Last month’s emotional press conference did nothing to help the speculation over Tiger Woods so it remains a big doubt whether the world No 1 will be in attendance when The Open Championship returns to St Andrews in July.

Tiger Woods was victorious the last time the tournament was played at the Old Course, with his 14-under finish enough to win by five strokes from Colin Montgomerie, and he would have been a short-priced favourite had he confirmed he would be in attendance this time around.

But it appeared from his interview towards the end of February that his mind was not on golf, solely on rebuilding his home life after the tabloid headlines that all came out of his untimely car crash outside his home last December.

Now all we can do is wait and see if he turns up – hopefully from a golf betting perspective the announcement will come in plenty of time so as not to confuse things even further.

In his absence, it would be almost impossible to name a favourite for Open Championship Betting at the moment but it could well be a couple of Irishmen with differing levels of experience who end up making the market without Woods.

Padraig Harrington was denied a third successive Open title last season at Turnberry, when Stewart Cink secured the Claret Jug, but if he gets to St Andrews without breaking his winless streak it would be nearly two seasons since he last tasted victory.

Right at the other end of the spectrum, in terms of major experience, is Rory McIlroy, but despite consistently excelling he still only has one tournament victory on his resume, just over a year ago in Dubai.

He has started 2010 in positive fashion with a couple of top 10 finishes, but it has to be a slight worry that he has been complaining of back problems at such a tender age, and he admits he might need to make changes to his swing at some point down the line.

Rory McIlroy says he is not worried by the early part of his career, which should be a very successful one, being plagued by near misses but that it appears is not going to stop him visiting a sports psychologist.

But the good thing to read, in stark contrast to some other precocious players in the past, is that Rory McIlroy is keeping grounded and not making his life harder by playing in a long run of tournaments – he won’t play more than two weeks back-to-back at all between now and May.

What a story it would be for a player just turned 20 to lift the sport’s biggest prize in only his second full season.