• Open Championship, Round One

Watch out - for the first time in a while, Tiger's about

"It's like an ice-rink around some of the holes. The way this is burning out, we're looking at a Hoylake weekend."

Leave it to Graeme McDowell, one of the more astute professionals of this current generation, to sum up the twin storylines from the opening day of the 142nd Open Championship.

• 2013 Open Championship leaderboard
  
  
• First round report: Tiger Woods shows his intent as Zach Johnson leads
  
• Morning recap: Rory McIlroy flounders in best of conditions at Muirfield
  
• Plays of the Day: Ian Poulter's complaint, Charl Schwartzel's broken club
  

While plenty of players - most of them, rightly or wrongly, feeling some sense of injustice - moaned about the glass-like nature of the greens at Muirfield on the opening day, those observing matters from the sanctity of the stands and media tent were more preoccupied with the ominous form of the man who won the Open in similar conditions seven years ago at Hoylake, Tiger Woods.

Yes, the Gullane links was hard and fast on Thursday, by the evening almost brutally so. It remains to be seen how the Royal & Ancient reacts to the 'advice' of players, especially after Phil Mickelson and Ian Poulter both made references to crazy golf in their description of the difficulty of putting. An extra glug of water on the putting surfaces overnight seems almost certain, even if the powers-that-be may never admit to it.

But of more pressing concern to those pros should be the form of Woods, who looked more impressive than he has for many a major as he plotted his way around the course in conditions far more treacherous than leader Zach Johnson enjoyed. Yet, when all was said and done, Johnson bested the world No. 1 by just three strokes.

Woods was far from perfect on Thursday - both his attempts off the first tee veered wildly left (immediately setting some alarm bells ringing), and he putted off the green at the 14th - but the essence of the qualities that saw him march to victories at a burned out Royal Liverpool and similarly hard St Andrews (in 2005, if not quite 2000) were all in evidence.

His stinger, with a two-iron or a fairway wood, bisected fairways and he showed great control and restraint with his clipped approach shots into treacherous greens.

On the occasion when he did miss the putting surface, he plotted the best way to get up and down. At the 12th, that meant bending down on one knee to splash out of an awkward spot in a bunker. At the 18th, that meant putting from 20 yards off the green (the old 'Texas wedge', as more seasonsed players might have noted approvingly) to set himself up with a six-footer to close out his round of 69.

The result was not flashy, but it was effective. No afternoon player, wrestling with the same rock-solid greens and elusive pin placements, managed to outperform the man who already owns more majors than all of them.

On the day the old master seemingly built himself up for another charge, it was perhaps ironic then that the preceding few hours had seen his apprentice and heir apparent decline even further into his recent funk. Just eight players finished the day above Woods but only about double that figure finished worse off than Rory McIlroy, who slumped to an opening 79 right around the time other early pacesetters including Dustin Johnson, Miguel Angel Jimenez and Brandt Snedeker were attempting to fill their boots.

2013 Open Championship leaderboard

Zach Johnson leads © Getty Images

• -5        Zach Johnson
• -4        Mark O'Meara
• -3        Brandt Snedeker, Miguel Angel Jimenez,
            Dustin Johnson, Tom Lehman, Shiv Kapur
• -2        Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Angel Cabrera

McIlroy, instead, was struggling to avoid genuine embarrassment. On the 12th he putted off the back of the green into a bunker, a lapse in concentration he described as "just thoughtless, just so, like, brain-dead." Elsewhere he produced at least two chips (on separate holes) that rolled right back to his feet.

Woods had his slips too, but kept moving forward despite them. He kept his concentration and avoided errors of strategy and execution like the plague. Yet even when he was not out-and-out making a hash of shots, McIlroy seemed to be spraying tee-shots into the rough and missing approach shots on the wrong side of the greens.

In the end the Northern Irishman had to hole a three-footer at the 18th to break 80 and tie with the man he has verbally sparred with already this week, Sir Nick Faldo. The putt dropped, but halving with a 56-year-old man who has hardly played a competitive round in five years (although admittedly a six-time major champion at that) can be considered a pyrrhic victory at best.

"Sometimes I feel like I'm walking around out there and I'm unconscious," McIlroy, clearly downcast but trying to answer questions honestly, pondered in the aftermath. "I just need to try and think a little bit more.

"I'm trying. I'm trying to focus. I'm trying to concentrate, but yeah, it's just, I can't really fathom it at the minute and it's hard to stand up here and tell you guys what's really wrong."

It seems unlikely we will see McIlroy over the weekend (or Luke Donald, who failed to slip under the 80 barrier), but maybe that will just give the youngster a chance to really study Woods in full-on championship mode. Not necessarily his technique, which still seems a little uncertain at times, but how he plots his way around the course and retains his focus even in the most trying of conditions.

That was what Woods did phenomenally well on Thursday, and that's what he has long tended to do better than any other player in golf. Add his armoury of shot-types and steely resolve into the equation, and - for perhaps the first time in years - it already feels hard to bet against him being the man to beat come Sunday.

You can't win a major on Thursday, only lose it. Rory McIlroy already seems to be on the wrong end of that maxim, with plenty to ponder over the next days and weeks.

Woods, meanwhile, has made his early statement of intent. While his rivals are complaining, expect him to make further moves on Friday morning.

Rory McIlroy appears to be mired in trouble © Getty Images

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