Tiger Woods, LIV Golf, Rory McIlroy and St. Andrews

ST. ANDREWS, Scotland — Tiger Woods, a 15-time major champion, called St. Andrews his “favorite course in the world” when he announced he’d be playing in the 150th Open after his return to competitive golf at the Masters in April.

There’s plenty of reason for Woods to love it. He claimed his first Claret Jug here in 2000, when he won by a whopping 8 strokes and completed the career grand slam. His 19-under total over 72 holes was a record for any major. Remarkably, he didn’t hit a single shot into a bunker. It was his second of four straight major titles in what became known as the “Tiger Slam.”

Five years later, Woods arrived at St. Andrews ranked No. 2 in the world — behind Vijay Singh. Woods hadn’t won a major in each of the previous two seasons and was retooling his swing under new coach Hank Haney. But Woods grabbed the first-round lead with a 6-under 66 and never looked back in a wire-to-wire win. It was his 10th victory in a major championship.

That brings us to this week, when Woods will be at the center of any discussion. But there other storylines, too. We take you through the biggest ones of the week:

What can we expect from Tiger this week?

It’s clear his game isn’t anywhere close to what it used to be, as he continues to recover from serious injuries in a car wreck on Feb. 23, 2021. He has played only seven rounds of competitive golf this season, which included his worst scores at the Masters and PGA Championship. Given where he was just 17 months ago, it’s probably more notable that he made the cut in those two majors, even if he had to withdraw after 54 holes of the PGA Championship at Southern Hills because of pain in his surgically repaired right leg.

Woods, 46, seemed to wonder if this would be his last go-around in The Open at St. Andrews.

“This is a pretty…