Great and the good bound for exacting challenge of Lytham

Littered through the rich history of the Open Championship are the one-hit wonder major champions who did little before and even less in the aftermath.

The unexpected rise of the unheralded journeyman is what makes golf so wonderful and so maddening in equal measure.

Wonderful in that of the 156 golfers who tee off on the Thursday, any one of them might hold aloft the Claret Jug come Sunday evening.

Maddening because of those same 156 players, any one of them can etch their name into golfing lore.

The golfing gods show no regard for past accomplishments or future promise.

It does not matter if you are Lee Westwood and more deserving than any other player of a moment of glory, or a club professional who qualified through local and regional sectionals at Moortown and Hillside – you have as much chance as the next man.

It is 72 holes and everyone starts on an equal footing, no matter what the status of ranking.

Such a level playing field is why Ben Curtis can emerge from, as he put it famously, ‘the middle of nowhere’ to the win the Open in 2003 in his first playing of a major.Why Todd Hamilton 12 months later could prevail in a play-off against Ernie Els, one of the finest players of his generation.

For all the great stories of Nick Faldo, Tiger Woods and Padraig Harrington winning multiple Open Championships, there is the occasional tale of such as Curtis, Hamilton or Bill Rogers.

Yet of the nine venues currently on the Open rota, if there is one that stands out as a true test of golf that separates the good from the great, it is Royal Lytham and St Annes.

A quick glance down the roll of honour of Lytham’s champions uncovers a list of many of the great and the good over three quarters of a century of golf.

From the greatest amateur of all time, Bobby Jones in 1926, to a former world No 1, David Duval, 11 years ago; Lytham has hosted 10 Opens and produced either a great or memorable champion every time.

Jones was one of the finest golfers of all time but chose not to play the game professionally.

His win at Lytham in 1926 was the first of three Open titles he won in five years. He also won the US Open four times and in 1930 completed the unique quadruple of Open, US Open, US Amateur and British Amateur titles.

South Africa now boasts more major champions than England and the first of those was Bobby Locke in 1952.

To put into context the era, Locke – whose win at Lytham was his third of four Open triumphs – won £300 for his efforts. The man who lifts the Claret Jug next Sunday will walk away £900,000 richer.

Six years after Locke’s triumph, Peter Thomson won his fourth Open title in five years, while in 1963, before the sublime Phil Mickelson emerged on the scene, the great left-hander of the age was New Zealand’s Bob Charles.

His win at Lytham was his solitary major triumph but Charles was a pioneer for lefties and a fine player of the age.

Until 1969 and the fifth playing of the Open at Lytham, the Lancashire coast had not seen a home winner, until Tony Jacklin came along. Just three weeks after man walked on the moon, Jacklin prevailed by two shots over Charles and by three over other past champions in Thomson and Roberto de Vincenzo.

Gary Player, one of the greatest players of all time, claimed his third Open title at Lytham in 1974.

The only man to win twice at Lytham was the late, great Seve Ballesteros. The outrageously gifted Spaniard bookended his catalogue of major victories by emerging victorious at Lytham in 1979 – in the last Open to finish on a Saturday – and again nine years later.

The last two winners of Opens at Lytham were Americans who never managed another win in the game’s defining championships.

But what Tom Lehman in 1996 and Duval, pictured, in 2001 have in common is that they have both been world No 1 during their careers and were serial major challengers before and after.

One of the great disappointments of the last decade is that Duval, who in his victory speech 11 years ago removed his wrap-around shades to reveal a thoughtful, honourable champion, was never the same after his Lytham win. For varying health and motivation reasons he never turned his talent into dominance.

No matter now, for on Thursday the quest begins again to see who will join the roll call of Open champions on this famous, exacting stretch of Lancashire links.