For the first time in a decade, Tiger Woods will be absent when the 137th British Open Championship begins at Royal Birkdale on Thursday. So should the eventual winner feel that the value of his achievement will be downgraded?

“No,” insists Lee Westwood, one of the leading English hopes, speaking for many of his fellow competitors. “In years to come the Claret Jug will not be engraved with the winner’s name followed by an asterisk to say that Tiger had not competed in 2008.”