An early start and Paul McGinley was quickly into the mood. "At 7.0 this morning, I watched a video of the 1983 British Open here at Birkdale," he said, while hitting balls on the practice ground later in the day. "I wanted to see the way the course looked and how it was playing."

He walked the towering dunes last Saturday night and again yesterday, letting his brain absorb every relevant detail. He looked at possible lines off the tee and tried to imagine how radically it might all be changed by a switch in wind direction.

Des Smyth had also done the hard work of qualifying. And like so many times in the past, he had the generosity to extend a welcoming hand to young colleagues Graham Spring, Francis Howley and third alternate, Stuart Paul, whom he joined in an afternoon practice round.

Meanwhile, Padraig Harrington had enlisted the coaching skills of Bob Torrance, with the blessing of his regular tutor Howard Bennett, who was also in attendance. "Bob is helping me achieve more rotation of my left arm and body," explained the Dubliner. He continued hitting balls. By stopping, he would have run the risk of getting cold in a chilling wind.

McGinley was intrigued by the performance of Lee Trevino in 1983, when he was tied fifth, three strokes behind Tom Watson. "He could have won it, you know," he enthused. With that, Willie Aitchison, Trevino's one-time caddie, was called over to join us. "Isn't that right Willie?," McGinley insisted.

With that, Aitchison spoke as only a caddie could about events of 15 years ago. Listening to him, I was reminded of the old caddie line - "We made a wonderful birdie at the 12th, but then he went and hit it in a bunker at the next."

The Aitchison version was: "Ten seconds is all it took for us to lose that Open. We were one stroke behind Watson on the long 17th and with 264 yards to the pin, Lee asked if he could make it with a five wood. It was a strong five wood. Before I had the chance of saying anything, he had taken out the three wood and blocked it into the right rough. That was it."

There was a time when Smyth didn't have to concern himself about qualifying for the Open: his perennial top-20 placing in the Order of Merit took care of it. Not any more. "I was joint leader of the qualifiers at West Lancs and Rodger Davis led them at Hesketh and we congratulated each other this morning," he said.

"`The old guys are still able to do it' I told him. And we laughed. I wanted to get into this so badly that I did things in the second qualifying round yesterday that I haven't done in a long time. All I can think now is what a pity that Christy (O'Connor Jnr) and Eamonn (Darcy) aren't here too."

The Open does things to players. Harrington didn't want to dwell too much on his brilliant, fifth-place finish at Royal Troon last year. Sure, it was great to have done it, but you simply couldn't wish a repeat of such a performance. It was the stuff of hard work and determination.

"I love the course and the way it's set up - superb," he said. "I'm feeling good and my game is going the way I want it. That's all I can hope for right now." He went on: "I hope the wind keeps blowing. My game was shaped in the wind, at places like Rosses Point, Lahinch, Portmarnock, Portrush and Baltray. I think I'll manage it better than other people."

Looking out over the windswept dunes, he mused: "It's really about keeping the ball under control and hitting the right bad shots." There was no denying the Open mood.