Sleepy Sunningdale takes it slow

Grace Park was one of the early starters in practice

By BBC Sport's Kitrina Douglas at Sunningdale for the women's British Open

If you had turned up at Sunningdale this morning, you would probably have thought you had the wrong week for the women's British Open.

Compared to the men's event at Lytham, which was geared up for business early on the Monday morning, the women's event is moving at a far sleepier pace.

The big oak doors of the Sunningdale clubhouse were tightly shut at 0700.

I think everyone is more concerned about having a tip-top golf course than the quality of the tented village

  Kitrina Douglas

This caused England's Trish Johnson to consider climbing in through an open window in search of one of the renowned sausage sandwiches that are synonymous with Sunningdale - at least for the professionals if not the members.

Having been at Royal Lytham the week before last and now visiting Sunningdale in the run up to the women's Open, I am amazed at the contrast between the two events considering that this is one of the four women's majors.

Tiger Woods, in his preparation for The Open, spent a week in Ireland honing his game for the British links courses.

Similarly, David Duval arrived well in advance to plan his assault on the title.

It appears that for the women's world number one and two (Karrie Webb and Annika Sorenstam), the British Open is not such an important event.

The pair took up an offer to take on the men's number one and two on Monday.

A sign on the first tee at Sunningdale said "Course Closed".

I wasn't sure if it was for members or professionals, but it was another obvious difference between the events.

Trish Johnson resorted to desperate measures

Although Tiger Woods was on the course at Lytham at 0530, the first group of women, Becky Iverson and Grace Park, wandered over to the first tee just before 0800.

There was only a scattering of spectators around too. Perhaps that's just as well as the tented village not only appeared unstocked but was still under construction!

At 0700 this morning, there were more green-keepers on the course than players - three were on the practice putting green alone, while it looked like a whole platoon were working on the 18th fairway.

Judging by the thorough preparations, the organisers are clearly getting the important part right.

I think everyone is more concerned about having a tip-top golf course than the quality of the tented village.

Unusually, the organisation of the women's British Open is not run by either the LPGA tour or the LET tour, although officials from both are here in force.

The women's Open is run by the LGU, which some say more closely resembles a grandmother's knitting circle than a professional golfing body.

A lovely group of ladies, but perhaps not the first choice for running a £1m golf tournament.