Tiger Woods got his first look at Turnberry yesterday and gave some indication as to how he might play the course when the Open Championship gets under way at the beautiful Ayrshire links on Thursday.

After flying in to nearby Prestwick airport in his private jet, the world No 1 headed down the coast for his first reconnaissance of a course he had never played before. Surprisingly, perhaps, he did not bother hitting any warm-up shots on the range, but simply walked to the 1st and teed off. This was not about scoring, it was about familiarising himself with the Ailsa course layout. So when Woods’s tee- shot at the 2nd skewed too far off line to bother going to find it, he reloaded and hit another one.

That he has not played Turnberry before should not worry him unduly. He had never played Royal Liverpool — Hoylake by another name — before he turned up in 2006, but that did not stop him going on to record one of the most emotional wins of his career months after the death of his father, Earl. The pictures of him collapsing, in tears, into the arms of Steve Williams, his long-term friend and caddie, will live long in the memory.

So, too, will the story — probably apocryphal — of the text message he sent to friends after the final round that drew attention to the fact that Sergio García, dressed in canary yellow, had failed to mount a serious challenge when it really mattered. “I just wopped Tweety Pie,” it said.

A victory this week at Turnberry would not have quite the emotional impact of Hoylake, but it would be of huge significance because it would be Woods’s first major championship — and his fifteenth in all — since he won the US Open in June 2008. Immediately after his victory at Torrey Pines, he had surgery to rebuild his left knee and was out of the game for eight months. It meant that he missed the Open Championship last year for the first time since he made his debut, at St Andrews, as an amateur in 1995. Watching him practise yesterday had shades of Hoylake about it. That year, he turned up at 6am on the Sunday and practised in relative peace and quiet until the spectators were let in three hours later. And his preparation that day, apart from an afternoon start time, was mirrored at Turnberry yesterday.

At a baked and fast-running Hoylake, Woods soon realised that the fairway bunkers were all brought into play by the driver. So he kept the big stick in the bag and played practically all his tee-shots that week with irons and fairway woods. The problem at Turnberry is likely to be the rough. Standing thick and high, it will severely punish wayward shots. And guess what? The driver stayed in the American’s bag yesterday for every hole except two, the 3rd and 17th.

Most interesting in watching Woods getting to know a course is the time he spends on the greens. He putts to four corners of the green, one-handed for the most part to get the ball rolling easily, and watches the direction in which it breaks. He then takes his notepad, writes down the result and moves on. At the 2nd green yesterday, he putted for 19 minutes and had 51 putts in all. And people wonder why he is so good.

Woods was accompanied by two policemen, who have been assigned to him for the week, and about 300 spectators. He had been welcomed to the course by Peter Dawson, the chief executive of the Royal and Ancient, who accompanied him for a few holes and was there to see him finish.

Dawson confirmed that the first cut of rough had been widened to about six metres instead of five. “We did it about three weeks ago because we did not want to give the impression that the Open is about hacking out of rough,” he said. For his part, Woods was virtually mute. “We got the best of the conditions today,” he said. “No wind.” And with that he was gone.