All around these parts, there are reminders of golf's birth. In fact, Muirfield is the home of The Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers, an august body of gentlemen who just happen to be the lineal descendants of those who drew up the first codified rules of golf at Leith Links, some 20 miles away along the coast, in 1744.

With such a sense of history, you'd believe there couldn't be room for much more; and, yet, as ever with Tiger Woods around, more beckons.

Woods, the world number one, is attempting to become the first player since Ben Hogan in 1953 to win the first three legs of the Grand Slam. And, as ever, he is the favourite. He has won seven of the past 11 major championships and, in winning by three shots in the US Masters at Augusta, and by the same margin in the US Open at Bethpage, he has dominated this season's opening two majors.

Indeed, some of the game's old boys, among them Jack Nicklaus and Lee Trevino, have accused the modern-day young guns of failing to do their duty of giving adequate competition to Woods. The suggestion is that he is getting things too easy.

If that is so, why should things be different here? Well, for starters, unlike Augusta and Bethpage, two monstrously long courses suited to big-hitters, this is not a course where Woods will be able to bomb his way past trouble or intimidate players with his length off the tee. If he uses the driver twice or three times during a round, that will be the extent of it.

"When you talk about a golf course which equalises the whole field, you have to shorten it," said Tom Watson, "you have to make it a short golf course so that everybody is playing shorter shots into the greens."

That is what the R&A has done in setting up the course for this 131st staging of the British Open, almost a form of Tiger-proofing in reverse.

Which is not to say that Woods' game is all about length. It's not. Few players, indeed, have the creativity of shot-making or the ability to make crunch putts that he has. However, there is a sense here that players aren't as intimidated by Woods' presence as maybe the observations of Messrs Nicklaus and Trevino would have us believe.

And with 48 of the top 50 players in the world rankings - the two missing are Americans Kenny Perry and Paul Azinger - going in quest of the Claret Jug, and the weather more benign than anyone can imagine, this could be an extremely open Open championship with a potential for low scoring.

The Irish representation is relatively small, consisting of just four players. But it is a quality one, with Padraig Harrington - ranked 10th in the world - and Darren Clarke - ranked 15th - proven competitors in majors, and especially on links terrain.

Paul McGinley, down to 51st in the rankings, is not entirely happy with his game, but,should he manage to keep the ball in play and prevent the mysterious double-bogeys that have crept onto his cards in recent weeks, then the Dubliner, too, could emerge as a genuine challenger.

Of the Irish quartet, most worry concerns Des Smyth, playing in his 22nd British Open. He strained a muscle in his leg and lower back in rather bizarre circumstances on Monday - stretching out in his car in the Muirfield car park - and, although he played a practice round on Tuesday, he was advised by his physiotherapist not to play yesterday.

Smyth has received intensive treatment for the injury and has been prescribed anti-inflammatory pills and painkillers in the hope that he can compete.

Certainly, anyone with even a minor injury would be well advised to stay out of the rough, which is easier said than done. "Someone could get hurt in here," remarked Woods on his first visit to the rough on the first hole last Sunday, looking for Mark O'Meara's drive. They never found the ball.

And Darren Clarke quipped yesterday that "they've lost two fairways here this week, the first and the 10th", while Colin Montgomerie described the opening tee-shot as "fearsome".

Yet, of all the links courses, Muirfield is arguably the fairest. "This golf course is set up for the shot-maker. It can't be overpowered," remarked Peter Dawson, secretary of the R&A.

Rather than lengthening the course - only the short fourth and 13th holes have had yardage added since Nick Faldo won in 1992 - the protection measures are narrower fairways and 148 strategically-placed bunkers, many of them small and deep, which players must avoid as much as the rough.

But anyone who manages to find the fairways consistently could well be rewarded, and that is why Michael Campbell, for one, believes "up to 60 guys can win this tournament".

Harrington is another who is convinced that the field will be bunched up heading down the back nine come Sunday afternoon, while Jose Maria Olazabal observed that this event is "not about length, it is accuracy and shot-making. You're going to see a lot of players with a chance to win."

As you'd expect, most eyes are on Woods. "Even though people might say 50 or more players could win, there is still one man to beat," claimed Thomas Bjorn.

But the last man to come to Muirfield seeking to win the third leg of the Grand Slam in the same year stumbled. That was Jack Nicklaus in 1972, when he lost out by a shot to Trevino. Could the same fate befall Woods this week?

Woods hasn't played since Bethpage four weeks ago, but he has taken similar breaks in the past and come back and won first time out. He claims his game is as sharp as he would wish it to be - which means that it could be up to one of the challengers in whom Nicklaus and Trevino have so little faith to step up and play the better golf to halt Woods' seemingly impervious march towards another place in the history books.

And, maybe, the man to do it could be Sergio Garcia. He knows how to win on this terrain, having claimed the British Amateur title here in 1998. Back then, the rough was like straw and the fairways hard and firm. This time, the rough is green but impossibly thick and the fairways soft. He is not intimidated by Woods, and he believes his game is good enough to win.

"Yes, the game is there," he said. "But, to win a major, it is not enough to simply play well. You also have to have good breaks at the right time and make putts when you need them. I really feel like winning a major is getting closer and closer every time. If I just keep believing in myself and trying as hard as I am trying, then the moment will come."