Gullane, Scotland - The practice round schedule posted each day at Muirfield is not the only way to determine how players are getting ready for the British Open.

Johnson Wagner's name was on the tee sheet at St. Andrews over the weekend.

Geoff Ogilvy could be found on the other side of the country, on links courses like Turnberry, Royal Troon and Western Gailes. Justin Rose was at North Berwick. So were Bubba Watson and Luke Donald, who got in plenty of golf along the Firth of Forth the week before the British Open.

It's not unusual for players to take off from their regular tours a week before a major to prepare. What's different about the British Open - isn't everything? - is that preparations aren't limited to the course they will be playing.

"You can prepare for the U.S. Open on the range," Ogilvy said Wednesday. "But you can only prepare for The Open on the course. And it doesn't necessarily have to be the course you're playing. The seaside courses here, they're the only courses with turf like this, with sand like this. There's something different about the seaside wind in Scotland. ... You can fly to Shanghai or Abu Dhabi and work on what you need at home. But you can't work on what you need at home until you get here."

Tiger Woods, a three-time Open champion, arrived Sunday morning and has played nine holes a day. There was a time he would leave home a week early and head to Ireland with Mark O'Meara and David Duval, both former Open champions, and play the links courses there.

Woods loves to recall his first experience with links golf in 1995 as the U.S. Amateur champion. He played the Scottish Open at Carnoustie, and then drove down the North Sea shoreline to St. Andrews for the British Open.

"I absolutely fell in love with it, to be able to dink a 5-iron from 150 yards and bump it on the ground, or vice versa - have 260 out and hit a 4-iron and it bounces over the green. That, to me, is pretty neat. Because we play everywhere around the world - an airborne game where you have to hit the ball straight up in the air and make it stop. Here it's different. A draw will go one distance, a fade will go another, and they're so dramatic. And I just absolutely love it."

True, adjusting to links golf can just as easily take place at Muirfield, where the British Open starts today. Defending champion Ernie Els came down from Castle Stuart and has stayed at Muirfield, wrapping up his final practice round Wednesday just after 6 p.m.

But there are no tricks at Muirfield. There are hardly any blind shots. Most of the bunkers are in plain view from the tee. That's one of the reasons that Muirfield is a favorite of so many players, who use words like "fair" and "honest test," which aren't always heard on other links courses.

"I think of all the Open venues, it's probably one of the least quirky ones," Donald said Wednesday. "It's quite straightforward. Obviously with the weather conditions, it's playing firm and fast. It's going to be about controlling your golf ball this week. And the weather looks good. The course is set up just the way the R&A would like it. It's bouncy. It's a little bit of a breeze out there. Firm conditions are a good protector of the golf course, and we certainly have that this week."

The forecast is dry for the week, with perhaps some mist on the weekend. Even though officials had the course just the way they wanted it early in the week, they have turned on a few sprinklers in the evening to keep it from getting overcooked.

It all starts to unfold this morning when Peter Senior of Australia hits the opening tee shot.

Among the early starters are Els, Rose and Brandt Snedeker in one group, with Phil Mickelson, Rory McIlroy and Hideki Matsuyama a few groups behind. The afternoon groups include Woods, Graeme McDowell and Louis Oosthuizen, along with Masters champion Adam Scott, Donald and Matt Kuchar.

Tom Watson won at Muirfield in 1980 by four shots over Lee Trevino, which was a rarity in one respect. That was the only Open in the last six times at Muirfield that golf's oldest championship was decided by more than one shot. Els won in a record four-man playoff the last time in 2002.

Muirfield is seen as a thorough examination that requires solid contact in any weather, which might explain why only the best players seem to win here - Els, Nick Faldo twice, Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, Walter Hagen, Trevino.