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He did his homework, which should be a lesson, not only to the complacent members of the European Tour, some of whom are overpaid, overweight and overindulged and who treat The Open like any other tournament, but to Team Woods. It was Tiger’s first visit to Sandwich, and he did not exactly put in the overtime. Even so, compared to most, Tiger’s preparation is usually meticulous In the last round, Curtis shot 69, Woods 71 The lower order should take heart. The gap is closing.It could be argued that the enormity of what he was doing didn’t faze Curtis because he had never experienced anything like it: Father forgive him, for he knows not what day it is There was no baggage, no expectation. After his 72 in the second round he said: “Hopefully I can finish in the top 15 and get myself back next year.” Curtis also had a few strokes of luck, which any champion needs. In the final round, three birdies in a row from the ninth gave him a two- stroke lead at five under. When he had four bogeys over the back nine, the consensus was that normal order had been restored and Curtis had met his match.The only player to take advantage was Thomas Bjorn.

Back home at the Silkeborg Golf Club, where the walls are adorned with Bjorn memorabilia, the members were getting ready to toast the first Dane to win a major. Apart from Bjorn’s exploits, the little town’s claim to fame is that it was mentioned in the film The Day of the Jackal, the assassin posing in Paris as a Danish schoolteacher. “No, I’m not from Copenhagen, I am from Silkeborg,” said Edward Fox, choosing somewhere suitably anonymous.When Bjorn moved to four under with four to play he led by three, but then, of course, he got trapped in the bunker at the 16th. Quicksand for Bjorn, a lifeline for Curtis, who also, I believe, benefited from the disqualification of Mark Roe.As Roe says, he can only dream in a nightmarish sort of way about what would have happened had he taken his rightful place alongside Woods near the top of the leaderboard. Roe, a man who loves centre stage but is usually confined to the orchestra pit, would have been in his element “A 68 would have won it. Maybe, just maybe…” he said.If there is one thing IMG (their client has already appeared on the David Letterman show) and Curtis would have changed in the fairytale, it is that Roe would not have been disqualified after shooting 67 in the third round. It generated a huge debate, still raging, and deflected some of the limelight away from the champion golfer.

Roe, after forgetting to exchange scorecards with Jesper Parnevik on the first tee in the third round, held his hands up, admitted responsibility and was the only person to emerge from the sorry episode with an enhanced reputation. Everybody else was vilified, particularly the R & A blazers.This was Parnevik: “It’s the dumbest thing ever I don’t know why they still have that stupid scorecard rule. Everybody in the world, including me and Roey, knew what he shot.” One reason they have such rules is not because they doubt the honesty of the players, it’s just they doubt whether they can be entrusted to observe or even understand them.The rule book is a minefield, and the vast majority of players haven’t a clue where the mines are. The modern golfer is mollycoddled from the on-site cr?e to the players’ lounge. Like royalty, they have no need to carry cash and are not encouraged to think for themselves. One of their biggest concerns is the time of the next courtesy car or sponsorship deal Parnevik again: “In America they give me my opponent’s card Here you get your own card and you have to exchange it. I thought the caddies did that, so did Roey probably.” The caddies? They get blamed enough for all sorts of mistakes made by their employers, but a failure to exchange scorecards is a new one.