Harrington can lead the home attack

Only two British players have won the claret jug in the last 10 years of the Open championship, and one of those, Paul Lawrie - then 159th in the world rankings - was the biggest shock winner of modern times when he took the title at Carnoustie in 1999.

The other was Nick Faldo, in 1992 here at Muirfield, and while he has played a little better in recent months, nothing seriously suggests he can add to his collection of six majors.

The runner-up record is no better, with only Faldo, in 1993 and Darren Clarke in '97 finishing second in the same timespan, but that is not to say the outlook is totally bleak.

This is generally reckoned to be the most open of Opens for years, given that sheer length will not be a factor and that accuracy and inspiration will. Colin Montgomerie said that anyone in the world top 20 could win, but as that rules out major championship winners such as Jose Maria Olazabal, Justin Leonard and Bernhard Langer - all in the top 30 - he might care to re-adjust that opinion.

However, it does rule in Padraig Harrington, who at 10th is the highest-ranked European Ryder Cup team player apart from Sergio Garcia. Harrington has already achieved a great deal more than anyone expected of him after an amateur career that was good without being great. He has done it by being the hardest worker in the game and by sensibly sticking with one coach, Bob Torrance, and making one method work.

Torrance believes his pupil now has the game for anything, but it is hard work to convince Harrington of that. Yesterday he said: "I would always consider myself the underdog. Whether it was Ernie Els or Tiger Woods ahead of me on the last day I would still be the underdog trying to catch them.

"All the way up for me there were always guys with more talent than me or better players, so I always had to work a little bit harder to overcome that."

It is time, though, for Harrington to recognise he has overcome, that he is a formidable player: in short, to recognise his own worth.

Clarke is next in the rankings at 15th, but that represents a slide of six places since last year, and the Ulsterman is not fulfilling a ball-striking talent that is given to few. It is difficult to work out why. He spends long hours on the practice range where he is coached by the man who teaches Tiger Woods, Butch Harmon, so he gives himself every chance, except perhaps in the matter of physical fitness.

He is probably three stones overweight and while it would not do to change his body shape too much, he could undoubtedly be leaner and maybe better for it. Clarke was runner-up in 1997, but after shanking a tee shot on to the beach at Royal Troon, was never able to put any pressure on Justin Leonard.

It seems absurd to be talking about a 21-year old as a possible winner of the Open but Justin Rose deserves at least a mention, given his exploits this year in winning twice on the European tour, once in Japan and also in South Africa. He has only played in three majors, all Opens, with one of them being that incredible championship of 1998 at Royal Birkdale when he finished fourth as an amateur.

It is said you have to contend in majors before you can win one, and that may be the best Rose can hope for, particularly as he will have experienced the full force of a Tiger Woods gallery for the first two rounds.

Montgomerie, of course, has contended often enough, twice losing play-offs for majors. But it is a fact that he has not ever threatened to win the Open, with only one top-10 finish in 12 attempts. Even last year, when he led after two rounds, he could only finish 13th.

But he got heart-warming support from the Lytham crowds for the period in which he was succeeding, and there is no doubting the fact that people want him to win the major his huge talent deserves. It will have to be soon: he is 39, and no one gets better as they get older.