'I wanted to be the best player in the world'

Stepping into the media centre from the dustbowl of Muirfield, Jacklin can call on his personal history of both triumph and failure to state precisely what it will take to win the 142nd Open Championship and who is the most likely to achieve it.

This patch of East Lothian was the scene of the Englishman's worst moments in golf. Tied with Lee Trevino in the final stretch of the 1982 Open, he was undone by his three-putt and a chip-in from the American.

Jacklin, who had won the Open in 1969 and the US Open in 1970, was never again in contention for a grand slam. He knows, then, that golf can be a brutal master and that most players do not have the strength to withstand its blows to emerge as major champions.

"Majors are different. It is where you want to be. You have to win one to be to be remembered. A player without a major championship on his resume is just another player," he says without malice.

Fellow countrymen Ian Poulter, Lee Westwood and Luke Donald would surely wince at the words of the one-time Ryder Cup captain, but they would also agree with the sentiments expressed. It is more than 20 years since an Englishman won the Open, 14 years since a Scotsman, in the shape of Paul Lawrie, won the Claret Jug at Carnoustie.

Jacklin knows his countrymen crave a successor to Nick Faldo but accepts the golfer of 2013 is different from the Lincolnshire lad who wrote golfing history in the late sixties and early seventies.

"I wanted to be the best player in the world and I made my mind up about that when I was in my late teens," says Jacklin. "That meant winning majors. When I had these two major trophies on my mantelpiece, I knew I was the best in the world."

This drive took Jacklin to the very top, but he strenuously distances himself from the modern riches that accompany such success.

"I never was a millionaire. I never had a million pounds in the bank in my life," says Jacklin. "I was also looking for financial security as well as winning major championships. These guys are financially secure very quickly – and without winning a major.

"Human nature being what it is, it is easy to back off a little bit. You don't mean to but . . . They can think it is not the end of the world. It certainly doesn't have an impact on whether they will have meat on the table at the weekend."

Donald talked yesterday of his Open drought with a blandness he does not feel. "I would love to follow in their footsteps," he said of his friends, Adam Scott, Masters winner, and Justin Rose, compatriot and US Open champion. "I try not to see it as an exasperation," he said of the success of his contemporaries. "I try to see it as a challenge."

This precise, business-like speak is blown away by Jacklin. "Luke would give $10m to win a major," he says. "But it doesn't work like that. You have to win it for yourself and by yourself."

He believes such as Poulter, Paul Casey, Donald and Westwood should all believe they can triumph at Muirfield because "they are weaned on links golf", adding: "This should be in their blood and they should be relishing this opportunity."

As a successful Ryder Cup captain who matched motivational powers with an acute analysis of opponents and course, Jacklin ponders for only a moment when asked what he would say to the Brits just before they step on to the first tee today.

"I would tell them to be very, very, very patient. You are going to hit the ball perfectly but not get the result that deserves sometimes. The key is to stay out of the fairway bunkers and out of the rough. Play this course intelligently, play it with a plan. With these fast fairways it is going to be next to impossible to control the ball, but try to play for position. Do not get teed off with yourself when it does not come off, because sometimes that will happen on links. The most patient guy may be the winner."

And his nomination for the golfer most likely to be making a winner's speech on Sunday? "I believe Tiger is as smart mentally as any golfer living, so he will be the guy to beat," says Jacklin of the world No.1 who has won four times this season and is seeking to end a five-year major drought and add to the 14 he has already claimed.

"The course will dominate how you play and you have to figure out how to navigate a way round," he says. Woods did this to triumphal effect at Hoylake in 2006, when he famously used his driver just once in his Open victory.

Jacklin knows there is a corps of British players who could challenge for the title and reflects that this was far from the case when he was what seemed a lone campaigner for the Union Flag. "I was the first Brit to win on the PGA Tour when I won at Jacksonville in 1968, and my Open win ended a streak that stretched back to Max Faulkner winning at Portrush in 1952," he says.

The following season he won his second major title, the US Open, by seven strokes at Hazeltine. It was the only US Open victory by a European player in an 84-year span (1926- 2009).

Jacklin may have been isolated but he was both determined and extraordinarily successful. "I had a dream, but I had a plan" he says.

His greatest regret is that he did not locate to the USA full-time. "I was badly advised and stayed in a small pool when I should have gone to America and played the best tournaments with the best players every week. People have learned from that mistake," he says.

This a reference to the Westwoods, Poulters and Donalds who have based themselves in the USA and earned their millions. But they have yet to follow Jacklin on to the list of major winners.

The dapper gentleman standing in the media centre is not just a survivor from bygone battles but a highly decorated one.

n Tony Jacklin is an ambassador for Glenmorangie – the spirit of the Open. He is also an ambassador for Glenmorangie's 18 Greatest Golf Courses campaign. For details go to www.glenmorangie.com/golf