John Cook, the American whose lapses over the closing holes at Muirfield allowed Nick Faldo to win his third Open Championship 16 years ago, yesterday made his bid for redemption with a two-under-par 69, one behind leaders Bruce Vaughan and Eduardo Romero.

The 50-year-old Florida resident, who was influential in Tiger Woods' formative years, also added his voice to the growing concern that young players, particularly in the US, are not being taught enough about finesse shots and until they do they are going to struggle to win back the Ryder Cup.

Consistent Cook had a round of 16 pars plus birdies at the third and 16th on a warm and sunny day when the prevailing wind was reversed to confound many players and convert the usual tiger inward half into a pussy cat with many players, for example, reaching the 457-yard last with a drive and wedge.

One of the shots he hit was a seven-iron "chip" of 135 yards into the wind at the third, a shot he learned as a youngster from his coach, Ken Venturi, and the kind of skill that enabled him to contend in the past at the Open.

It's also the kind of skill he played his part in passing on to recuperating world No.1 Woods, through his connection with mutual friend Mark O'Meara.

"We talked at length on creativity and shot-making," he said. "When Tiger first came on our tour, he didn't have a lot of that. He was all about power, which is okay, but to be where he is now he had to learn new things, and as great as he is he's never been afraid to ask Mark, myself or whoever on how you hit the little shots.

"I know he takes more pride in hitting seven-irons 135 yards into the wind than he does the 390-yard tee shot. I can promise you that."

So concerned was Cook about the "bomb and gouge" type of players that the collegiate system was producing that he applied for the head coach's job at the UCLA (University of California at Los Angeles).

"It's all strength and power and they don't play the little shots any more that can help them win championships. Why they don't, I have no idea," he said.

"I didn't get the job, which was fine. I can now play more instead, but I think that's what's missing in the US. There are some very good players, but once they get out of school, I don't know what happens to them.

"That is why the US have struggled in the Ryder Cup, no question about it. You look at guys who are successful on our Ryder Cup team and they are not so much the power guys but those who have learned a little bit, like Jim Furyk."

These are the same sentiments that Greg Norman, who played exactly those kind of shots last week at Royal Birkdale, and Seve Ballesteros discussed afterwards in an email exchange, that young players need to learn more than grip it and rip it.

Cook, meanwhile, still has personal ambitions to win a major having had a chance at the US PGA Championship in 1992 as well as the Open at Muirfield. "I feel like my career is incomplete," he said. "I've had a nice career, with 11 wins, but it's not great. I felt like I let a couple slip away and you don't get many chances when you're not a great, great player.

"So yes, winning this would help ease that - not all the way, but a little bit."

Cook was in a four-way tie with Americans Andy Bean, who was Tom Watson's pre-tournament tip and showed what could be done on the back nine with a four-under 31, and Kirk Hanefield, and England's Nick Job.

Vaughan, 51, from the 4000-population community of Hutchinson in Kansas, is playing this week in memory of his mother who died in a car accident a month ago.

Aside of that emotion, he, too, is a keen exponent of what he calls "dink it here and dink it there stuff" that he learned at home, which he rates as the windiest part of the US. He also spent three practice days at Troon concentrating on chipping around the greens with mid-to-short irons.

His round, amazingly, had two 7s that he called "two hockey sticks" but there were eight birdies in an adventurous show. "It was feast or famine," he said.

Vaughan took up golf on a nine-hole course near his home, where he was a fireman for two-and-a-half days a week. "I had to find something else to do," he laughed, and he said he had grown up in the shadow of his local hero Tom Watson.

"He's like God there. He is still the man in Kansas City," he said. "He's in the eastern part, I'm out in the middle of nowhere."

Romero, 54, a former Scottish Open champion, is out to go one better than his Senior Open performance at Turnberry two years ago when he lost in a play-off to American Loren Roberts.

Known as El Gato (the cat) the Argentine had a remarkable finish, hitting a four-iron from the tee at the 16th 280 yards into the burn. After a penalty drop, he still managed a par 5 before going beyond the pin at the 205-yard 17th with a nine-iron. He holed out for a 2.

"I'm in good form and I feel strong and happy. I think it's my week," he said.

Favourite Bernhard Langer of Germany was well-placed in the group on one under and felt flattered by hitting a drive of more than 400 yards at the 16th. "It was probably my longest drive ever. There was a bunker I had no idea I could reach and I was just a couple of feet short," he said.

Shot of the day went to the Walrus, American Craig Stadler, who holed out at the eighth, known as Postage Stamp, with a wedge. He will receive 123 bottles of wine from Hardys, one for each yard of the hole. Cheers.