Anyone can win Open - Calcavecchia

Mark Calcavecchia insists anyone can win this week’s Open championship at Royal Troon – but concedes it would take a miracle for it to be him.

Calcavecchia lifted the Claret Jug at Troon in 1989 – beating Wayne Grady and Greg Norman in a four-hole play-off – and finished in a share of 10th behind Justin Leonard the last time the Open was staged here in 1997.

The 44-year-old has not won a US Tour event since the 2001 Phoenix Open and finished last of the 77 players who made the cut at the Scottish Open at Loch Lomond on Sunday.

“It would be just short of a miracle for me to win,” said Calcavecchia.

“Everything would have to go so right. This year my game has been very good at times and awful at times and that could happen all in one round.

“Last week I drove it great but my iron play was pitiful.

“My goal is to win and it’s a possibility, but for me to beat Ernie Els, Phil Mickelson and the rest of the best players in the world over four days would be a shocker.”

American players have won the last five Opens at Troon – Leonard, Calcavecchia, Tom Watson in 1982, Tom Weiskopf in 1973 and Arnold Palmer in 1962 - and Calcavecchia feels the course does favour players not used to links golf and makes the event wide open.

“Although it’s links golf, I think it’s somewhat normal links golf as opposed to some of the other courses which favour the European players a little bit more,” he added.

“It’s all right in front of you, I don’t think you have to play 20 rounds of golf here to understand the course like you might at St Andrews or Sandwich last year.

“One of the top five players in the world could win this week or Thomas Levet could win. It was just two years ago he was in a play-off at Muirfield.

“Miguel Angel Jimenez is having a phenomenal year. It could be Tiger Woods, Ernie Els, Phil Mickelson or a qualifier. I think anybody can win.”

With the exception of the famous eighth hole – a 123-yard par three known as the Postage Stamp for its small green – the whole of the front nine runs in the same direction and with the prevailing wind.

It measures 3,462 yards and features the 601-yard par five sixth, but plays much shorter than that and is where the players will need to make their score before turning back into the wind on the back nine.

“The course is awesome, the greens are the best I have ever seen at the Open,” added Calcavecchia, who carded three closing rounds of 68 in 1989 to tie with Norman, who closed with a 64, and Grady. “It’s in great shape.

“The rough is not as thick as other Opens and that’s fine. That’s one of my favourite things about this tournament, we play the course like the members do, with the exception of Carnoustie which was kind of an accident.

“There are going to be a lot of birdies on the front nine, but then you get on the 10th tee and the fun starts. The back nine will play five shots harder than the front nine if the wind blows.”