An old friend shows up at St. Andrews _ the wind

An old friend showed up on the Old Course on Sunday.

A strong wind, the best defense in links golf, was largely missing the last two times the British Open came to St. Andrews, which explains how Tiger Woods won with a record score of 19-under 269 in 2000 and at 14-under 274 five years later.

Woods arrived after an overnight flight and found the Old Course much different than he remembered. By the middle of his round, when his tee shot at No. 11 wound up on the seventh green, the strongest recorded gust was just under 80 kph (50 mph).

Standing on the 18th tee, the wind now at his back as he waited to drive the 357-yard hole with a 3-wood, he was …