NICK FALDO believes Jordan Spieth has a great chance of winning his third major of the year at The Open this week.

The Englishman, who lifted the Claret Jug here 25 years ago, is a big admirer of the young American who remains on course for an unprecedented Grand Slam after triumphing in the Masters and US Open earlier in the year.

Spieth only arrived in Scotland yesterday, but he immediately got down to business when he practised with fellow-American Daniel Berger. His late arrival surprised many who had expected him to spend more time getting used to the local conditions having only previously played one round at the Old Course.

The 21 year-old, however, justified the decision to delay his journey across the Atlantic by winning the John Deere Classic in Illinois on Sunday.

With world No.1 Rory McIlroy missing through injury, Spieth will be a red-hot favourite to win and Faldo can see why. The six-time Major winner said: “What Jordan is doing is phenomenal. I think he’ll be up there this week. I really do.

“Many people play practice rounds with him, one round, and the next day he’ll be talking about the golf course and they’ll have missed everything he’s talking about, all the little subtle slopes. So he’s obviously got a very high golfing IQ, and he takes a lot on board.

“When you’re playing really well, if your caddie tells you where to land it, he’s going to probably land it there. That is what they’re enjoying at the moment.

“You can tell Jordan is happy with the way he’s doing things because he has his own form right now. I don’t think he’s too worried about the lack of practise here. It’s amazing when you’re that young – one good night’s sleep to get over jetlag and he’ll probably be fine in the morning.

“If he believes that’s the way to do it, then that’s the way to do it. He keeps churning out good shots. When you’re doing that, you just jump back on the saddle and ride again.”

Although Spieth is the bookies’ favourite, Faldo believes as many as 20 players will be in contention come the final round on Sunday. That, he says, is double the amount of genuine challengers in the field when he clinched the second of this three Open triumphs in 1990.

He added: “When I was here 25 years ago, I was toying with Greg Norman. Greg was the world No.1 at that time, and I deemed him to be the man to beat and I was right. But now I believe that the number has grown a little bit of guys who can win majors.

“Maybe there are as many as 20 you might say really have a chance. Where I think back to our time, maybe the guys who were going to win a major was half that. You had your five or six major guys and then you had a few guys who could. So those numbers have definitely grown now.”

The 57-year-old spends most of his time these days commentating on golf for American television, but will dust down the clubs this week and try to roll back the years.

He smiled: “I’m here to play, trying to be a golfer for a week. It’s hard work – even the rust is rusty! But I’m going to fall out of the TV tower and try and be a golfer for as many days as possible.”

“We’re trying to gear up to play as best I can, which is tough, because I’ve had a sit-down job for the last 10 years. It has its effects on your body. I’ve got to work very hard, as best I can, to feel good for Thursday.”

Meanwhile, Glasgow’s Marc Warren will play with former Open champion Padraig Harrington in the opening round on Thursday. The pair, and China’s Wenchong Liang, will head out at 12.39pm.

Tee-off times in the first round of the 144th Open Championship

(Gbr & Irl unless stated)

* denotes amateurs

Starting at hole 1

0632 Thomas Bjorn (Den), Greg Owen, Rod Pampling (Aus)

0643 Todd Hamilton (USA), *Paul Dunne, James Hahn (USA)

0654 Graham Delaet (Can), Brian Harman (USA), Russell Knox

0705 Alexander Levy (Fra), Matt Every (USA), David Lingmerth (Swe)

0716 Robert Streb (USA), Joost Luiten (Ned), Matt Jones (Aus)

0727 *Jordan Niebrugge (USA), Anthony Wall, Byeong-Hun An (Kor)

0738 Sandy Lyle, Charley Hoffman (USA), Kevin Na (USA)

0749 Shane Lowry, Retief Goosen (Rsa), Kevin Streelman (USA)

0800 Luke Donald, Hunter Mahan (USA), Carl Pettersson (Swe)

0811 Billy Horschel (USA), Victor Dubuisson (Fra), Ross Fisher

0822 *Oliver Schniederjans (USA), Webb Simpson (USA), Graeme McDowell

0833 Ernie Els (Rsa), Brandt Snedeker (USA), Tom Watson (USA)

0844 J.B. Holmes (USA), Brendon Todd (USA), Shinji Tomimura (Jpn)

0900 Bubba Watson (USA), Ian Poulter, Charl Schwartzel (Rsa)

0911 Lee Westwood, Sergio Garcia (Spa), Patrick Reed (USA)

0922 Matteo Manassero (Ita), *Romain Langasque (Fra), Darren Clarke

0933 Hideki Matsuyama (Jpn), Dustin Johnson (USA), Jordan Spieth (USA)

0944 Kevin Kisner (USA), Paul Lawrie, Ryan Palmer (USA)

0955 Louis Oosthuizen (Rsa), Jason Day (Aus), Tiger Woods (USA)

1006 Brooks Koepka (USA), John Senden (Aus), Tadahiro Takayama (Jpn)

1017 Stewart Cink (USA), Ben Curtis (USA), David Duval (USA)

1028 Greg Chalmers (Aus), Mikko Ilonen (Fin), David Howell

1039 David Hearn (Can), Raphael Jacquelin (Fra), Eddie Pepperell

1050 Tyrrell Hatton, Scott Arnold (Aus), *Paul Kinnear

1101 Daniel Brooks, Adam Bland (Aus), Gary Boyd

1112 Jonathan Moore (USA), Scott Hend (Aus), Ryan Fox (Nzl)

1133 Marcel Siem (Ger), Jaco Van Zyl (Rsa), Mark Calcavecchia (USA)

1144 Thomas Aiken (Rsa), Jonas Blixt (Swe), David Lipsky (USA)

1155 Soren Kjeldsen (Den), Morgan Hoffmann (USA), Danny Lee (Nzl)

1206 Pablo Larrazabal (Spa), Cameron Tringale (USA), Richie Ramsay

1217 Ben Martin (USA), Hiroshi Iwata (Jpn), Steven Bowditch (Aus)

1228 George Coetzee (Rsa), Anirban Lahiri (Ind), Rafael Cabrera Bello (Spa)

1239 Wen-Chong Liang (Chn), Padraig Harrington, Marc Warren

1250 John Daly (USA), Jason Dufner (USA), Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spa)

1301 Zach Johnson (USA), Bernd Wiesberger (Aut), Tommy Fleetwood

1312 Gary Woodland (USA), Danny Willett, Thongchai Jaidee (Tha)

1323 Geoff Ogilvy (Aus), Francesco Molinari (Ita), Bill Haas (USA)

1334 Mark O'Meara (USA), Russell Henley (USA), *Gunn Yang (Kor)

1345 Bernhard Langer (Ger), Tom Lehman (USA), Justin Leonard (USA)

1401 Ryan Moore (USA), Hiroyuki Fujita (Jpn), Stephen Gallacher

1412 Martin Kaymer (Ger), Jimmy Walker (USA), Adam Scott (Aus)

1423 Jamie Donaldson, Yuta Ikeda (Jpn), Keegan Bradley (USA)

1434 Matt Kuchar (USA), Phil Mickelson (USA), Henrik Stenson (Swe)

1445 Rickie Fowler (USA), Justin Rose, Nick Faldo

1456 Branden Grace (Rsa), Jim Furyk (USA), Paul Casey

1507 *Ashley Chesters, Harris English (USA), Andy Sullivan

1518 Koumei Oda (Jpn), Marc Leishman (Aus), Kiradech Aphibarnrat (Tha)

1529 Edoardo Molinari (Ita), Romain Wattel (Fra), James Morrison

1540 Mark Young, Daniel Berger (USA), Pelle Edberg (Swe)

1551 Ben Taylor, Brett Rumford (Aus), Tom Gillis (USA)

1602 Alister Balcombe, Scott Strange (Aus), Marcus Fraser (Aus)

1613 Taichi Teshima (Jpn), Robert Dinwiddie, Rikard Karlberg (Swe)