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Cameron Smith has only played Royal Portrush twice, but already he loves it.

Smith didn't exactly arrive for this week's British Open in sparkling form, having missed four cuts from his past 10 starts on the US PGA Tour.

But the world No.42 feels inspired to raise his game at the famous Irish coastal venue that hasn't been used on the Open rota for 68 years.

"This is my third one and this is my favourite so far," Smith told AAP ahead of the first round on Thursday.

"It's probably just the simplicity of it. It's pretty as well, but also how hard it is.

"The course is set up so that if you don't hit it well enough, you're going to get punished and if you hit a good shot, you're going to get rewarded.

"That's at the end of the day what you want to see. It doesn't matter how hard or easy it is, you just want to see good shots get rewarded.

"We definitely don't want one of those tournaments where it's even par winning golf tournaments again."

Known for his world-class short game, Smith believes driving will be the key to around this tight links layout.

"I think No.1 is getting in the fairway for sure," he said.

"You just want to drive it straight. It's not over the top with the humps and hollows. You've just got to hit good golf shots.

"There's a few really tough holes out there where four's a good score, but there's plenty of opportunities also."

While Smith has struggled of late, the two-time Australian PGA champion found something at the Travelers Championship three weeks ago.

The 25-year-old's tie for 28th was his best result since reaching the quarter-finals of the WGC World Matchplay Championships in February, which gives him hope.

"My game's kind of coming along. Obviously the last three or four months haven't been my best stuff," he said.

"I felt like I played really good in Detroit in my last start a few weeks ago. Just didn't get much from it.

"Just felt like I'd have two or three birdies and then have a silly bogey or something like that.

"But my game feels good. I've had a couple of weeks off. It kind of needs to just all blend together and I'll be back."

A new putter, new attitude and, most importantly, a new caddie have given Jason Day renewed belief that he can become a major player in world golf again.

Australia's former world No.1 enters this week's British Open convinced he's on the path back to the top after falling to 18th in the rankings and going 14 months without a win - the second-longest drought in his illustrious career.

But Day finally has his mojo back and he puts it all down to Steve Williams.

The 31-year-old says he hasn't looked back after turning to the 14-times major championship-winning caddie before last month's US Open at Pebble Beach.

"Having Steve on the bag has settled things down, which is nice, and I'm back working on the right things on my game," Day told AAP ahead of Thursday's start to the Open.

"I'm very positive about where things are going for the first time in a long time.

"It's really about trying to, not rededicate myself, but get more structure back in my practice, back in the way that I go about preparing for tournaments and really have a lot more motivation to go out there and try to win again.

"I don't have to say it, I can actually feel it."

It's not like Day's been completely in the doldrums.

He's had five top-five finishes this year, including at the Masters and the Players' Championship, and tied for eighth at the Travelers Championship three weeks ago.

But by his prolific standards of 2015 and 2016, when he won eight times, including the US PGA Championship before finishing second in his title defence, Day feels he has "seriously under-achieved".

Hence why after alternating between former schoolmates Rika Batibasaga and Luke Reardon since taking his long-time coach Colin Swatton off his bag in late 2017, Day lured Williams out of retirement.

The 55-year-old former looper of Tiger Woods, Adam Scott, Greg Norman and Raymond Floyd is the most successful caddie in history.

"I've been around him enough to know him, but the experience he brings and obviously with the players he's caddied for, it's really comforting to be able to have that experience on the bag," Day said.

"And he's very positive so I'm very excited about our future together. Hopefully it's a long one. It's up to him. It's definitely up to him. We'll see how it goes.

"I've just got to keep busting my gut and I know that the results are going to come at some point.

"I've just got to be patient with it and let it happen."

Day hopes it happens at Portrush and says a change of blade has him feeling much better on the greens.

"I was getting a little frustrated with how things were progressing with my old putter and I feel like my aim is a lot better," he said.

"I changed it at home last week. I can trust it a little bit better, which is nice. I can just go and putt instead of worrying about where I'm aiming."

Phil Mickelson has embarked on a dramatic diet in a desperate attempt to rediscover his form ahead of the 148th Open Championship.

The 2013 Open champion arrived at Royal Portrush claiming to have lost 6.8kg in less than a week.

The 49-year-old has failed to record a single top-10 since winning the AT&T Pro-Am in February, missing six cuts in 10 starts and finishing 52nd in his latest attempt to complete the career grand slam at the US Open at Pebble Beach.

In a video posted on his Twitter account Mickelson revealed he had undertaken a six-day fast and ingested nothing but water and a "special coffee blend for wellness".

"The first day and a half was tough but after after that I found that I didn't crave food, I felt better, my energy levels and focus were better," Mickelson said after being presented with an award for 25 consecutive years in the top 50 of the world rankings.

"And that's just the start, I want to take it from there and continue to feed both my mind and body with positive nourishment to get the best out of me.

"I don't know if it's going to help me play better, but it certainly helps me feel better about myself and have more energy throughout the day."

Mickelson moved inside the world's top 50 for the first time after finishing runner-up in the Casio World Open in November 1993 and has never fallen out since, although he came exceedingly close at the start of 2018.

The five-time major winner slipped to 49th after finishing 45th in the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines, but was then fifth, second and sixth in his next three starts before winning the WGC-Mexico Championship, his first victory since the 2013 Open at Muirfield.

"As soon as I was threatened with going out I was aware (of the streak)," Mickelson added.

Justin Rose is reigning Olympic champion, a major winner and currently the world's fourth-best golfer but England's Cricket World Cup triumph means there is only one sport being played in his back garden.

The Englishman's 10-year-old son Leo has been gripped by recent events so Rose has found himself pressed into action as a bowler away from Royal Portrush ahead of The Open.

"My little boy has suddenly gone cricket mad after the World Cup," said the Englishman, explaining how he has been spending some downtime in Northern Ireland.

"He's in the garden until the sun goes down. He says 'Dad, can you bowl a few at me'? That kind of thing.

Asked whether the ambition was to play well enough this week to get Leo to pick up a golf club instead of a cricket bat, Rose added: "That would be nice for sure, although it's proved quite difficult, to be honest."

The Englishman has taken the whole month off after the US Open in order to prepare for a fourth major in as many months after the schedule was rearranged this year to bring the USPGA forward to May.

The 2013 US Open champion is not a fan of the change, which he thinks gives little time to rest and recover for the next big event.

"This is unchartered territory for me to take time off between majors, for sure," he added.

"I think we're all trying to adapt to this new rhythm of the majors.

"One major a month really, in my opinion, they're too soon.

"For me a major championship should be the things that are protected the most. That's how all of our careers ultimately are going to be measured.

"If you're trying to compare one career to another career, Jack versus Tiger, it's the majors that are the benchmarks.

"For them to be tweaked so much I think is quite interesting at this point."

He is hoping, however, the break will have recharged the batteries enough for him to be able to play with the same sort of freedom which saw him record his best Open finish 12 months ago at Carnoustie.

Golf's newest major winner Gary Woodland remains so anonymous to the majority of fans he has found himself employed as Matt Kuchar's unofficial photographer in Portrush.

The veteran American - a staple of Ryder Cups over the last decade but yet to win one of golf's top events - attracted all the attention over breakfast on Monday with the reigning US Open champion going unnoticed and being asked to operate the camera phones.

Woodland is one of a group of golfers from the US who are, if you were being kind, much of a muchness in terms of their public profile and even making his major breakthrough last month at Pebble Beach does not appear to have changed that much.

However, 35-year-old Woodland is not too concerned.

"Kuch and I went to breakfast yesterday and I took about 20 pictures for him. Nobody knew who I was. They all knew who he was," he said.

"He loved every second of that, I can tell you."

It could have been an embarrassing, awkward and soul destroying experience for Woodland - had he not been the man sleeping with an 18-inch-tall, sterling silver trophy on his bedside table.

"It's been very close to me for the last month: (on) the nightstand so I can see it," he added.

"You want to wake up and make sure it's not a dream. You want to make sure it's real. I was thinking about letting my parents have it this week but I ended up keeping it."

That means his wife Gabby, heavily pregnant with twins, has the joy of not only waking up to it but basically babysitting it 24 hours a day as she edges towards her due date in a couple of weeks by resting at home.

"It's right next to Gabby, she's on bed rest. I don't know if she's excited about that," admitted Florida-based Woodland, who said his wife had persuaded him to fly to Northern Ireland despite the chance labour could start at any moment.

"We sat down and we talked about it and she was the one pushing me to come. I'm pretty confident they're not going to come this week, but you never know.

"I'm hoping that's the case. Next week Memphis is only an hour away from home. I can get home pretty easily.

"It would be a little tough if they came right now, I'm not going to be able to get home, but she's hanging in there."

World No.1 Brooks Koepka believes he has a "big advantage" in this week's British Open in the form of his local-born caddie who grew up playing on Royal Portrush.

Such is four-times major winner Koepka's belief that caddie Ricky Elliott can give him valuable "inside info" on the course that he even ignored a practice round invitation from Tiger Woods.

Elliott was a promising young amateur player, winning the Ulster Boys' and Ulster Youths' Championships, but struggled when he turned professional and switched to caddying in the US.

But he remains a well-known figure in Portrush and while he has spent the past six years travelling the world on Koepka's bag, his parents Pat and Martha still live in the town and his brother Peter is the owner of a golf shop in nearby Coleraine.

The Open is being held at Portrush for the second time - 68 years after the only other occasion the Northern Ireland venue held the major.

That means few players have the intimate knowledge of the links course that Elliott possesses.

"Luckily my caddie has played this golf course I can't tell you how many times, so that's a big advantage," Koepka said on Tuesday.

"Every hole I just step up on, (I say) 'You tell me what to do, you've played it more than anybody.' So just let him figure it out."

Woods, who has never played Portrush, said he had tried to set up a practice round with Brooks but got nowhere.

"I texted 'Brooksie', congratulations on another great finish. What he's done in the last four major championships has been just unbelievable. To be so consistent, so solid," Woods said.

"And I said, 'Hey, dude, do you mind if I tag along and play a practice round? I've heard nothing'," he said with a grin.

Koepka may have won four majors in the last two years, including a second straight PGA Championship at Bethpage Black in May, but he said the large crowds at practice have been more focused on his hired help.

"I probably hear more, 'Ricky! Hey, Ricky, what's going on?' than anything. I'm sure he'll have quite a bit of friends and family out. It will be a special week for him, for sure," he said.

It would be even more special if he happened to pick up the bonus for Koepka's first Open win.

"There would be nothing cooler. Put it this way, I don't think when he grew up that he ever thought there would be an Open Championship here. And to top it off, I don't think he ever thought he'd be a part of it," Koepka said.

"And to be caddying and to be able to win one here would be - he'd be a legend, wouldn't he? He already is. But it would be cool to see him win."

Australian young gun Karl Vilips shares the lead in the US Junior Amateur Championship after the opening round.

Seventeen-year-old Vilips shot two-under-par 69 on the historic Inverness club course in Toledo, Ohio to be tied with American William Mouw.

Based in the US on golf scholarships since age 11 and off scratch at age 12, Vilips won gold at last year's Youth Olympics in Buenos Aires and has committed to attend Stanford University next year.

At 15 he became the equal youngest player to win the Southern Amateur, a prestigious open-age tournament in the US, sharing the honour with legend Bobby Jones.

Vilips was the only golfer in the 156-player field to go bogey-free in Monday's first round.

"You have to put it in the fairway off the tee," said Vilips.

"Every fairway bunker I found, I was up against the lip. I took my medicine on those holes and trusted my wedge game."

World No.4 amateur and 2018 runner-up Akshay Bhatia is a shot behind Vilips and Mouw with defending champion Michael Thorbjornsen another stroke back as he seeks to join three-time champion Tiger Woods as the only player to successfully defend the title.

The field will be trimmed to 64 players after Tuesday's second round of stroke play.

Match play will begin on Wednesday and the championship will conclude with a 36-hole final on Saturday.

Tiger Woods has shrugged off concerns about his lack of golf heading into this week's British Open, saying he needs to carefully manage the remaining years of his career.

Woods has played only 10 competitive rounds since winning the Masters in April and his last tournament start was at the US Open.

By the time the 43-year-old tees up on Thursday he will have gone 32 days without playing competitively.

"Last year, I played too much. I played 17 events," Woods told a news conference on Tuesday. "And a lot of it was trying to qualify for certain events.

"So this year I made a conscious effort to cut back on my schedule to make sure that I don't play too much. I want to play here as long as I possibly can. And you have to understand, if I play a lot, I won't be out here that long," the American former world No.1 said.

"So it's understanding how much I can play, prepping how much I do at home and getting ready. And that's the tricky part is trying to determine how much tournament play I need to get the feel for the shots and also understanding where my body is," Woods added.

"I'm trying to figure it out and trying to play enough golf to where that I can compete and win events."

Woods said his Masters victory took a lot out of him and he went on a two-week family vacation in Thailand after finishing tied for 21st at the US Open last month.

"It's not quite as sharp as I'd like to have it right now," he said.

"My touch around the greens is right where I need to have it. I still need to get the ball -- the shape of the golf ball a little bit better than I am right now, especially with the weather coming in and the winds are going to be changing."

Woods, who has 15 major titles to his name, reiterated his view that the British Open offers one of the best chances of adding to that tally.

"It allows the players that don't hit the ball very far or carry the ball as far to run the golf ball out there," he said.

Home favourite Darren Clarke will hit the first tee shot at the British Open when the tournament returns to Northern Ireland for the first time in 68 years.

As in 1951, the picturesque links course at Royal Portrush is the host venue, having undergone extensive logistical and infrastructure upgrades to get in shape for a modern major championship.

All four days are sold out with fans in one of golf's true heartlands relishing the chance to see the world's best take on a challenging course from Thursday.

"It's a huge thing for all the Irish golfers, for Northern Ireland, for me, that lives here a little bit, to have The Open Championship," said Clarke, the 2011 Open winner.

"This is huge. This is the biggest and best tournament in the world.

Since Englishman Max Faulkner's 1951 win at the course in County Antrim, the Open has been rotated around Scottish and English courses with Northern Ireland off-limits for many years during to the security situation in the country.

With some 3600 people, many of them civilians, losing their lives during three decades of sectarian violence, the idea of hosting a global sports event in the region was nothing more than a fantasy during 'The Troubles'.

But since The Good Friday Agreement, signed in April 1998, which created a power-sharing assembly and government for Northern Ireland and the decommissioning of weapons held by the main militant groups, golf authorities have been looking at how they might return.

Clarke needs no reminders about how dangerous life was during 'The Troubles' - he narrowly escaped a bomb himself just before Christmas 1986 while working as a barman at a nightclub in his hometown of Dungannon.

Bombers gave a half-hour warning before a car bomb exploded outside the venue, where Clarke had been setting up the bar.

"The bomb scare at 8.30, everybody out, bomb went off at 9.00 and the place was flattened," Clarke said.

"That was life in Northern Ireland. Bombs were going off quite frequently. And a lot of people, unfortunately, paid a heavy penalty for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. But that was our life back there at that stage."

Clarke said the idea of hosting the Open in the 1980s was never even considered.

"It was beyond the realms of possibility," he said.

"It was just never going to happen. So to get to the point ... has been an incredible journey given what we've all come through," he said.

While he harbours ambitions of pulling off a surprise win, on a course he knows very well, Clarke is also delighted to have been handed the symbolic first shot.

"Will there be tears? No. I'll just be very proud that we have it back here in Northern Ireland. It goes without saying, it's a huge thing to have it back here in Northern Ireland again," he said.

"It's going to be an amazing tournament. If you see how many people were in here (on Sunday) watching and again today and all the practice tickets are all sold out. The atmosphere is going to be sensational."

Jack Newton is hoping hard-nosed caddy Steve Williams can be the man to jolt Jason Day back into British Open contention.

For all his achievements elsewhere, including spending almost a year as world No.1 after he won the 2015 US PGA Championship, Day has only ever been in the Open mix on the back nine on Sunday once.

So Newton has applauded Day's decision to lure Williams out of cosy retirement in New Zealand in a concerted effort to reprise his glory days of regularly competing for golf's greatest spoils.

Day dubbed Williams "the boss" before the accomplished former caddy of Tiger Woods, Greg Norman and Raymond Floyd - who also helped Adam Scott win the 2013 Masters - debuted on his bag at last month's US Open at Pebble Beach.

Newton believes that's exactly the type of character Day needs to put the fire back in the 31-year-old's belly.

"He caddied me for a couple of times and he's pretty strict on the way he wants to approach it and carry the bag," Newton told AAP.

"Jason probably needs him. He's all over the spot at the moment. I don't quite get it because he's a damn good player and he's not doing what he should be doing, in other words.

"But he's got Steve Williams as his advisor. I guess it's going to take a bit of time to get used to it but I think it will be good for him, particularly so that the head doesn't fly off because sometimes it does."

A huge believer in Day since the former world junior champion's teenage days, Newton said juggling family life with golf may have contributed to the one-time perennial major contender losing some of his edge.

But the father of three did show signs of his old self with a top-five finish at the Masters and has promised Williams he'll do "whatever" he's asked to to return to his winning ways and ultimately world No.1.

"You've got to probably look to how to make the best effort on the golf course as well as with the kids, which is sometimes not easy to do," Newton said.

"It's just how he can sort it out. He's a very good player when he's on his game."

Runner-up at the 1975 Open after losing a playoff with Tom Watson, and also second at the 1980 Masters, Newton thinks Williams' vast experience will offer Day another big advantage around Royal Portrush this week.

The Open hasn't been staged at the famous Northern Ireland links course in 68 years and rain forecast for all four days will only make the largely unfamiliar layout even more of a test.

"It's probably a course you need to know, especially if it gets a bit gusty with the weather," Newton said.

"The biggest thing is going to be knowing the golf course and most of them have never, ever played there in a tournament.

"So having an experienced caddy will absolutely, absolutely be a huge help."