For complete British Open coverage, follow Yahoo! Sports’ Devil Ball Golf on Facebook and Twitter.  

When the 1995 British Open champion was introduced on the first tee on Thursday, Old Tom Morris was probably rolling in his grave. Floral-print pants? Turquoise hat?! Yellow grips?!? Was this guy here for the Open or some sort of outdoor fashion show?

That was probably the last time Morris would be questioning John Daly‘s place on this golf course. A birdie on the first and then a birdie on the second in what could best be considered as super scoring conditions at St. Andrews had Big John off to a great start. But that was only the beginning.

[Photos: See John Daly in his wild floral pants]

Before most people were awake on this side of the pond, Daly had carded seven birdies in 11 holes. He would par the next five holes, hitting the lip three times with putts all from good spots on the green. If anything, Daly was standing on the 17th tee frustrated with his round, not happy he was three strokes away from tying the course record. A pounded drive from the new tee on the Road Hole left John in the best position of the day on 17, but he couldn’t take advantage, making his lone bogey.

A good drive on the 18th ended in a downhill lie, leaving Daly with the Texas wedge from well in front of the green, but he swapped the putt up the Valley of Sin, and had a 12-footer for birdie and a 65. When he struck it, Colin Montgomerie, who was sitting in the ESPN booth, said "Well done," as the putt looked to be breaking in, but Daly hit another lip, looked away in disgust, and had to "settle" for a 66. Still, Daly sits near the top of the leaderboard at a British Open.

The weather was the big story before the tournament began, with winds so strong on Wednesday that an exhibition on the Old was canceled. There was hardly a breath for the morning groups on Thursday, and it seemed just about everyone out there was taking advantage.

[Related: John Daly, Tom Watson peg the ends of the fashion spectrum

It’s interesting how Daly’s opening round might have turned out. Back in ’95, when he won at this very course, John opened with a 67, only to have the conditions worsen for the rest of the week. The forecast calls for something similiar over the next few days, so maybe a good start and then having the ability to just hang around will be good for the 44-year-old Daly.

Our only hope here? That Daly’s rain gear has a floral pattern.

More Yahoo! coverage of the British Open:
• Stewart Cink’s tweet-covered bag brings Twitter to St. Andrews
• Tiger Woods posts his best round of the year
• McIlroy’s opening-round ties a record for a major

The British Open is this week, at the home of golf. Luckily, I used to caddie at the Old Course, and will be breaking down a few of the important holes throughout the week. We already tackled No. 1, No. 5 and No. 11. Now we will look at the 14th, the second par-5 on the course, measuring 618 yards. 

They call it Long, and for good reason. It isn’t the same par-5 that the British Open used to play. Tees have been moved so far back, that when you play a regular round at St. Andrews, you must walk your player around the corner just so they can see the tee that the professionals play from. It is so far off the beaten path that it is literally on the Eden Course, one of the other six tracks St. Andrews Links owns.

If strategy is a factor in any hole at the Old Course it is this one. The first challenge? Avoiding the four Beardies Bunkers off the tee. They are only 250 yards out from the back tees, but if the wind is into the players, it will play more like 295. That means that they will have to either squeeze a driver between the bunkers and the out of bounds that runs all the way up the right side (and you are looking directly at it from the new tees, basically set up to hit it right) or pull out a three-wood and play it short of the bunkers.

With wind, the next step is even trickier. You have a decision to make. Play it down the 14th fairway, and leave yourself a long third-shot approach, or take it up the fifth fairway at the church tower, a place so popular that there is actually yardage markers there for the 14th.

The problem with not going the route of the fifth is you could find yourself in Hell Bunker, a plot of deep sand so fierce that most amateurs just snag their ball and drop it out since they don’t see a way to exit it (Here is a photo of me in it in 2005).

If the wind isn’t into the players, they’ll have an opportunity to go for this one in two with a good drive. The problem is, the green is as slopped from front to back as any on the course, and has a nasty false front that collects a lot of shots and makes a two putt extremely difficult. If you miss any approach to the green left, you could find yourself in Grave Bunker or Ginger Beer Bunker, and long means another pot bunker that is no treat.

The 14th is the most difficult par-5 on the golf course, and takes a ton of strategy and skill to get past it with a birdie.

So the big story surrounding Tiger Woods‘ on-course actions prior to the start of the British Open is the fact that he’s parted ways with a longtime pal — his Scotty Cameron putter. This is, quite frankly, a much bigger deal than the casual fan might expect, and could have significant ramifications for Woods this weekend and beyond. 

The Scotty Cameron Newport 2 has been with Tiger for 12 years of insane triumph, 12 years of unbelievable success. Nike has apparently tried for years to sell Tiger on a similar model. Heck, Cameron himself has tried to catch lightning in a bottle with similar models. But tournament after tournament, year after year, Woods stuck with the same old trusty pal. It’s like a familiar baseball cap or a beloved old car — you know there may be newer or better models out there, but you stay with the familiar. As Steve Elling noted over at CBS, Tiger once called his Scotty Cameron putter "invaluable, irreplaceable. You can’t put a dollar value on it."

[Photos: See Tiger Woods at the British Open]

Perhaps not, but you apparently can take a little bit of a time-out, at least. As Waggle room notes, the Nike Method 001 "has a polymer-infused face whose major design goal is to get the ball rolling with topspin faster after impact. The polymer leaves the face with sections of metal that ‘grab’ the ball and get it going more quickly to the target." 

That’s an awful lot of alteration to a part of Woods’ game that’s already in precarious, critical shape. How many times at the U.S. Open did we see Woods roll a putt just wide, exhale through his teeth, and stare at the heavens? This is a serious tightrope act, an all-in move that feels just a wee bit desperate. 

Now, consider the other side. Woods may just be doing this to compensate for St. Andrews’ slow greens, but what if he plays incredibly well? What if he actually wins? Could that send the Scotty Cameron to the proverbial dustbin of golf history? You know how it is — once you stray, it gets easier to … you know what? We probably ought to cut this metaphor off right here.

Anyway, is it crazy? Brilliant? Both? We’ll find out starting Thursday, but one thing’s for certain: Of all the relationships that Tiger’s had over all the years, I can pretty much guarantee that at least the putter wasn’t doing any covering up for him. And this is the thanks it gets.

The British Open is this week, at the home of golf. Luckily, I used to caddie at the Old Course, and will be breaking down a few of the important holes throughout the week. We already tackled No. 1, No. 5, No. 11 and No. 14. Now we will look at the most famous hole in golf, the par-4 17th, playing 495 yards. 

It isn’t just the most famous hole in the world, but it might be one of the toughest. Carnoustie has the 18th, Augusta National has Amen Corner and St. Andrews has the Road Hole, a test of golf so tough that they made the 18th easy just so you could have a break on your way in.

This year will be the first time that St. Andrews has used a new tee on the Road Hole, pushed back some 40 yards, onto the regular driving range for the St. Andrews Links.

The new tee has brought about a ton of controversy amongst the locals, and is going to change the hole dramatically for the players. First, players are forced to hit driver, a change from Tiger Woods and his choice for a fairway metal for his past Opens. A driver over an old railway shed will be the line, unless the wind is into the players.

If that is the case, look for some of the shorter players to bail out left, into the second fairway, and play the hole like a par-5.

If there isn’t any wind, players must hit a good driver over the shed and face a second shot somewhere around 200 yards. Depending on the flag, players will either pick the left side of the green or the right side of the green, but never the middle, because that is where the lone bunker on this hole sits, the Road Hole Bunker, which has ended many Open bids in the past.

A long second shot to this skinny green could end up on the road, which is still in play, or against the wall, which is also in play. If the pin is back left, players will intentionally miss the green left in hopes of a pitch and a putt for a par. If you miss the green short and right, a false front makes a two putt all the more treacherous.

They say this in major championship golf a lot, but it is never truer than on the Road Hole: Par is an incredible, incredible score.

Golf carts are fun. And 2-year-olds are adorable. So why, then, is a 2-year-old behind the wheel of a golf cart such a terror?

Dateline: Springfield, Ore. The scene: a high-school football field. The battle: 2-year-old in runaway golf cart vs. oblivious referee. Who ya got?

Let’s go to the security-cam videotape:

Ouch! That’ll leave a mark — a quarter-million-dollar mark, according to a lawsuit the referee filed. Kenneth Brooks is suing the Springfield School District, charging that officials with Thurston High School left the golf cart unattended and the keys in the ignition, leading directly to the October 2008 incident.

Enter the 2-year-old, who climbed into the cart and set it cruising. The hit caused Brooks a disc herniation, concussion, occipital contusion and abrasion, cervical strain, lumbar strain and a calf abrasion, according his suit, which seeks more than $264,000 for damages and medical expenses. Brooks is also suing the mother of the child, charging her with negligence for letting the kid, you know, swipe a freaking golf cart.

The suit is still pending. No word on whether the golf cart had to be put down after getting a taste of human flesh.

(Visor tip: Deadspin)

If you don’t get the game of golf, you don’t get the obsession with St. Andrews. "It looks like a goat track," some people might say. "It’s pretty flat," others might complain. "It isn’t even pretty," the blasphemous might utter.

To truly understand the beauty of the Old Course at St. Andrews, and the entire town for that matter, is to get what it must feel like for golfers to come home. Not "home" in the sense of the word, but more like home in the sense of your happiness. The town of St. Andrews is focused on one thing and one thing only, and that’s golf. You can’t walk around a corner without a pub sporting the game or a shop trying to sell you cheaper merchandise.

As you round the corner in your rental car (and hopefully you’ve made it that far driving on the wrong side of the road, through corners that make driving through the Rockies seem comfortable), the entire town greets you with a smile. You see the famed links almost instantaneously, along with some of the other great tracks that make up the St. Andrews Links.

You pull past the grand Old Course Hotel, and make a couple of roundabouts before you can take your left to finally lay eyes on the 18th green, the one you’ve read about for years and years. Goosebumps can’t even keep up with the initial feeling when you first step up to the Old. It’s majestic in a way that makes it original. Flat. Simple. Beautiful.

A non-golfer wouldn’t appreciate, and they probably shouldn’t. I don’t gawk when I see modern art or hear a guy hit a note on the guitar that is tough to reach, because that stuff isn’t my cup of tea. Here … here is where I’m comfortable.

If it isn’t a round on the Old, it is a pint at the Dunvegan, surrounded by 30 golfers all trying to squeeze in their one shining moment from the day. You have teenagers, groups of 30-somethings and men without any hair left to enjoy the Scottish wind all excited like they’d just see their first Playboy. It really is an electric place. You’re hearing stories of the battles at Carnoustie that day, or how Kingsbarns is more beautiful than expected. Guys talking about birdies, and settling up over bets, enjoying a Tennets and some fish and chips. Just typing about it makes me consider checking Continental.com to see if there are any last-minute flights out, just so I can feel that camaraderie that only happens in this town.

The Old Course is the only place in the world where you can hit your tee shot with a car driving across the middle of the fairway, a man walking his dog up the 18th, and a group of tourists eyeing your swing. It is a melting pot of people, all here because of one white ball struck with a stick some 550 years ago.

This week, the town is different. It is more manicured and less, well, Scottish. Golf is played on Sunday this week, the only time they do that all season. It will be overrun with people that may or may not appreciate the Old like they should.

Nonetheless, for one week every five years, golf is highlighted where it is always highlighted; St. Andrews. May we all enjoy it for just what it is; beautiful, exciting and unique.

The Open Championship is back at St. Andrews, and to commemorate the occasion, we’re looking back on some of the best Opens held at the august course. (Nearly 30 of them have played out here, you know.) Today, Sir Nick Faldo continues his astonishing 1990 with a bravura performance.

Nick Faldo gets all kinds of grief now for his arrogance and his announcing, but in 1990, there was no one better in golf. He’d won the Masters and finished tied for third at the U.S. Open, and came into the 1990 Open Championship at St. Andrews as confident as any golfer has ever been.

Faldo and Greg Norman dueled back and forth over the weekend, but Faldo was just too strong. He put distance between himself and Norman after already running away from the field. He posted three straight rounds in the 60s, and entered Sunday with a five-stroke lead. Nothing could possibly go wrong, could it?

Nope. Faldo absolutely dominated, posting a Sunday 71 and finishing the same five strokes ahead of Mark McNulty and Payne Stewart. Kick back and enjoy:

That’s one sterling example of an Open Championship, shooting an 18-under 270 and beating by six strokes the standing record at St. Andrews. He had another Open and another Masters in his future, but St. Andrews was his most dominant major.

Next: Scotland meets Arkansas

Time for the British Open to begin! As we do every major, we’ll have a running Twitter feed of golf’s best and brightest, giving you running updates from St. Andrews. We’ll also be stopping by at 9:30 Eastern to chat, so get your questions in. Cheerio, lads!

Tiger Woods and John Daly share a laugh. Oh, the stories these two could tell. About the British Open! What did you think I was talking about?

Daly and Woods were posing for a group photo of all the surviving British Open champions, the picture of which is below.

How many can you name? Go!

A few weeks back, I was in St. Andrews, checking out some of the changes to the most famous hole in golf, the par-4 17th. Called the Road Hole, 17 is known for a ton of things; the tee shot over the shed, the Road Hole Bunker, and the skinny green that forces you to hit a nearly perfect second shot.

In 2010, however, it is known for something completely different, and new: a tee some 40 yards back. The hole is now measured at 495 yards, and if there is wind into the face of players, players will have to play up the second-hole fairway, playing the hole like a par-5.

Below is a video we shot for the event, showing just how far back the tee is on 17, and what exactly players will be facing when they come to this famed piece of grass.