Golf:Rory McIlroy took it all in his young stride today as he flew in for the British Open — even the fact that there was no car to pick him up. A mix-up over the time the 22-year-old was landing in Kent with his parents meant a call to his manager and a swift re-allocation of one of the two cars sent for stablemate Ernie Els.

After that it was to the house that is his base for the week, then to Royal St George’s in Sandwich, where the youngest US Open champion since 1923 hopes on Sunday to become the youngest Open champion since 1893.

He was there to hit a few balls, shake a few hands — plenty more of that to come after what he did in Washington last month — and face an awful lot of media. There were twice as many there before McIlroy entered the interview room than there were when England’s world number one Luke Donald was in it. Such is the way of things.

Playing the course again — he made a scouting trip last week — will come at dawn tomorrow in the likely company of Darren Clarke. With no Tiger Woods this week McIlroy has centre stage to himself and so his every move is being charted.

But there was time before he re-entered the superstar world to which he now belongs for him and his father Gerry to spent some precious moments together.

“Last night we went to Royal County Down at about seven in the evening,” he said. “It was just me and him on the golf course, basically no-one else. I played nine holes and he walked around. We did the exact same thing last year going into St Andrews.

“It sort of brought back a lot of memories — playing with my dad, long summer nights, teeing off at five and getting in at nine.”

It was very different at the US Open, of course, and it will be very different when he tees off in the British Open — his first event since to the surprise of many — at 9.09am on Thursday.

“The first 10 days after winning the US Open, it was a bit hectic trying to see everyone and going here, there and everywhere,” he said.

It included two trips to Wimbledon either side of attending David Haye’s world title fight in Germany.

“But the last 10 days have been good — I’ve got back into my routine and been practising a lot. I feel as if my preparation has been really good,” McIlroy added.

“I knew that the time for reflection wasn’t really at this point of the season, it’s at the end — I’ve got to forget about what happened three weeks ago and just try to win another golf tournament.”

Lee Westwood, meanwhile, is nothing if not patient and the world number two intends to use that virtue to the full around Sandwich's lunar-like landscape.

The classic links course, complete with crater-like bunkers, rollercoaster fairways and a teasing wind off the English Channel, will provide plenty of frustration for the world's best players over the coming days.

Westwood, though, will not be one of those gnashing his teeth at the injustice of it all.

At 38 the Englishman has usurped Colin Montgomerie as the best modern-day player never to have won a major - a dubious honour he shrugs off these days just as he will a cruel bounce of the ball around the 7,211-yard layout.

"I think more than anywhere on the Open rota there are a couple of fairways out there where you can get bad breaks," said Westwood, runner-up at St Andrews last year to Louis Oosthuizen and tied third the year before at Turnberry.

"I suppose you can get good breaks as well but I think at some point during the week you're going to need patience; it's going to be tested. But I've got plenty of that," he told reporters before his first practice round.

With top-three finishes in all the majors, including a distant third last month at the US Open behind runaway winner McIlroy, Westwood is one of the favourites this week - particularly if the wind blows.

"Links golf is determined by the weather so you don't want it flat calm," said Westwood who won as an amateur at Royal St George's in 1992.

"These golf courses are designed with, I guess, a 15, 20-mph wind in mind so you don't want it flat calm.

You want it, well I certainly want it so ball-striking is a prerequisite.

"Ideally you'd like it so it's the same morning and afternoon but often that doesn't work out in links golf. It's the luck of the draw really. If that doesn't happen then you're hoping that you're on the right side of it.

"I remember in 1992 it being very windy and I played well," added Westwood of his amateur title at Sandwich.

Whatever the weather Gods have in store, though, Westwood said the course would provide a fair test.

"Strategically it's a good golf course. You have to plan your way around it," he said.

"The rough seems pretty fair. You do get a few freaky bounces out there because the fairways are a bit undulating, I'm thinking of 13 and 17 because they've not gone silly with the rough this year.

"It just seems to be a nice height where you can get a shot but the flier was in the equation out there."

Westwood had a word of warning for the gung-ho master blasters unused to the subtleties of links golf however.

"It can be mentally frustrating out there. I think that's why people either like or dislike it," the former world number one said. "You've got to love it and get on with it.

"There's no point in coming to a golf course and saying, I don't like this place. You can mentally get in your own way straight away there."

While many of the 156-strong field were out early today, Westwood was taking his time, preferring a leisurely tea-time stroll with the course largely to himself.

"You tend to find that most people get carried away at Open championships first thing in the morning, practice too much and then there's nobody on the golf course at three or four.

"It's the best time to play. Hopefully come Sunday I will be teeing off about that time or maybe just a fraction earlier."