Padraig Harrington has suffered a 12-year breakdown in the Barclays Scottish Open, but he insists that he’s being taken back into the championship because of the charms of Castle Stuart.

Harrington, the three-time Grand Slam winner seems to be delighted to return for a championship that has been avoiding him for 12 long years.

“Someone described it to me as the best new-built links course and you have to think that is right,” he said. “There is so much going on all over the place, I’m excited about it.”

The three-time champion said that he went there because it’s on a links golf course.

“I’ve always said that I like playing the week before a major tournament. But, even though I grew up playing links golf, it’s distinctly different getting used to it again and it takes some time,” Harrington said. “The fact we’re here now at the Scottish Open on a links course is fantastic.”

Harrington said that he was not sure what to expect from the gold course, and said that it was fantastic.

The 7050-yard course, which was designed by Kingsbarns developer Mark Parsinen and Gil Hanse,  is the new venue for the premiere golfing event of Scotland on the European Tour. It is located east of Inverness. It is the seventh venue of the Scottish Open.

“There are so many ways to play the same holes. Kingsbarns is the forerunner to this and we enjoy playing there, but for me they seem to have taken the slope out of the greens here and put it outside the green.”

US Open winner Rory McIlroy defended his decision not to play golf between the Open last month and the British Open next week.

“Some people may have wondered why I chose to go from one major straight to another without anything in between and the answer is simple,” said the young champion from Northern Ireland after practicing at Royal St Georges. “Because of what happened at Congressional and the way it became such a big deal, I wanted to get everything out of the way and sorted so that when I did start playing again I could just concentrate on golf.”

McIlroy is the youngest Congressional winner since Bobby Jones in 1923.

The 22-year-old golfer said that the short break gave him a chance “to do some things I wouldn’t normally have done.” Among them was attending the Wladimir Klitschko-David Haye heavyweight championship fight in Germany and watching Rafael Nadal play at Wimbledon.

He said that he did not touch a club 10 days after the US Open. After practicing for two days, he said he’s now ready to play again.

“It’s back to business from now on and time to forget all about my U.S. Open victory,” the champion said. “I honestly don’t really know what to expect at Sandwich because it will be the first time I have played anywhere as a major champion. It will be interesting and I’m really looking forward to it.”

Scotsman Paul Lawrie said he would love to repeat his 1999 Open Championship win at Sandwich this month and setting his sights on doing a good job at the Barclays Scottish open which begins on Thursday.

Lawrie won the Open 11 years ago after Jean Van de Velde’s capitulation, where he claimed the Caret Jug.

He will attempt to win the championship at Castle Stuart near Inverness, but he said that he is unlikely to follow Thomas Levet’s lead if he were to succeed.

Levet was so excited about the win that he jumped into the lake by the green and fractured a shin. Now, Levet doubts if he is to join the Open.

“It would be fair to say I would never do that,” said the Scotsman. “But there you go – he’s that kind of guy, isn’t he?

Lawrie said that if he was allowed to win another tournament, it would be this one. “Yes I would like another Open – who wouldn’t? But if you were not going to get another Open, the Scottish Open would be next. It would be huge for me.”

Unlike in the past few years, Lawrie has a chance to get the win this week after rediscovering his winning touch in Spain’s Open de Andalucia. The win ended the golfer’s nine-year losing streak, the very same week Martin Laird won the PGA Tour.

Laird, another Scotsman, spends most time playing in the US right now, will be playing with Lawrie these next two weeks.

Last Tuesday, Tiger Woods announced that he will be skipping the Open Championship next week because he had not sufficiently recovered from his external knee injury. Woods received his injury during the final round of the Masters at Augusta earlier this year. The Open Championship, which will be held at UK’s Royal St. George’s Gold Club, is the third major golf event this season.

Woods wrote in his website: “I’ve been advised that I should not play in the British Open. I am only going to come back when I’m 100 percent ready. I do not want to risk further injury. That’s different for me, but I’m being smarter this time. I’m very disappointed and want to express my regrets to the British Open fans.”

Royal & Ancient Club Chief Executive Officer Peter Dawson expressed his disappointment after receiving a call from Woods to talk about his absence.

“I know how disappointed Tiger is not to be able to play in the Open this year,” said the CEO. “Naturally, we are sorry that a player of his calibre isn’t able to join us at Royal St George’s, but we wish him well in his recovery and hope to see him back soon, competing in front of the fans that love to see him play the game.”

With Woods’ decision, he is expected to fall down the Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR). He is currently ranked 17th in the OWGR, but with his absence in the Open Championship, he will fall further below the world’s top 20 players.

American Jason Dufner will replace Woods in the event, as Brendan Jones turned the opportunity down because he and his wife is expecting a baby next week.

Tennis star Andy Murray looks to Rory McIlroy for inspiration as he plays to win his first grand slam title.

The UK No.1 defeated Richard Gasquet on Monday to set up a quarter-final match against Feliciano Lopez. If he wins the quarter-final, he could meet with World No.1 Rafael Nadal.

But Murray is looking for another prize. “I have not been to BBC Sports Personality for a few years now as I have been training over in Miami,” said Murray. “But a few people have said to me that because of what Rory has done, unless I win this week, I have got no chance!”

He added, “I think it’s great the way he dealt with everything after he’d obviously got nervous earlier in the year at the Masters.”

He also said that he wishes to meet McIlroy, maybe for a golf lesson, and said that he finds it interesting to meet other athletes.

The 24 year old star’s wish may come true with McIlroy, to be joined by Ian Poulter in the Royal Box, expected to make a visit to SW19 today.

Although the Irishman would like to see Nadal win at the All England Club, his loyalty lies elswhere when the Spaniard meets Murray in the semi-finals.

“I’d have to root for Andy,” said McIlroy, “I can relate to Andy on how much pressure he is under from everyone.”

The Wells Fargo Championship is the next event on the PGA Tour and it will be the first time since The Masters that Rory McIlroy has swung a club in a competition. Many feared that his poor last round that saw him lose a comfortable lead at the Masters would set the young Irishman back, his response suggests otherwise as he insists he is ‘over Augusta’.

When quizzed on how long it took him to recover from the meltdown he replied, “A couple days maybe,” he said. “It was a great chance to win a first major, but it’s only golf at the end of the day. No one died.” To be honest it’s what we have come to expect from Rory who has shown great courage in previous events. In fact he remained particularly upbeat, when asked what advice he had been given by other pros he remarked, “Don’t listen to you guys!”

“I’m very happy with my life, very happy with what’s going on and very happy with my game.” Which is a good frame of mind for defending his title this week. “I had a good chat with Greg Norman the week after when I was in Malaysia and he just said to me, ‘From now on, don’t read golf magazines, don’t pick up papers, don’t watch The Golf Channel.”

It seems like Tiger Wood’s career has been stuck in a sandpit since his personal issues surfaced.  His play is sub-par for the Tiger Woods who has won championships in the past.  One of the more veteran golfers, Lee Trevino, spoke about Tiger while at the Byron Nelson Championship.

Trevino told ESPN that he would recommend ‘to get rid of all those people, in reference to the coaches that Tiger had been working with the past couple of years. His efforts to get his game back included recruiting a myriad of swing coaches, including technique coach, Sean Foley. So far, he is still well short of the stunning talent of years gone by.

Trevino believes in starting over, stating that “He’s too good a player. He’s got desire. He hasn’t lost that yet. He just got off the road a little bit and it’s going to take him a little while to get his head on straight, but he is Tiger Woods, after all. He hasn’t lost the ability to play, even though he might not be as intimidating as he was”

Tiger Woods got a vote of confidence from Trevino, who thinks Woods will get back on track on overcome the previous 18 months, where he has struggled mightily on the course.  Trevino insists it would do Tiger more good to watch and study his winning swing, and going back to basics rather than what he is currently trying.  He also thinks Woods has a good chance of setting a new record for Major wins in his career.

Also on hand was Major winner Lanny Wadkins who praises the up and coming generation of pro golfers.  He says “This whole next generation looks very impressive, and so he’s all of a sudden going to have more competition now to get to his 18 than he ever had in his first 14.” and only gives Tiger a 50-50 chance of ever breaking Nicklaus’ record of 18 Major wins.

Ian Poulter has played four rounds of near faultless golf to win the UBS Hong Kong golf championship bringing the English golfer back into the top ten of the worlds best golfers. Poulter shot 67 in his first round and went on to shoot an amazing 60 in his second round. His closing two rounds were 64 and 67 respectively leaving him on -22 for the tournament.

Poulter had to be on top form to remain ahead of Simon Dyson and Matteo Manassero who both finished one shot off the lead. Poulter came very close to a play off, narrowly missing out when he dropped a shot on the final hole.

His only other scare came on the third hole when he hit the water with his second shot, the pressure was on as Dyson had literally just eagled the hole. However he struck back with birdies on the fourth, sixth and seventh holes. Then he Eagled the 13^th hole leaving him two up until the final hole.

Anthony Kang finished fourth just two shots of the lead with 20 under par closely followed by Graeme McDowell, Rory Mcllroy and Gareth Maybin.

The HSBC Champions tournament itself is a positive indication of how far Asian gold has progressed and how widely it has become accepted that Asian players have advanced considerably. Even greater testament to that improvement is the fact that Noh Seung-Yul of South Korea and Yuta Ikeda of Japan are tied for third after the opening round of the tournament. Italian Francesco Molinari is leading the pack with a seven under 65 while Lee Westwood is putting on a good show of cementing his new world number 1 crown in second place with a six under 66.

Third place is a tie between the two Asian golfers and Swede Henrik Stenson. Tiger Woods was also showing some decent form and is currently tied for sixth spot with a four under 68. Phil Mickelson managed a 69 to remain in contention but Kaymer could only achieve a level par so looks, at least for now, to be out of the hunt for the top spot.

This is the first time that Westwood has played in three weeks having been suffering from a persistent calf injury and it was difficult to see any signs whatsoever of the injury as he put in a steady performance in the first round of the £10.5m competition. Westwood was paired with Mickelson for the first round of the tournament and the two put in solid displays to be near the front of the pack along with Woods.

Noh Seung-Yul was the talk of the course for many though as the South Korean bogeyed the first two holes but finished six birdies and an eagle to see him tie for third spot in what Tiger Woods describes as being the “crowning jewel of Asian golf”.

The HSBC Champions kicks off today in Shanghai and thanks to Tiger Woods losing his number 1 spot to Lee Westwood last weekend and a pack of golfers in the mix for that coveted position, there are a total of four players that could walk away from the tournament while being hailed as the world’s best player. Lee Westwood and Tiger Woods are among them but so too is defending champion Phil Mickelson and German hopeful Martin Kaymer. All will be battling to hit the top spot and either recover from or take advantage of Tiger Woods’ turbulent year on and off the course.

The pre-tournament celebrations were a combination of spectacular and kitsch, the likes of which you may not see again. Last year, Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson were considered the two best players in the world and they posed for photos playing checkers. That was an altogether more sombre and realistic start compared to this year.

In a gladiatorial style publicity stunt, the four golfers vying to be number one were handed swords and asked to strike a tai chi pose. Tiger Woods, Lee Westwood, Phil Mickelson, and Martin Kaymer may be incredible golfers and Westwood may have improved his physique considerably to help him take the number 1 spot but it was still quite over the top but such is the stature of Asian golf now that they can hold a tournament with the world’s top 4 players all battling it out.

The HSBC Champions is the only World Golf Championship that former number 1 Woods has not yet won so there could be extra incentive there for him while Westwood will presumably be quite eager to hold on to his newly won world number 1 ranking.