Cue the bagpipes. Put the announcers microphones to a majestic reverent setting. Fire up the helicopter to give viewers a full layout of each hole. And get ready for an extended weekend of “Aye Laddie.”

Golf returns home today. The 129th British Open is being played at the acreage where the game most likely began. St. Andrews in Scotland is thought by many to be largely the same as it was in the 1400s. The design of the course has never gotten a huge facelift. The main difference may be that sheep no longer uphold and maintain St. Andrews.

The Old Course is the epitome of links golf. You will find no spin-back sand wedges here. Links golf is vastly different from golf played on the PGA Tour. Keep the ball out of the wind.

Approach shots must land short of the green and roll up. Creativity around the greens — and in the fairways for that matter — is vital. Be wary of the bunkers. All 112 of them.

“They’re meant to be real hazards,” says Hugh Campbell, chairman of the Royal and Ancient Championship, when discussing the bogey and double-bogey inducing bunkers. This may be an unwelcome change to players who are used to bunkers that do anything but punish. St. Andrews bunkers will not be fluffy, well-kept, and most importantly, unimposing.

These strips of sand are so legendary, they’ve been given names. Hell, the Coffins, Cartgate, Beardie and the Principal’s Nose are among the most notorious. The Hell bunker, a fairway bunker at the 14th, is 10 feet deep.

It is not uncommon for any bunker at St. Andrews to be taller than the golfer who hit it there. Approaching Hell from the green, you need a ladder to get down to it. At the British Open in 1995, Jack Nicklaus found himself in “Hell.” When he left the 14th green, he put a 10 on his scorecard.

A 10 from the greatest player ever? The bunkers, however, are only half the story of St. Andrews.

In the United States, plodding through 30 mph winds is considered treacherous. At The Old Course, it is considered nothing more than favorable conditions for a round of “goff.” (Scottish pronunciation of golf ). In fact, nae win’, nae goff (pronounced no wind, no golf by Non-Scots) is such a common phrase among Open galleries, that many patrons deem a champion who did not have to endure gusts (that can reach upwards of 50 mph) as “less than worthy.”

The wind is most often accompanied by biting rain, or in some instances, sleet. (It is often difficult for a player to differentiate between the two with the wind howling.)

If the gods of St. Andrews decide to reek havoc on the four days of the British Open, the winner could also be called “The Survivor of Mother Nature’s Attrition.”

St. Andrews also has what is arguably the most difficult hole in golf. The 17th, or Road Hole as it is most often referred to, gives a golfer a tee shot unlike any other par four. On one side of the fairway is a hotel. On the other side, a roadway.

The best shot off the tee is to take it left and scrape the noses of the window-watchers from the hotel. From there, you have options.

You can putt the ball the remaining 100 yards to the green, hit a chip-and-run with the seven iron, or use the wedge, and as always, land it short and let it scoot.

Danger lies in the Road Hole bunker, which doesn’t disappoint its brethren, and the actual road/short wall, which runs along the back of the green.

Hit into trouble, and your score may know no limits.

So who will win? Before you scream Tiger, consider that most British Open Champions are tried and true veterans who have learned every nook and cranny of the weathered course.

But if you still want to scream Tiger, he does submit an impressive r‚sum‚. With Tiger’s length, almost every par four is reachable from the tee. With a gust at his back, the par-5’s may be in range as well. Adding to his length are the sun-baked fairways and greens. It will be like golf balls landing on I-35 all weekend if the sun stays out.

Then there is the way that Tiger won the U.S. Open. Tiger was not in awe of Pebble Beach. If anything, he spit on the course repeatedly. Any challenge that Pebble offered was disemboweled by Tiger. Don’t expect Tiger to be wide-eyed and gaping at the mother course and all of the lore that runs with it.

If the playing conditions are favorable by U.S. standards, Tiger has the possibility of pulling a U.S. Open part II.

But if it’s cold, rainy, and windy, — in other words, British Open conditions — no one will break away from the pack.

In this instance, expect Tiger to contend but not to prevail.

If Woods does win, he will become the youngest player ever to win the Grand Slam, putting him in elite company.

The only other players to accomplish this: Gary Player, Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan and Jack Nicklaus.

All of whom knew something about St. Andrews that Tiger has yet to learn; it takes as much luck as skill to win at St. Andrews.

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Paul Kix is a junior in journalism and mass communication from Hubbard.