The main protection for any links is usually the wind that whips in off some sea or other; yesterday, as forecast and feared, there was barely a breath of wind slipping in from the Firth of Forth.

Consequently and almost predictably on a course that displayed none of its traditional elements of firm fairways and even firmer greens, and without the wind as a factor, some 37 players took advantage of such benevolence to record sub-par scores in the first round of the British Open. To say there is a concertina-like appearance to it all would be an understatement.

And, yet, that is no bad thing either. Rather than one man - and we all know who that usually is - dominating a major, Muirfield, at its most benign, has given us a championship that lives up to its name. It is, indeed, wide open.

If Tiger Woods is to continue his quest for the third leg of a calendar year Grand Slam, he will have to shove an awful lot of people out of his way.

When he reached the recorder's tent yesterday, Woods' pencil signed for an opening round 70. At day's end, it left him three shots off the pace set by Carl Pettersson and two Americans, Duffy Waldorf and David Toms, the US PGA champion.

A number of weeks ago, when he played alongside him in the Irish Open, Des Smyth observed that Pettersson was one of the most impressive young players he had ever seen. And, on the biggest stage of all, and playing in his first major, the Swede - displaying no sign of nerves - confirmed Smyth as an old sage by finishing his round in the calm of the evening to shoot a 67.

For his part, Smyth, defying a pain in his lower back, finished-up as one of no fewer than 12 players a shot further back on 68.

But, perhaps more menacingly, Padraig Harrington, who contended in each of the season's two previous majors, finishing fifth at the US Masters and eighth at the US Open, again demonstrated his penchant to perform on the big stage, easing his way into the championship with a round of 69.

On this occasion, there was no evidence of the aggressive shot-making that Harrington adopted coming down the home stretch of the European Open at the K Club two weeks ago. If anything, his play was the opposite; extremely conservative.

From tee to green, he played beautifully - and, with 35 putts, a 69 was probably as poor a score as he could have accumulated.

"I possibly could have been more aggressive on some shots," admitted Harrington, "but the conservative option is a good way to play this course.

"You never stand on the first tee in any major and start going for it from the word go, it's a question of staying in there and not making mistakes. I'm always much more likely to build up through a tournament and go with the flow.

"You can play your way out of a tournament very quickly and you don't want to be making too many mistakes early on. There are 72 holes of golf. I haven't done any damage, haven't done any harm. I'd like to think I'll be more aggressive from here on in, now that I have got a feel for the golf course."

In his own words, Harrington was "plodding along" for the first few holes, but he grabbed birdies on the front nine's two par fives, the fifth and ninth, and it was somewhat ironic that he claimed he was more into his flow when two bogeys crept up on him.

They came back-to-back, at the 10th and 11th, when he three-putted on each occasion. But the response was immediate.

On the 12th, he hit a five-iron off the tee and, incredibly, it travelled 250 yards, leaving him with a sandwedge approach. He hit it to three feet, and holed the putt. On the 13th, he hit a four-iron to 12 feet and holed the birdie putt.

And when he hit one of his few poor shots on the inward journey, a six-iron into a greenside bunker on the 16th, where he was no more than 12 inches from the face and could only splash out to 10 feet before missing the par putt, he bounced back with another birdie on the 17th, where he hit a three-wood approach to 50 feet and two-putted. Afterwards, he was "satisfied" with his work.

"I hit a lot of good shots, and it I can keep doing that for 72 holes I'll be okay. It's a major championship and you are always happy to shoot under par."

Neither Darren Clarke nor Paul McGinley managed to break par, both finishing on 72. The scores brought different sentiments from each player.

"I've never seen Muirfield play easier, but I played average and putted very average," said Clarke, before heading off to the putting green for work with a putter that is remaining stubbornly cold.

McGinley, though, contended that his 72 was "a good score for the way I played". In fact, he was three-over after eight holes but managed to rescue things somewhat on the homeward run to, at the very least, put surviving the cut into his own hands.

Others, too, were also forced to demonstrate some fortitude. Sergio Garcia, for one, went to three-over when incurring a double-bogey six on the seventh, where he took two shots to get out of a greenside bunker, but came back with three birdies and no dropped shots for a 71.

Phil Mickelson, who three-putted from off the green on the third, made it to the clubhouse without dropping another shot and adding four birdies, two of them coming on the final two holes. On the 18th, he rapped in a 20-footer and he signed for a useful 68.

While Pettersson, Waldorf and Toms negotiated a route into a three-way tie for the lead, and 12 men finished up in a logjam a shot adrift, there were also ominous words from Woods.

"I had six or seven lip-outs, and a lot of the pins were tucked on knobs," remarked Woods, who struggled to get the pace of slow greens registering just eight on the stimpmetre.

"I've got myself where I need to be. You can only shoot yourself out of the tournament on the first day, and I certainly haven't done that."

He's right, but he's not the only one. With no fewer than 85 players within five shots of the lead, this is an Open that is truly wide open.