Tiger Woods game is a question mark heading into the British Open

For a major championship that began 154 years ago, no one ever knows what to expect at the British Open.

Royal Liverpool is the perfect reminder of that.

The second-oldest golf club in England (founded in 1867) played host to The Open in 2006 during a surprisingly dry summer.

The links course was so brown and dusty that the R&A asked that two fire engines be parked on the property. The ball ran so far and fast on the baked-out grass that Tiger Woods only hit driver one time over 72 holes on his way to a two-shot victory for his third claret jug.

Eight years later, the landscape has changed in so many ways.

The grass is green, courtesy of a wet spring. The yellow, wispy grass so common in the British Open is still there, only the layer of vegetation beneath is thick enough to make golf balls disappear. It feels like a new course.

“It’s lush. The greens are soft and very green. Fairways are pretty similar,” Rory McIlroy said after a scouting trip to Royal Liverpool.

“It’s going to be different. There’s some thick spots of rough on the course, so avoiding that, avoiding those fairway bunkers … if I can just do that, and anyone else can do that, then they’ll have a good chance.”

Does that include Woods?

Once a sure thing to contend at any major, he has never been a greater mystery than now.

Not only has Woods gone six years since winning his 14th major, now he makes news simply by playing in one. He had back surgery on March 31 to alleviate a pinched nerve.

He missed the Masters Tourna­ment for the first time, and then the U.S. Open.

When the British Open begins today, it will be his first major in 11 months. He at least had two rounds of competition to shake off rust. Woods missed the cut at Congressional, which annoyed him. He also played without pain, which thrilled him.

“I hate to say it, but I’m really encouraged by what happened this week,” Woods said after missing the cut by four shots at Congressional.

“What I was able to do physically, and the speed I had and the distance that I was hitting the golf ball again, I had not done that in a very long time.”

There hasn’t been a dominant player during his time away from various injuries and surgeries over the past five years. McIlroy, with two majors by age 23, is just now starting to get his game back in order. Martin Kaymer won The Players Championship and U.S. Open by going wire-to-wire in both. Adam Scott is No. 1 in the world. Phil Mickelson is the defending champion at the British Open.

This British Open could give an indication whether Woods can join the fray.

“We have all witnessed what Tiger has been able to do over his career, whether that’s come back from injury and win, come back from any sort of off-course stuff and win,” McIlroy said.

“Is it foolish for people to write him off? I would say so. If he’s playing and he’s competing, he’s got as good a chance as any.”