From The Fairways: Sporting eyes turn towards Muirfield

The eyes of the sporting world this week will be on golf with the Open starting tomorrow at Muirfield, Scotland.

The best players in the world of golf have assembled and the stage is set for the highlight for many of the golfing year.

The course has been set up with narrow fairways that at times have been described as struggling to squeeze in 2 cars side by side and flanked by waist high rough. The severity of the rough brings back memories of Carnoustie in 1999 when a score of 290, 2 over level 4s could not be bettered and Paul Lawrie took the Claret Jug.

Purists will argue that the best player won on the day while others will enquire where was all the fun and entertainment as a spectacle. Rather than a healthy share of birdies we were subjected to bogeys and double bogeys, which at times we are all capable of scoring. We recall the Dubai Creek hosting its first of two Dubai Desert Classics won by David Howell with a winning total of better than 10 under par.

A number of players were forced to chip out of the rough rather than play for the green. You can never please all the players all of the time as there can only be one winner. The key distinction is that you will find you ball in Dubai, perhaps players will lose not only their ball and also their bags and caddies in the wilder and wider areas of Muirfield.

Finally, Dubai's weather will never let you down can never be compared with that experienced in Scotland - if it blows this week, it could prove more than a challenge.

This week marks the first anniversary of Ian Woosnam's famous club incident when on the second tee at last year's Championship, his now ex-caddie informed him that he had 2 drivers in his bag - resulting in an expensive 2 stroke penalty.

It would indeed be interesting to be on the first tee to see Woosnam begin his first round tomorrow. The Starter traditionally reminds players on a number of issues as well as distributing scorecards, local rules, pin positions and other tournament administration.

The top starters of the world will politely suggest the player check his number of clubs - this did not happen at the 2001 Open. It slipped from the R&A system after the starter was frequently told to do his job and they will do theirs.

Will the starter have the courage to ask Woosnam to check his clubs? If I was him I think I would carefully look myself and count the total rather than encourage what could be an interesting exchange.

The standard of play of modern golf was illustrated by the field for the recent Open qualifiers. The entries for the four qualifying rounds were arguably better than many a PGA European Tour event. Included in the qualifying round were Steve Elkington, David Frost, Mark McNulty, Andrew Coltart, Richard Green and Raymond Russell.

With only seven players qualifying from each of the four venues for the Open proper, scoring was always going to competitive. Emirates Golf Club's Ross Bain and Dubai old boy Peter Downie were both unsuccessful at the final qualifying stages - Ross shooting a lower total of 72 and 69 at Gullane to miss out by 7 shots.

Nick Tarratt is the General Manager UAE Golf Association (UGA). This is the first of his weekly column which he will be writing for Gulf News.