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The Frenchman will be best remembered as the man . But that was a long time ago and Jean is commentating for here at St Andrews.

"What you need to have on links courses, and especially when it's very windy, are a lot of different shots in the bag," he tells me.

"Shot-making is a little old-fashioned these days, but it will be mandatory this week."

Here then, is Jean's guide to some of the key shots in links golf, slightly shaped by me.

Driving into the wind/downwind
When brandishing a driver into the wind, move the ball slightly back in your stance but not too much because there is not much loft on the club anyway. Try to swing a little shallower and flatter and definitely try to drive the club with the left hand (if you're right-handed). You want to minimise the release - when the right hand whips through - because that will add too much loft to the club. Some people like to swing easier as this puts less spin on the ball and hence it doesn't balloon upwards, but then you don't get the same clubhead speed and, in theory, distance.

With the breeze behind, you need to make the ball ride the wind. Tee it up a little higher, and maybe move it forward a touch in your stance. Try to hit underneath a little more with your right hand, which will add a bit more loft so the ball will fly higher and catch more of the wind.

Holding the ball against the wind
To reduce the effect of a side wind, hit knock-downs. Take a less lofted club than you normally would for the distance, so if it's an eight iron, take a six or even five. Go down the grip and play the ball back in your stance a little. Take a shorter backswing, and aim for a flatter swing. Through the shot what I try to do is drive with the left hand always ahead of the clubface and try to finish with clubface as low as possible to ground. So instead of your normal high finish, it's more of a low, cut-off finish around your body. It's a punch shot, which should keep the ball low and make it less prone to being knocked off course. It should also reduce the amount of hook or slice spin on the ball, which could be exacerbated by the cross-wind.

Long putts
At there are these huge . Added to that, you can't always aim at the pin, so you will be faced with a lot of long putts, of 30ft, 45ft, 60ft. You'll hear a lot of talk of lag putting this week - that's where you are trying to get the ball close enough to the hole to make the next one easy. Of course, you are trying to make every putt but from that range it's unlikely. What you don't want is a three-putt.

When it's windy, make sure you are stable. Take a wider stance, grip your putter a bit shorter and lower your centre of gravity. And consider the breeze on the ball - if the normal line is right of centre, a 30mph wind from the left can change it to inside the left lip.

For distance control on long putts, some use visualisation techniques, such as imagining the hole is the size of a dustbin. That often makes it easier to get within a few feet of the actual hole. Or just telling yourself that you have great speed will give you more confidence.

Then there are mechanical techniques. Some players know that from 20ft away they need to go so far with their backswing, from 10ft away only this far back.

I've always just trusted my eye to tell my muscles subconsciously how far to hit it. The actual putting stroke is a whole area on its own but I try to remain constant and match the same length backswing to follow through, so if it's 30ft I'll take it back, say, two feet and through two feet. When I'm putting well there's no conscious acceleration, it's just back and through like a pendulum, tick, tock.

It's crucial in the wind not to leave too many lag putts short because as the ball loses speed it can move off line a lot. So try to be a bit more aggressive, even if you're three feet past - trust yourself on the one coming back.

Pitching
The iconic shot on a links course is the bump-and-run or pitch-and-run and you should certainly try to put the ball on the ground as quickly as possible, especially when it's very windy

The club choice is dictated by where you want to land the ball. If you are 10ft off the green and have three feet of green to work with, you might choose a lofted wedge to fly it all the way to the short stuff and then let it land softly. If you're only a foot off the green but have 10ft to go to the pin, a seven iron might be the best way to get it down and running. It also depends on the lie.

But whichever club I pick I try to keep it simple. I position the ball opposite the left heel with my stance slightly to the left but my shoulders down the line of the shot. My hands are level with or slightly forward of the ball and I execute the same swing as I do with my putter. The trajectory of shot is then dependent on the loft of the club, not by overcomplicating things like moving the ball around in your stance.

Bunkers
There's 112 at St Andrews and the main thing is to stay out of them at all costs. , but for most a visit to the sand is inevitable. The key on all links courses with deep pot bunkers is to get the ball out first time. If you think you can get a pitching wedge on it but it's really a sand iron, don't gamble for 20 yards. It won't make much difference if you can't get over the face. If you have to play out sideways, do. Just get it out.

In trying to keep out of the bunkers, that's where your strategy comes in. Is it better to go shorter off the tee and leave yourself with, say, a six iron in to take all the bunkers out of play, or do you hit a driver off the tee to leave yourself just a wedge but risk flirting with the traps?

The 16th at St Andrews is a classic example. You're one or two behind, do you knock a two or three iron short of the Principal's Nose bunker, leaving a five iron to the green, or do you take on a driver to land between the out-of-bounds on the right and the group of three bunkers? There should be plenty of room - there's about 25 yards - but you need to be brave.

Luckily at St Andrews there's hardly any water, but generally it's a straight drop out for the cost of one shot. The only time you might try to play is if you can see a part of the ball and then you'd play it like a bunker shot.

The big thing in these tournaments is to make sure that if you hit it in trouble, you only drop the minimum number of shots. Don't drop more because you were greedy or are trying to catch up. That's a lesson I learned very quickly.