Early riser Tiger eager to start Open practice round
Tiger Woods was back in his old routine this morning as he continued his preparations for the 143rd Open Championship at Hoylake.
Woods has traditionally enjoyed practising as early as possible ahead of major championships, famously being told at Muirfield last year that he could not start at 6:40am as the greenkeepers were still preparing the course.
The former world number one had to wait until 7am on that occasion and appeared to have learned his lesson, teeing off this morning at 7:10am alongside Hunter Mahan and 2001 champion David Duval, with only the Irish trio of Shane Lowry, Graeme McDowell and amateur Paul Dunne beating them to the punch.
Woods lifted the Claret Jug for the third time when the Open was last staged here in 2006, memorably hitting his driver just once in 72 holes on the rock-hard links.
However, he has not won a major title since the 2008 US Open and missed the first two majors of 2014 after undergoing back surgery on March 31.
The 38-year-old missed the cut in his comeback event in Washington at the end of June but was in confident mood after 12 holes of practice on Saturday and a full round on Sunday.
Woods did not appear on the practice round schedule on Monday but looked set to play most of the course before speaking to the media at 10:30am.
