Stage set for an English champion at St Andrews

London: Sir Nick Faldo believes an Englishman can be reacquainted this week with the Claret Jug, 18 years after he clasped it to his chest in the madness of Muirfield. For all his affected self-effacement, he no doubt thinks it could be him. Conventional wisdom would dictate that a 52 year-old, with a history of back problems and a highly lucrative broadcasting career in which to invest his energies, has about as much hope of victory on the Old Course as the St Andrews head greenkeeper.

But Sunday, Faldo's 53rd birthday, would seem a perfect date for his fourth Open coronation. When I ask him about a prospect so gloriously implausible, he professes to hear only the language of a hopeless romantic.

Maybe Tom Watson could have a word. "This game delivered a scarring to Tom," Faldo says of Watson, the ‘old fool in the sun' who held Turnberry in his thrall last summer.

"To get that close and almost have your hands on it was hard, unbelievably hard. But me? I sit on a chair for six hours a day, and it feels like it's still stuck at the back of my shirt when I'm trying to play golf. I've got Matthew, my son, on the bag and I just have to make sure I have a good time out there. I guess that's the No 1 goal."

Falling short

No English player worked harder than Faldo to be a serial major contender, or with such sustained success. In the mid-Eighties he was still a wanderer from Welwyn Garden City, albeit an unusually rich one, plundering tour trophies with ease but falling short of the major prize.

Thousands of range hours and three Open titles later, he was the country's most decorated golfer since Harry Vardon. "Gaining experience was what spurred me on," Faldo explains, aware that failure in the crucible of major battle did not sit comfortably with his perfectionist tendencies.

A final-round collapse at Birkdale in 1983 convinced him that change had to come. "In ' 83 I blew it well and truly. I learned from that, worked on my swing and got myself back into it."

Faldo has brought most of his family to Fife, in anticipation that this would be a week of gentle reminiscence for him, rather than serious contention.

Close relationship

His visit to the BMW event in Munich last month marked his only competitive rounds all year, and he appears not to entertain the notion of a second Open win at St Andrews, two decades on from the first.

But as he surveys the legion of young English thrusters eyeing their chance, he sees plenty who could emulate his example. Four of them are in the world's top 10, although Faldo perceives one who is not as the pre-eminent talent.

Justin Rose made his Ryder Cup debut under Faldo's captaincy in 2008, and the relationship remains close.

"I would have thought it's a probable," Faldo says, on the likelihood of England's Open success. "Rosey might be a very obvious first choice — he has played very well in the last month, seems to have found something in his game, in his mind.