Is There a Tiger Trap Set at St. Andrews?

ST. ANDREWS, Scotland —  So what’s the big, new story destined to be on opening day at the British Open?

Unusually sunny weather that has sent scores to the medical tent Monday and Wednesday?

Tiger Woods chasing a career grand slam?

Mark James and Nick Faldo trying not to talk to each other?

Phil Mickelson, David Duval, Colin Montgomerie, Lee Westwood and Darren Clarke trying to win their first major?

These are all choice story lines, but when the first round gets underway today on the runway-hard fairways and greens of the Old Course, chances are the big news will be made by something else.

Would you believe, sand?

Better get used to hearing about it. The bunkers are going to be a major source of irritation this week.

All the experts are saying it. Jack Nicklaus is a three-time British Open champion and has been showing up to play here since 1962, but he has never seen tougher bunkers.

Woods, Faldo, Duval, Montgomerie . . . all the big guns have said if you knock your ball in the bunkers it’s no day at the beach.

For more than a month, the grounds staff reworked all 112 of the Old Course bunkers, building new faces, making the angle more severe, making them deeper. As a result, a typical Old Course bunker is the nastiest stretch of sand this side of the Sahara.

Clarke is not a fan of the new-look bunkers.

“They are severe,” Clarke said.

Too severe?

“Yes, yes,” he said.

Clarke said the staff was raking the bunkers Wednesday to remove some sand from the faces so that some balls would have a better chance of rolling back instead of getting caught underneath the lip.

“But there’s going to be a few of them in which the ball will still do that,” Clarke said. “It’s an unplayable, so [players must get] out of the bunker and go back to the tee again [because the bunker shot is] totally unplayable.

“You know if you hit a bad enough shot to go into a bunker or a good shot that kicks and goes into the bunker, that’s fair enough. To get in there [and] for it to be a shot penalty, it is a little bit too severe.”

There are a whole lot of tough bunkers out there, but the worst ones are the one on the left side of No. 3, the one at No. 9 in the middle of the fairway and several more at No. 11, No. 16 and No. 17.

“They have just gone a little bit silly with them,” Clarke said.

The best idea is to adopt a cautious approach, he said.

“I will be trying to stay out of the bunkers, yes,” Clarke said.

Montgomerie said the fairways are not exactly joy rides either. They are so firm and fast that golf balls in contact with them are going to react as if they are rolling down a cart path.

“If you did not have spikes on, you would slip down the first fairway,” he said. “It is incredible.”

The weather forecast for the first round is for clouds in the morning, a slight chance of a shower and then clearing skies with temperatures reaching the mid-60s. That’s a heat wave around here. Wait until there are some bunker experiences and the temperatures will rise even higher.

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SPECIAL SECTION: The course and the moment seem suited for Tiger Woods to complete the career grand slam. Section S