Englishman won the Open since Faldo in 1992?

trymen have managed to prevail in the game’s oldest major since 1992, when Faldo won for the second time at Muirfield.

The quarter-century void for St George is one of the more curious anomalies in golf, considering the fact it has toasted three other majors in the intervening period, as well as two world No. 1s and three other players who cracked the world’s top five.

Faldo inevitably had to answer the impossible question after completing his trip down memory fairway. “Let’s just say I’m very surprised that no Englishmen have won an Open in 25 years,” he said.

One of the most remarkable was Justin Rose’s fourth place as a 17-year-old amateur in 1998 at this very venue and as the highest-ranked Englishman coming in here — as world No. 12 — it was again apt that he enjoyed nine holes with Faldo.

Rose does not feel the barren spell has yet become “a thing”. “It’s not as if it’s in the same league as no British males winning at Wimbledon for 77 years or whatever it was,” Rose told Telegraph Sport.

“And it’s not got to the stage where it could actually be called an obstacle for an Englishman winning an Open. Paul [Lawrie], Darren [Clarke] and Rory [McIlroy] have all won Claret Jugs for the UK since Nick’s last one. Of course, it would be great to do it for England, though.”

In truth, other than the Ryder Cup, golfers do it primarily for themselves first and foremost and for Rose glory this week would be deeply personal. That chip-in on the 18th here 19 years ago gave him his one and so far only top five finish and despite his US Open win in 2013 and his Olympic gold last year, it remains one of the most famous images of him. In truth, Rose has been trying to stage the sequel for the last two decades.

Tony Jacklin, who is the last Englishman to win an Open on English soil, believes that it is the pressure which gets to the home golfers. “Naturally the Open is the one they most want to win as it’s in Britain and this just makes it that bit more stressful for them,” he said.

Rose seemed to acknowledge this when discussing his teenage self. “When I do look back I do marvel at how I was able to compete so closely down the stretch, and finished within two shots of winning an Open Championship at the age of 17,” he said.

“I try to model my game on that in a way just with the freedom I had that particular week, the confidence I had in my shortgame, the innocence in which I played the game.”

What Rose would have to possess that carefree attitude of 1998. Indeed, what all the English would give.