Soon after 7pm last night, in the limp light of early evening when tournament officials were out preparing for today's opening round of the Open Championship, the skirl of pipes could be heard in the distance.

As the sound faded, borne away on the light breeze, it was replaced by the intriguing thought: after a US Open that threatened to be the worst in 109 years until David Duval and Phil Mickelson saved it on the Sunday, the 138th Open has the potential to be one of the greatest of all championships.

No other course outside the United States has Turnberry's potent combination of demanding holes placed so exquisitely in a setting of jaw-dropping scenery. Some hold that even Pebble Beach and the Monterey Peninsula in California would pale in comparison with this stretch of Scottish coastline. “God, I love my office,” Tom Watson said yesterday, arriving on the 1st tee for his final practice round.

Three Opens have been held at Turnberry and all three won by the best player in the world at the time: Watson after a titanic struggle with Jack Nicklaus in 1977; Greg Norman after a 63 in the second round in 1986; Nick Price after holing a 50-footer on the 71st green for an eagle in 1994.

As tee-off time drew nearer, the feeling was that whatever was required by the combination of the weather and the course, Tiger Woods, the world's best golfer, was the man best equipped to provide it.

“I've been fortunate to win three claret jugs and there are two things that have to happen for me to be successful again,” Woods said. “I have to play well and be on the correct side of the draw. You just never know what the conditions are going to be, and you have to deal with it. It could be bone-dry like Hoylake or rainy like Muirfield in 2002. The key is to formulate a game plan and go play.”

Rain has rendered the course a green canvas, in marked contrast to the brown fairways of Hoylake three years ago. Rain has also nourished the rough, the semi-rough of which was cut back by one yard a few weeks ago. On a calm day the 7,204-yard course may be at the mercy of these players. On a day with a little wind, however, which will surely be at least one of the next four, it should be a spirited and worthy test of shot-making skills and mental fortitude.

After spending most of the year tinkering with his swing, Padraig Harrington may find it is a fortnight too early for him to have a realistic chance of winning a third Open in a row and the fourth of the past nine major championships. Put your money on him at the first event he enters next month.

“I'd love it if somebody could push the Open back a couple of weeks,” the Irishman, who also won the US PGA Championship last year, said. “I'll go with what we have on Thursday afternoon. I know that if I get in position, I can win. Whether I can get into this position is what is in doubt.”

To help his confidence as well as his cause, Harrington has reverted to using exactly the same Wilson clubs, both irons and driver, that helped him to triumph in the Open at Carnoustie in 2007 and Royal Birkdale last year.

At Royal St George's in Kent the dominant sound is of birdsong overhead. You hear the larks at the farthermost parts of Royal Birkdale, too. At Carnoustie, muffled blasts from the nearby gun range rumble across the bleak landscape, which is appropriate on a course that takes no prisoners. At Turnberry it is not the sounds but the sights. The magnificent lighthouse, the towering Ailsa Craig, the solemn memorial to those who died while training to be fighter pilots.

Perhaps on this most British of courses an Englishman could win for the first time since Nick Faldo in 1992. Might it be Paul Casey, the second highest-ranking player in the field?

“Paul has the skills and the mental capacity to win these events,” Peter Kostis, Casey's shrewd coach, said. “My opinion of him is that he should be a multiple major championship winner over the next five or six years.” Nothing much for the engaging man from Surrey to live up to there, then.