When last seen on a golf course, Rocco Mediate was battling with Tiger Woods in the US Open at Torrey Pines, north of San Diego, and losing to the world's best player only on the first extra hole after an 18-hole play-off. At Royal Birkdale yesterday afternoon you might have caught a glimpse of the vanquished Mediate, a most friendly man, flat on his back on the 10th fairway receiving treatment from Cindi Hilfman, his personal physiotherapist.

For some years now Mediate, 45, has suffered from various ailments, mainly to do with his back. He has not been able to play a full schedule since 2005 because of injury and every time he does play you can see from the stretching and twisting he does on almost each tee that he has a back that sometimes gives him discomfort.

“I am playing well and I feel fine,” Mediate said yesterday after resuming a vertical position and getting ready to continue his practice round with Jim Furyk, the 2003 US Open champion, and Paul Goydos, the runner-up at The Players Championship in May. “But I would really like to win one of these big dogs.”

Birkdale looked impeccable in the strong sunshine, though there was perhaps a little too much green on the fairways and the rough was too lush. “It's very difficult,” Trevor Immelman, the Masters champion, said at the end of his first round over the Merseyside course.

“It's a lot greener than I expected and there is a lot of long, juicy and tough rough. It is not wispy. You had better drive the ball straight here because if you don't, there is no way you can contend.”

Immelman disclosed that it was nearly two months after his triumph at Augusta before his life returned to anything that could be described as normal. “You know golfers and athletes prepare as hard and as well as they can for what goes on on a golf course, but we do nothing to prepare ourselves for what happens if you pull off something like that [the Masters triumph],” he said. “It comes out of the blue.

“Instead of trying to work it out myself, I thought I had better formulate a strategy of what to do. I did as I always do and asked players who I thought might know what to do. I asked Zach Johnson, Retief [Goosen], Ernie [Els] and Nick Faldo. I thought I would pick the brains of people who have been through what I have been through and get a few pointers. And it helped.”

Much has been made of the redesign of the 17th green by Martin Hawtree, and R&A officials have been defensive about it for months. Yesterday was too soon in Open week to expect definitive comments to emerge about it, though Nick Dougherty admitted that it is out of character with the other 17 greens on the course.

“But it is also a par-five and if you get on the green in two you should be tested,” the Englishman said. “They could be silly about where they put the flag but they won't be. It's great as long as you keep your ball away from the bits that are frightfully over the top.”