Troon, Scotland ? Tiger Woods has been hitting fairways this week, and his caddie, Steve Williams, hasn’t been hitting anyone.

The British Open doesn’t start until today, of course, and things can change just as quickly as the quirky weather off the coast of west Scotland.

Woods doesn’t need to be reminded of that. The last time the British Open was held in Scotland, he was not only an overwhelming favorite, but British bookies also fancied him to finish off the Grand Slam that year.

Incredibly, just two years later, he’s not even the pick to win this week at Royal Troon. That honor would go to Ernie Els, who just a short time ago seemed baffled by the idea he actually could beat Woods when it really mattered.

Now, it seems, anyone — and that really means anyone — can beat Woods. Eight players have won major championships since he took the 2002 U.S. Open at Bethpage, N.Y.

With each wayward drive, Woods sinks a little bit more toward mediocrity. The mystique is gone, and so is the intimidation other players used to feel every time he stuck a tee in the ground.

“Pure and simple, he can’t drive the ball in the fairway,” Nick Price said. “From all I’ve seen now, the last five months, his off-the-tee game is so erratic, and there’s no pattern to it because he’s losing it right and left. Until such time as he starts getting the ball in the fairway, he’s going to struggle.

“You have to be a great driver of the ball to win major championships.”

Indeed you do, and Woods once was. Which, of course, brings us to the question of what Woods has been doing to become that great driver again.

Well, he got a new driver for one, a big fat graphite-shafted Nike that’s just the type he once scorned. He’s longer than ever, but length never has been a problem for Woods.

Tiger Woods stands in the tall grass during a practice round for the British Open. Woods played Wednesday at Royal Troon in Troon, Scotland.

Presumably he has been out practicing with it, though you might wonder where he’s getting the time. He has a fiancee and an increasing number of business interests and recreational pursuits away from golf.

Some of those are in Las Vegas, where Butch Harmon, his former swing guru, teaches. Woods’ visits, though, have nothing to do with getting instruction from his estranged coach.

Last month he jetted there for a few days of gambling after finishing well off the pace at the U.S. Open. And just hours after he finished his final round at the Western Open near Chicago, he was spotted partying at a posh casino nightclub.

Coincidence? Maybe. Woods, like anyone else, has the right to blow off steam. He certainly has earned it after bearing the many responsibilities that came with being Tiger Woods over the last few years.

But Woods became great because of his singular focus on his golf game, as his father, Earl Woods, would be more than willing to tell you. He became great by constant hours of practicing to come up with a short game as great as the shots he could seemingly manufacture at will off the tee.

Whether the same focus is still there is hard to figure. Woods doesn’t let anyone inside his private life, and he’s not about to tell anyone what he’s doing.

But if last month’s U.S. Open is any indication, there are cracks in the armor. At Shinnecock Hills, Woods feuded publicly with Harmon even while his drives were going sideways, and he wasn’t a factor during the weekend.

At the same time, his caddie became so annoyed at a photographer that he kicked a camera, then later went into the crowd and grabbed another one from an astonished spectator. The boss doesn’t like distractions, you know.

“I’ve always played my best when I’ve gone out and played — and stayed — focused on what I have to do and not worry about anything else,” Woods said Tuesday.

Woods didn’t say much else. He’s become more taciturn than ever, insisting as always that everything is fine, while at the same time refusing to be drawn into any specifics about his game or his swing.

Harmon speculated at the U.S. Open that his former student was in a “bit of denial” about everything, a statement that angered Woods mostly because it was made publicly.

Since then, Woods and Harmon have chatted, and Woods said they patched up some of their differences. None of that chat concerned his golf swing, though, and Woods still stubbornly clings to the notion he can fix things himself.

Maybe he can. Maybe Woods knows something no one else knows and will find a way to do something he hasn’t done since last October — win a stroke-play tournament. Winning, of course, is the best way to quiet critics.