Tiger Woods got his first look at Royal Lytham and St. Annes in 11 years and declared parts of the Lancashire links gem to be almost unplayable.

He was then joined by defending Open Champion Darren Clarke who also agreed parts of the course were unplayable and that players could loose balls during the four days of the championship.

Woods wasted little time after arriving in his private jet at nearby Blackpool Airport at 7.30am local time Sunday and heading straight for this week’s host venue where he was on the first tee at 8.50am.

Tiger Woods getting his first look at Royal Lytham and St. Annes.

It one of the earliest the 14-time Major Champion has arrived for one of golf’s ultimate prizes.

But then Woods also has been checking the long-range weather forecast for north-west England, and a country still recovering from the wettest June ever.

Woods wanted to get a full round in before the likelihood that continuing rain could seriously disrupt the practice plans of all competitors.

After playing the par three, opening hole, Woods got his first look at the rough down the second.

“Oh, my god!” he was heard to say.

Woods, who is looking to capture a fourth British Open success, took five-and-a-half hours to play the course.

“It’s just that you can’t get out of it,” added Woods.

“The bottom six inches is so lush. The wispy stuff, we’ve always faced that at every Open.

“But that bottom six inches; in some places it’s almost unplayable.”

Woods’ comments immediately rekindled memories of 1999 Open Championship at Carnoustie.  The rough was so thick that former Open Champion, Gary Player suggested:  “There is enough hay out there to feed my horses for 10 years.”

The rough was so thick that the course was renamed – ‘Carnastie’.

“I’ve never seen rough this high or thick, or dense,” Woods said.

The course was lit up by sunshine yesterday, but still the gusts made the 7,086-yard layout a formidable challenge.

“I did a lot of work out here today because come the next few days you probably won’t be able to get in any,” added Woods.

“You have to make a decision on the tee what you’re going to do.

“With certain winds you can clear them [the bunkers] and other winds you can’t.”

There are 206 bunkers at Royal Lytham, and a statistic TaylorMade had used in the make-up of the bags of those players sponsored by the giant equipment firm.

Woods won the 2000 Open Championship and playing all four days of St. Andrews without finding any of the 112 bunkers on the Old Course.

“Probably the biggest difference since we were here in 2001 are the bunker conditions,” said Woods, who finished 25th in the 2001 Open.#

“A lot of them had standing water in them so it will be interesting to see how much more water they can take.”

Clarke got a look at the course on Saturday and his comments mirrored those of Woods.

“There are a few patches out there where it’s just absolutely brutal,” said Clarke.

“The grass is quite thick.  It’s not quite what you expect in links golf.  If you start spraying the ball around this week, you might as well go home.

“There’s no chance coming out of this rough, at all.  Some of the longer par-4s are going to play into the wind and if you start missing fairways you’re really going to struggle.

“And there’s a few places, even with spotters and everything, where you could loose a ball.  Even if you do find it you won’t be able to take a full swing and move it.

“It’s really thick, so there could be some balls lost.”

Meanwhile, Keegan Bradley, the USPGA champion, didn’t dare venture off the fairway.

“I tried not to hit any out of the rough today but I will the rest of the week,” said Bradley.

“It’s very spotty. One foot to the left, you are hitting in to the green; another foot and you are chipping out to the fairway.

“It’s a flip of the coin whether you’re going to get a good lie or not. Hopefully, I have some luck stored up.”