World stars happy to be in Troon

There will be the usual moans and groans, of course.

But heading into the 133rd British Open championship – and the eighth to be staged at Royal Troon – most of the world’s top golfers appear to have put on their “Mr Happy” faces.

Tiger Woods is not angry with ex-coach Butch Harmon any more and, despite all the continuing talk about the state of his game, has been seen laughing and joking during his practice rounds. If you have been up early enough to see them, that is.

Colin Montgomerie is delighted to be paired with Thomas Bjorn and Bjorn delighted to be paired with Montgomerie. Their spats are behind them, they both declare.

Paul Lawrie, Europe’s last winner of a major, is not wanting to have a row either with his playing partner Davis Love, who after the Scot’s win in 1999 said “Carnoustie got the champion it deserved”.

Defending champion Ben Curtis, meanwhile, has described his entire reign as one long “fun” experience, even though he has not won anywhere since and has come to Scotland probably at longer odds – as much as 150-1 – than any holder of a major title in betting history.

His profile is such that the British Open media guide’s section on the records of “world ranking top 12, plus other selected players” does not bother to include him.

Bizarrely, the only man who has had a real gripe about anything in the countdown to the championship has been normally the most laid-back of them all, 2002 winner Ernie Els.

But that had everything to do with last month’s US Open and nothing to do with the British Open.

It is the fact that these sporting heroes are at Troon and not Shinnecock Hills – or indeed Royal St George’s – that has put them in smiling mood.

There might have been a mutiny, a walk-out or a sit-down protest if there had been any repeat of last year’s quirkiness at Sandwich or last month’s nonsense on New York’s Long Island, when parts of the course were allowed to become so farcical on the final day that 28 out of the 66 players – Els included – failed to break 80.

In short, they like what is out there. Tough but fair holes and weather - wind and rain, but not extremes of either yet - that should bring the cream rising to the top.

Here comes the warning, though. When the British Open was last on this stretch of Ayrshire coastline in 1997, the opening day saw 26 players fail to break 80.

And one of them, shot-to-pieces 1991 champion Ian Baker-Finch, needed 92 strokes to get round.

Not surprisingly, the Australian, his game gone and yet to return, did not come back the next day.

David Duval, winner just three years ago, is the one who will be tracked tomorrow to discover if the same might happen to him.

Duval has crashed to 490th in the world – 94 places lower than Curtis was when he triumphed in the very first major he played in – and at the US Open, his first event for seven months, shot 83 and 82 and was delighted.

Now he returns to the event in which he scored 83 and 78 last summer. His Lytham performance must seem a lifetime ago.

Shortly afterwards, Els sets off in the company of England’s Luke Donald and the player who won at Troon last time, American Justin Leonard.

But it is only once they start to tackle a back nine as demanding as any in golf that the great will start to be separated from the good.

Els has already done what nobody has done since Woods’ first major win at the 1997 Masters – replace him as favourite in the eyes of some bookmakers. He can also replace him as world number one if he wins and Woods is outside the top 17.

Second at this year’s Masters to Phil Mickelson and then in contention at Shinnecock until it got silly, Els knows a golden opportunity has presented itself on the course where he made his British Open debut as a 19-year-old amateur 15 years ago.

Mickelson’s one-two in the first two majors of the season are off-set by the fact that he has never had a top 10 finish in the British Open, while the player who got the better of him last month, Retief Goosen, won again at the European Open two weeks ago and surely has to cool off soon.

That happens in golf and it has happened recently to Vijay Singh, who only two months ago was the one looking likely to topple Woods from the number one spot.

Dubliner Padraig Harrington, Europe’s leading player in the rankings for the best part of two years now, and Sergio Garcia, the only other one in the top 10, appear to offer the best hope of ending the barren spell in the majors stretching all the way back to Lawrie.

Harrington has been having treatment on his neck, but a bigger concern is probably that his career contains 23 second places against “only” nine wins.

The last five Troon Opens have all been won by Americans, Leonard being preceded by Mark Calcavecchia, Tom Watson, Tom Weiskopf and Arnold Palmer.

But Darren Clarke did lead by four on the third day last time and Jesper Parnevik – not present this week – did lead with a round to go. They ended up joint-second.

Garcia’s two US Tour wins this season have underlined he has the talent, but he admits he could still be a bit rusty for what is his first tournament since the US Open.

Montgomerie is anything but that, having played the last three weeks plus the British Open qualifier at Sunningdale.

Can the 41-year-old become inspired on the course where he played as a teenager and where his father was secretary?

If his entertaining speech to an Association of Golf Writers’ annual dinner audience which included the Duke of York was anything to go by, he is certainly up for it.