who said something to the effect that championship officials got the winner they deserved, meaning that a tricked-up course couldn’t help but produce a winner (Paul Lawrie) deemed as undeserving?

Colin Montgomerie will tomorrow make his 20th, and possibly final, attempt to win the Open Championship with his hopes having already suffered a potentially fatal blow.

A year after Greg Norman contended for The Open at the age of 53, Tiger Woods was asked today if he saw himself doing the same.

Defending champion Padraig Harrington today admitted he would love the Open Championship to be “pushed back” a few weeks as he struggles to recapture the form which brought him three Major championships.

THE bookmakers rate him 1,000/1 and even his most ardent supporters in Kerry and Cork could hardly quibble with that. But David Higgins is quietly confident that he can make an impression in this week’s Open Championship, his self-belief soaring last night after he had completed his first full practice round over the Turnberry links.

TIGER WOODS has been out on the Turnberry links for the last two mornings while the vast majority of us were still fast asleep.

GRAEME McDOWELL has come up with a novel way of preparing for the start of the 138th Open Championship.

Tiger Woods had completed his second practice round for The Open by just after 10am today – and described Turnberry as “a lot more difficult than people are letting on.”

WHILE deriving a degree of satisfaction from winning the Irish Professional Championship for the sixth time and the third year in a row, at the European Club on Saturday, Pádraig Harrington admitted that he’s “still clutching at straws” with regard to getting his game into shape for a successful defence of the Open Championship at Turnberry this week.

PÁDRAIG HARRINGTON carries a four stroke lead into today’s final round of the Ladbrokes.com Irish Professional Championship at the European Club but to listen him talk after yesterday’s two over par round of 73, he is still some distance from finding the form that will enable him to complete a hat-trick of Open Championship victories at Turnberry next week.

Not since Australian Peter Thomson in 1956 has any player completed a hat-trick of wins in the Open Championship. But Pádraig Harrington hasn’t dismissed the possibility of joining golf’s immortals next week. Charlie Mulqueen reports.

PÁDRAIG HARRINGTON remains very much on course to complete a hat-trick of victories in the Ladbrokes.com Irish Professional Championship at the European Club but there is still no reassurance his game has returned to what it needs to be to make him a contender in next week’s Open Championship at Turnberry.

Turnberry is shaping up to be a brute of a test at next week’s Open Championship, according to early player reports.

GRAEME McDOWELL is in no doubt a successful defence of his Barclays Scottish Open title at Loch Lomond this week will hurt his chances for the Open at Turnberry.

A MASSIVE improvement in his short game had Pádraig Harrington in a far more positive frame of mind after yesterday’s opening round of the Ladbrokes.com Irish PGA Championship at the European Club.

Ernie Els has had enough of “floating around” and wants to become a big player on the big stage again.

A SPECTACULAR eagle two at the ninth proved crucial as Waterville’s David Higgins yesterday made it through to next week’s Open Championship at Turnberry with a splendid performance over the Glasgow Gailes links in the final local qualifying round.

AN event that’s hardly on the professional golf radar this week offers Pádraig Harrington his last chance of redemption before heading for Turnberry in search of a third successive British Open Championship.

As bleak as it looks after five successive missed cuts Padraig Harrington is not ready yet to rule out completing a hat-trick of Open titles in 15 days’ time.

Tiger Woods welcomes the PGA Tour to his AT&T National tournament at Congressional Country Club near Washington DC tomorrow looking to be the worst host possible.

Padraig Harrington admitted today he is in a race against time to have his game in good enough shape to win a third successive Open title.

PÁDRAIG HARRINGTON has just over a fortnight before he defends his British Open title but the struggling triple Major winner declared there is no turning back from the changes he is introducing into his game.

THIS time three years ago, Pádraig Harrington broke with precedent and entered for the French Open in Paris.

ENGLAND’S Nick Dougherty, who this time last year had little desire to play golf, finally returned to winning ways in Munich yesterday – and with it earned a place in next month’s Open.

England’s Nick Dougherty, who this time last year had little desire to play golf, finally returned to winning ways in Munich today – and with it earned a place in next month’s Open.

Paul Broadhurst does not expect Tiger Woods or anybody else to remove his name from the record books at next month’s Open Championship.

Greg Norman vowed to keep his expectations “realistically low” despite a first-round 70 in the Open Championship at Royal Birkdale.