IF A SPIRITUAL quality haunts the links of Scotland’s fabled coastline, Vijay Singh ought to be at home on them. Just as there is hidden depth to those harmless hollows by the ocean, so is there mystique about the man who knows them inside out. If he has not won the Open Championship by the time the shadows lengthen on his long career, it will be a mysterious omission from his life and work.

To walk the Old Course with the tall Fijian is to find a man at peace with himself. An intense, private individual who doesn’t much care what the world thinks of him, Singh responds to the vagaries of seaside golf with zen-like concentration. That the world No 2 is not leading the chase for a place among history’s pantheon of champion golfers is no reflection of his mental powers.

On those rare occasions when his frosty relationship with the press thaws, Singh speaks of his search for serenity, his ear for a breeze through the trees, or the sound of running water. The roar of jets at nearby Leuchars airbase probably doesn’t come into that category, however. His loss of two strokes in the first three holes of yesterday’s third round has once again put his bid for an Open victory in jeopardy.

The 42-year-old, who tied for fifth in this year’s Masters, and for sixth in the US Open, already has won three major championships. Although yesterday’s 71 keeps him in a tie for seventh place, the suspicion is that he may have to wait for that fourth major title. Despite recovering from his early setbacks, most notably with three straight birdies between the fifth and seventh, he finds himself on seven under, five shots off the lead.

He may live to regret that front nine, when he three-putted one hole, found a bunker on another, and chose the wrong club at the par three eighth. “I kind of screwed up there really, very dumb bogeys early on,” he said. “The wind kind of makes you do crazy stuff out there. It wasn’t playing easy." That another Open threatens to elude him must be a source of deep frustration to Singh. He may not quite have the imaginative short game that so distinguishes some of the great links players, but his temperament, patience and stoic understanding of how to conquer adversity are made for this event.

Singh’s long, lazy stride is that of a player who has seen it all before. He is a stubborn, self-confessed loner who is never to be crossed. His biggest gripe this week has been with the press, to whom he has barely spoken except under duress. First there were the claims that he did not show enough concern for a spectator whose cheekbone was split by a drive from his playing partner, Marcus Fraser, in Monday’s practice round. Then there were the “Carnasty” headlines, where he was quoted as predicting a farce such as the one that unfolded in the Open six years ago.

But for all the single-mindedness that comes into its own on the links, Singh is in danger of missing out again. It would be a 17th consecutive Open without success for the Fijian, whose enjoyment of the event causes him to overestimate his record in it. “One second, one third,” he says, which is only half true. He tied for second at Royal St George’s in 2003, but apart from that, his best has been at St Andrews, where he tied for sixth in 1995, and for 11th in 2000.

Asked if it bugged him, given his appreciation of links golf, and his long apprenticeship on the European Tour before his move to the US Tour, that he has come up short so often, he said: “I don’t know if it bugs me, but it would be nice to win it. It is not the easiest title to win, but I am giving myself a chance. I just have to go out there and grab it.”

Singh is the only one of the so-called “Fab Five” who has responded with any vigour to Tiger’s raising of the bar. He may have lost his position as the world No 1, but he is still top of the US money list. He has had 11 top tens this season, three of them wins, in the Sony Open, the Shell Houston Open and the Wachovia Championship.

The primary problem this week has been his putting, as it has been for much of the year. Were his work on the greens as clinical as his efforts in every other department, he would still be top of the world rankings, and would probably be closing in on the Claret Jug.

In Friday’s second round, for example, a string of makeable birdie opportunities were squandered, many of them from less than 12 feet. “I’m stroking the ball well, but it just isn’t going in,” Singh said. “I just have to be patient. That is the key. If I lose my patience, I have a problem.”

As flecks of grey begin to show around the ears, he knows his time is now, or at least in the next year or two. Maybe, for Singh, it is never to be, but having won the 2000 Masters, and added last year’s USPGA to the one he triumphed in six years earlier, he is not short of incentive. He is one of few players with a realistic chance of completing the career grand slam, a feat achieved by only Woods, Jack Nicklaus, Ben Hogan, Gene Sarazen and Gary Player.

“It would be nice, but it is one of the hardest things to do in golf, something not too many people have done. I am playing well, and in the back of my mind, I know that I’m in a very good position to do it. A win at St Andrews would be one of the nicer ways to go about it.”