"Is it because of the constant need to improvise, that you love links golf?" Given the player's torment at Troon's quirky 10th hole yesterday, the question to Tiger Woods had acquired a greater depth than was originally intended.

Indeed it would be something of an achievement for the player to "love links golf" after an ugly, quadruple-bogey eight had consigned him to a second round of 74 for a halfway total of 146, four over par. But Woods is an admirably game young man.

Essentially, the problem had to do with a pulled three-wood tee-shot; an eight-iron recovery through the green into "pretty thick stuff", four wedge shots, one of which was a fresh air, and two putts from 12 feet.

A fresh air? "I tried to play a shot to the front of the green but I whiffed it," explained Woods. "My club caught a tree behind me and I went right underneath the ball."

Though he had carded a triple-bogey seven at the 11th on Thursday, this was different. A fresh-air from the phenom. Could it be that this remarkable player was actually human after all? It could indeed. And appropriately, the truth had been laid before us by a brutally honest links.

Mind you, Woods wasn't all sweetness and light. "Would you like to talk about your position after two rounds in relation to the leaderboard?" "I will just answer questions." In other words, his audience were not about to have the benefit of his observations on world affairs, not even as they affected the cost of Nike gear.

Meanwhile, he was now 13 strokes behind the leader, Darren Clarke. "Unfortunately I just happened to have two bad holes and you can't afford to have that in majors, or in any tournament, if you want to win," he said. So, did it mean he was now too far back?

The reply was swift though not necessarily emphatic. "I don't think so," he replied. "I was more than 13 strokes back at Pebble Beach this year and almost won." This was a reference to the AT&T Pro-Am in which closing rounds of 63 and 64, culminating in a stunning three-wood second shot onto the long 18th, brought him within a shot of the winner, Mark O'Meara.

"Overall, I think this golf course is definitely a little more severe than the last two I've played (Royal Lytham and St Andrews), just because of the undulations in the fairways. So it's been a little tricky, because you can get some uphill lies going into the wind and you've got to hit some pretty weird clubs, and that's a little different.

"But I love being able to play creatively, because the short game is brought back into play. I mean, you don't have to hit the 60degree lob-wedge every time you miss a target. Here, we're hitting all types of clubs - anything from a two-iron to a putter. That's neat."

Problems remained with unofficial photographers, which he seemed to dismiss as an inevitable consequence of his celebrity. They, like the other Tiger-tailers, were hoping for some spectacle from their hero.

Unfortunately for all concerned, the sort of spectacle he has been delivering so far at Troon has been decidedly destructive. But we shouldn't complain. At least he agreed to talk about it.