Cink: Butterflies
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Having finally made it through the stringent security checks (think one of those annoying waits at the airport) and dropped off the mobile on entry as requested, a quick check of the tee-times for Tuesday's practice reveals I've narrowly missed Phil Mickelson who was one of the earlier starters.
It's not all bad news, though, as it allows time for a surprisingly appetising bacon roll before heading off to walk the first few holes with Stewart Cink, Zach Johnson and Heath Slocum, who manages to not notice as a youngster gives a bemused shrug when asked by his father whose autograph he's just got scrawled on his gleaming new cap.
The first thing to say is that the course looks an absolute picture. Scrub those scorched summer links fairways from your mind, lush green not light brown is the colour du jour.
However, there's no time to ease yourself in and enjoy the view on the first tee with out of bounds lurking down the right and plenty of rough stuff on both sides.
As a fair few may well do this week, Cink is out with an iron, while Johnson demonstrates how costly a misdirected three-wood could prove as he instantly reaches for a second ball.
Heading down the first with them provides the opportunity to get up close and personal with the rough that has been talked up so much.
Penal rough
On close inspection I'm not entirely sure it's merited all the fuss. Penal sure, I'll give you very severe for the genuinely wayward, but no worse than we have seen previously - and it is a major after all.
Butch Harmon joins the all-American trio and there's plenty of light-hearted chat with Cink claiming he's feeling the pre-tournament butterflies already. If he is it doesn't show and after watching him chip in from off the fourth green I start to persuade myself he could well be worth a flutter come Thursday - it doesn't take much.
The thought passes as I drop back to cast an eye over Martin Kaymer who looks like he's the unwilling third member of a band having been paired with compatriot Alex Cejka and Austrian Martin Wiegele, who are not short on some hair between them.
There's more than a hint of Ernie Els in Kaymer's swing and his seemingly effortless ball-striking goes a long way to demonstrating why he already has two big wins under his belt this season - those tips from Bernhard Langer also seem to be helping as his short game looks in great nick judging by his touch around the fifth green.
Brutal sixth
Watching them down the sixth it's easy to see just why it's earned itself a reputation as one of the toughest par-fours in Championship golf; 499 yards, into the wind and up on to a sloping green - it really is a brute.
Kaymer shows it can be tamed with two sumptuous cracks with the furniture, but a par here will be an excellent score all week, no question.
Conscious of the gusts swirling around the course, it's only on climbing up to the tee of the exposed seventh that you really begin to get an idea of the strength of the winds that come whipping in off the sea. A veritable smorgasbord of bunkers ensure the par-three will be no walkover either.
Having hot-footed it around the turn I catch up with Jim Furyk and Justin Leonard on the short 12th who have picked up a fair few followers on their way round.
Another superb par-three exposed to the wind, you can see why Tom Watson rates this hole as one of his favourites and, having both found the top-level from the tee, you can be sure Furyk and Leonard would settle for similar results come Thursday.
There's a quiet assurance about Leonard and with some real form behind him this season it would come as no surprise to this observer if he were to be lurking around the upper reaches of the scoreboard come Sunday afternoon.
With accuracy off the tee another must-have, a particularly bronzed Henrik Stenson, going round with Niclas Fasth and Andrew Tampion, looks in decent shape if his monstrous drive at the par-five 15th is anything to go by. Mind you, the Swede seemed more focused on four-footers with his putter as Fanny put him through his paces on the greens.
Odd couple
The final par-five at 17 provided a chance to catch up with Angel Cabrera, Andres Romero and Ariel Canete and their Argentine posse who must have been up there as most jovial grouping of the day - although they fell some way short of trumping Graeme Storm and Willie Thorne for the title of odd couple.
After the laughing and joking subsided on the tee, Cabrera and Romero stepped up to prove that when they take out the driver the ball stays hit, and some. Despite the 17th green being moved back, both had more than enough to get home in two and, after his exploits last year, there will be plenty who feel Romero has the game to have a say this time round as well.
But then that's the point, having strolled down 18 and then back up to the tenth in time to catch a couple of holes with Sergio Garcia and Miguel Angel Jimenez, you soon realise there are plenty who have the tools to get the job done at Birkdale this week.
Tiger's absence really has opened things up and you wonder whose turn it will be. Seeing so many striking it so well has only confused matters in my head so I couldn't resist when the venerable Mr Harmon pulled up in a buggy on his way to the clubhouse.
"Who wins this week Butch?" I asked. Back in those gnarled Stateside tones came the response: "Well if I knew that I could be rich!"
It really is the most open of Opens.
