A Tiger victory could stop Neil playing the Old Course

I've spent a couple of half-hour spells at the first tee, just watching people tee off and I spent some time up at the Road Hole.

That's a real drawback of this job. If you're working from the TV coverage you don't really get out on the course, which is a great shame.

Fantastic atmosphere

But it's obviously still great being here, even though you're watching it second-hand as it were, the atmosphere at St Andrews is fantastic and you have to be here to pick that up, to really report properly.

This, along with the Ryder Cup, has been the most memorable of all the events I have covered. I'm a golf fanatic so I remember them more than the others.

The Ryder Cup at Brookline was sensational in its own way - it was a great story and very exciting.

You can't really match the Ryder Cup for the excitement that goes on around the course on the last afternoon. An exciting Open would match it, when you really pick up the vibes from the crowds around the course.

The quality of the golf here has been outstanding, there's been some very low-scoring, and I know the Old Course has been playing pretty easy in these conditions, but you just have to marvel at the skill of these players.

Beautiful to watch

One of the interesting things about coming to an Open is watching them on the practice ground and you see the quality of the strike they get on the ball, and the trajectory, it's just beautiful to watch, and you realise just how good these players are.

What you can't appreciate from TV is how difficult the greens are and the way the players are able to read them to get the ball close enough to make birdies.

I was hoping to get a chance to play the Old Course on Monday but I rather think that if Tiger Woods wins, there will be a follow-up story on the Monday and I'll have to work instead.

I've got the Olympics to look forward to in Sydney after this - it's been a big year with Euro 2000 and the Olympics as well as this particularly special Open.

With Woods and with it being the millennium Open, those things have combined to make this even more memorable than Open's normally are.

If Woods wins it, it will be a fantastic story, and I just hope that it is an exciting climax.