There are no plans to make St Andrews any longer when the Open is next played at the course – but officials do hope to see the Road Hole 17th playing tougher. The tee on the Old Course's most famous and most difficult hole was moved back 40 yards, making it a 495-yard par four, but the average score went up only from 4.63 in 2005 to 4.66 this year.

The 139th Open came alive at 9.45pm on Friday when Tiger Woods almost holed his drive at the final hole and Tom Watson made his last trip over the Swilcan Bridge. Dusk had fallen and the hooter went to suspend play for the night but players could finish the hole they were on, and suddenly the air was crackling. At one of the few venues where the five-time Open champion failed to triumph, Watson stooped to kiss the old stone bridge and stood for the obligatory farewell wave. Then he very nearly holed his chip for an eagle. The 60-year-old said: "I thought of Arnold [Palmer] and Jack [Nicklaus] on the bridge in their last Opens right here. But it is not my last Open. I've got a few more years, but it is my last at St Andrews." Having almost won last year, Watson is exempt through to 2014 but the Open will not return here until 2015 at the earliest and perhaps not until 2017. So, is he looking forward to an easier ride this week in the Senior Open at Carnoustie, where he won his first Claret Jug in 1975? "Carnoustie is never easy," he said. "Give me a break. That's a tougher golf course than this one."

The theme this week is a famous Second World War flying ace, and you lot at the back can keep those remarks about playing better when legless and stumping round the course to yourselves. Recently I played in the RAF Club's golf day at Sonning (my father was in the force) and, predictably, failed to get off the ground (figuratively and pretty often literally) in the morning's individual competition.

Outsider manages to shoulder the burdens of history and expectation to stay in contention on a testing evening

Foreign climes just aren't what they used to be.

Louis Oosthuizen answers to most things except Lodewicus Theodorus, which he was named, after his grandfather. "Not even my family can call me that," he said. "I won't talk to them if they call me that. That's a passport name. I've always been Louis, right from the beginning."

The Last Word

There had been much pre-Open griping and growling from the players about the powers-that-be at St Andrews daring to interfere with the famous 17th Road Hole, which they had extended by 40 yards in an attempt to tame today's longer hitters.

Wall-to-wall Tallis, lashings of lobster, and all that jazz

Wood's year-old son is said to be a prodigy as his father plans a return to family in US

Take your minds off the football and tennis debacles of recent weeks by discovering the true pleasure of the British summer, whether it's al fresco art, food, films, books, festivals or even sport – whatever floats your balloon

Masters champion Phil Mickelson is returning to the Scottish Open this year after missing the 2009 edition.

If Tiger Woods is hoping to receive the Augusta treatment at St Andrews he will be sadly disappointed. The Royal and Ancient's chief executive declared yesterday that the Open Championship will not turned be into "a police state" just because of the world No 1's sensitivities.