Tiger Woods Takes An Early Look At Royal Troon Ahead Of Open Bid

Three-time champion Tiger Woods made an early arrival at Royal Troon on Sunday to start his preparations for the 152nd Open Championship.

Tiger spotting is becoming an increasingly rare opportunity for golf fans, but the 15-time Major champion will be taking to the Ayrshire links this week as he plays in just his fifth tournament of the year.

Woods has been largely confined to just playing in the Majors this year, and after largely disappointing showings he's hoping for better this week in Scotland.

The 48-year-old arrived on Sunday and played 18 holes at Troon, before setting out to do the same on Monday - where he played alongside Justin Thomas and Max Homa.

This will be Woods' 23rd Open appearance and his third at Royal Troon - where he finished T24 in 1997 and T9 in 2004 before missing out on the 2016 epic showdown between Henrik Stenson and Phil Mickelson through injury.

Woods lifted the Claret Jug at St Andrews in 2000 as part of his 'Tiger Slam' before adding back-to-back titles in 2005, back on the Old Course and 2006 at Hoylake.

He's said previously that he's walking a fine line between getting enough preparation in to get fully sharp and overdoing things and causing more problems for his patched-up body.

So after an intensive couple of days, Woods will likely dial it back a bit and fine tune his short game and strategy in order to rest his body before Thursday - when the task of just walking the hopefully for him 72 holes during The Open.

Woods has had a tough year on the course despite showing flashes at times of still having every shot in the book.

Woods had to pull out of the Genesis Invitational in February through illness and even when making a record 24th consecutive cut at The Masters he finished bottom of the leaderboard of those who played the weekend.

A further two missed cuts followed at the PGA Championship and US Open and now Woods is relying on at least making the weekend at Troon to salvage something positive from his year.

Videos of him walking around Troon show that now familiar uneasy gait that signposts how much of an effort it is for the great man just to walk around the golf course these days.

The weather forecast for Ayrshire this week will not help his cause, with cold and wet conditions expected throughout the four competition days - weather which Woods has already said are more problematic for him.

He'll have plenty of followers and will remain a headline draw at Troon, but Tiger looks to be up against it again to match the young guns of the sport - even though his links golf nous may give him an advantage in some quarters.