Birkdale's obstacles won't include a Tiger

SOUTHPORT, England -- As you arrive at Royal Birkdale Golf Club for the 137th British Open, just a stone's throw from a charming holiday village bursting with color, your eyes are immediately drawn to the idiosyncratic art deco clubhouse that looks like a battered ship run aground just off the shores of the Irish Sea.

Built in 1935, its dull white exterior is a far too stark contrast to the seaside links course nestled amid towering, picturesque sand dunes. Spruced up by a facelift that added 155 yards and enriched by a saturating summer, the landscape thrashed for centuries by winds and waves is now emerald and lush.

Especially the fairways, where you can almost see Peter Thomson, Arnold Palmer, Lee Trevino, Tom Watson and Johnny Miller -- Hall of Famers all -- walking toward the Claret Jug trophies they won.

What no one will see, however, is Tiger Woods, a Claret ...