Olazabal is thankful to Seve for the gift of an Open opportunity

The prize for most ironic qualifier is easy to award, however. When three-times former champion Seve Ballesteros made his sad, but predictable, withdrawal from the festivities in Fife, his place went to the highest non-exempt player on the world ranking list.

And, wouldn't you know, the man in question was Seve's close friend, long-time Ryder Cup partner and compatriot, Jose Maria Olazabal.

Still hauling himself up the rankings after a couple of slow years, the former Masters champion is the 59th best player in the world, statistically at least, and was delighted to be given the chance to rectify his recent failure to negotiate the international qualifying day at Sunningdale.

"I certainly didn't expect to be going to St Andrews," he revealed in an exclusive chat with Scotland on Sunday last week at Loch Lomond. "I was very sad at not making it. I hate to miss the Open, especially when it is at St Andrews. Just because it is what it is, and also because it was there in 1984 I played in my first Open."

At that time, of course, Ollie wasn't even a professional. But one month earlier he had given our Colin Montgomerie a good doing in the final of the Amateur Championship at Formby. And one of his rewards was an exemption into the next Open.

"That Open was my first visit to St Andrews. I remember looking forward to it so much. I knew it was the Mecca of golf. Everyone had always told me I had to play the course at some time in my life.

"After my first round, I have to be honest and say I didn't think much of the place. There were some funny holes. I couldn't work out that I had to hit way over there to finish over here.

"I never seemed to be on the fairway I thought I should be on. But the more I have played there since, the more I have come to appreciate it."

Not only that, the 39-year-old Basque has also enjoyed more than his fair share of success over the ancient links. In 1999 and 2000, he was one-third of the winning Spanish side at the old Dunhill Cup. Which is no surprise - this is a venue well-suited to the strengths and weaknesses of the Olazabal game.

"The course does fit my game to the extent that you can get away with the odd bad drive," he concedes. "It is rare to not have some sort of shot to the green, even if you can't get very close to the hole. That certainly isn't the case on courses where there is lots of rough. But still, you can't hit the ball anywhere and everywhere. Yes, you can go left all day, but that will leave you long putts on every hole.

"Although the course looks wide open, it is very important to hit the ball into certain spots to give yourself a chance to attack the pins. And to do that, you must hit good drives. The fairways are physically wide, but the area you must be in to have a comfortable second shot is pretty narrow. Whatever else, though, you have to make putts. I have struggled with that on my last few visits to St Andrews. You have to be aggressive there. If you are not, the ball does not keep the line so well. But that is not the way I putt. I like to have the ball die into the hole. So I have struggled there."

For all those few caveats, Olazabal, who was brought up in the town of Fuenterrabia, near San Sebastian on Spain's northern coast, is an unabashed fan of golf by the seaside. Again, no surprise there; not when you consider that he is the owner of one of golf's most imaginative short games.

"It is a shame that we don't play more links golf," he declares. "In America, a lot of the courses are set up very much the same in that we are asked the same questions nearly every week. There is not enough variety, which is what you get on a links. The same is also true in Europe.

"We hardly ever play a links over here now. Look at the K Club last week. That is typical, a parkland layout. You have to carry everything. The greens are soft and receptive. The putting surfaces are surrounded by rough. It's the same everywhere.

"Once you put your foot on a links, golf is a whole new ball game. All of a sudden, you have to pitch the ball well short of the green and run it in. Even with a wedge - sometimes you are wedge distance from the hole, but you have to hit a 7-iron. It is just so much more interesting. You have to play with the contours of the course. And you have choices to make. It isn't always a 60-degree wedge around the greens. And that's the beauty of links golf.

"I know it is difficult because of all the infrastructure you need around a tournament course these days, but I would love to play more links golf. Once a year isn't enough; three or four times would be better. Maybe we should be like the tennis circuit - they play on grass courts for a month up to Wimbledon - and have a month of links golf climaxing at the Open. That would be so great."

Yes, it would. But for now Ollie and the rest of his itinerant professional pals will have to content themselves with this week's brief taste of golf as it should be played.

"The most fun is going to just being on the course at St Andrews," he says excitedly. "Coming back in, there is a great sense of anticipation as you near the town. You see the houses and the bridge. And the people are wonderful. The crowds at the Open have so much knowledge about the game. You see that when you hit a good shot that finishes maybe 30 feet from the hole. That gets applause. You don't have to hit it stiff for the people to know that you have hit a good shot. They know as well as you do.

"I can remember hitting a good shot into the fourth green there. The pin was tucked to the left, between the bunkers, and I got my ball to about 25 feet. So the people clapped. They knew that was about as good as I could do from where I was. I appreciate the fact that they know what they are watching."

Such a modest description of his talents is about as close as the unassuming Ollie ever gets to tooting his own horn. Indeed, ask him about the highlight of the times he has spent in St Andrews, and his immediate answer is to identify a shot struck by another man.

"When I was there in '84 and saw Seve winning. I wasn't at the green when he holed the putt and punched the air four or five times, but it remains one of my strongest memories, even now.

"I miss Seve. I miss his imagination on the golf course. I know he is struggling at the moment, but he was a genius. You could put him anywhere on the course - in the middle of the trees or the middle of the rough, an impossible in a bunker - and he will come up with the shot.

"There has never been anyone in golf who is more fun to watch than Seve. There has never been a man who first had the imagination to see the recovery shot through a three-foot wide gap or whatever, then the skill to bring it off. He could see it, then execute it. What a gift. He was amazing."

Ollie, of course, is not too shabby himself. Bet him each way.