Gullane, Scotland ? Tiger Woods was vague, his answers repetitive. For the first time at a major championship, he seemed unprepared and uncomfortable when handling a topic that was bound to come up at Muirfield.

His pursuit of the Grand Slam?

Tiger Woods practices his putting while a caddie stands nearby. Woods was preparing for the British Open on Tuesday at Gullane, Scotland.

Nope.

What he thinks about Augusta National not having any women as members and the fact the British Open is held at a course where women aren’t even allowed in the clubhouse.

“It’s one of those things where everyone has … they’re entitled to set up their own rules the way they want them,” Woods said Tuesday. “It would be nice to see everyone have an equal chance to participate if they wanted to, but there’s nothing you can do about it.”

Woods said he would feel the same way if such golf clubs had no blacks or Asians.

“It’s unfortunate,” he said. “But it’s just the way it is.”

A controversy over Augusta National’s male-only membership unfurled last week when club chairman Hootie Johnson angrily responded to a national women’s group that demanded female members by next year’s Masters tournament.

“There may well come a day when women will be invited to join our membership, but that timetable will be ours, and not at the point of a bayonet,” he said.

While Johnson says Augusta does not have exclusionary membership policies, the club did not have a black member until 1990 and has never had a female member in its 70 years.

Muirfield has a wee bit more history.

The Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers has been around since 1744 making it 32 years older than the United States and a decade older than the Royal & Ancient Golf Club, which runs the British Open.

Women can play Muirfield as guests, just as they can at Augusta National.

One difference is that Augusta National owns the Masters, while the R&A only conducts the British Open at a rotation of courses in Scotland and England.

Asked whether he was concerned that Muirfield excluded women as members, R&A secretary Peter Dawson said, “We take the Open to the best links in the British Isles.”

When Woods was asked whether he could use his stature as the biggest name in golf to influence change, he said he has done his part through the Tiger Woods Foundation to involve more kids in golf who did not have access.

Among other things, he conducts an annual clinic for children from inner cities.

“It would be nice to see every golf course open to everyone who wanted to participate, but that’s just not where society is,” Woods said.

Woods felt much more comfortable inside the ropes at Muirfield, where he turned in another sharp practice round on a surprisingly still, misty day along the Firth of Forth.

For now, Woods is far more interested in denying equal rights to players who want to win a major championship this year.

He has owned the majors lately. Not only is he the first player since Jack Nicklaus in 1972 to win the Masters and the U.S. Open in the same year, Woods has won seven of the last 11 majors.