But the roads around the airport are so busy that punters have struggled to make their jam-busting flights on time.When David Duval, the former Open champion, launched his drive down the 18th, he did not expect to find his ball in the midst of a five-star hospitality luncheon There are obvious blind shots here, and this is one of them. Duval didn’t find his ball, despite hundreds of people enjoying lunch at the MMC complex assisting him in his search. It proved fruitless (unlike the dessert) and Duval had to walk back to the tee, unlike his old pal Tiger Woods, who had a lift in a buggy back to the first tee after hitting his opening drive of the Championship out of bounds.Tiger might have had some preferential buggy treatment but his day was no easy ride, as the bookies’ odds showed Woods started as 3-1 favourite to win the tournament. After his first hole he went out to 9-1 and at one stage slipped to 20-1 before ending his round at 5-1..

Enjoyable but disappointing. That’s the best way I can explain my first day playing in the Open. It was enjoyable because I didn’t know whether I’d be too nervous to do myself justice yet I loved every minute, even when I was struggling It was bit disappointing because I ended at 11 over par. But then given the conditions, being out there at lunchtime in the worst of the wind, it was only a bit disappointing

Enjoyable but disappointing. I went to the players’ lounge for breakfast but all I could stomach was a bowl of cornflakes Then it was off to the range.

Seeing all my friends who’d come up from Cornwall helped me relax a bit. They had T-shirts with my name on the back and there was even a banner saying “In Godfrey We Trust”, which got a couple of airings near the greens.I practised for 45 minutes and felt pretty good, getting in the right frame of mind. And then it was on to the first tee for the 11.37am start, playing with Ian Woosnam and Dudley Hart, who put me at ease straight away. I couldn’t have played with two nicer guys.When my name was first called out it felt like it wasn’t happening. It was like a dream sequence, waiting to play that first shot.

I had to call on all my years of practice to pull a swing from somewhere I managed it, on instinct I think Relief Excitement. We were off.On the first five holes there wasn’t really hit a bad shot Par, par, par, birdie, par. On the sixth I hit a bad shot, pulled it to the left of the green into the rough I thought I did well to get up and down for a bogey. I shot par on the seventh and then things got tricky.The conditions had really deteriorated and the wind was up The eighth was the turning point. After a good drive, I pulled my second with a two-iron and found a tree that I didn’t even know was there.