For three days running, Greg Norman has held the news here at Royal Birkdale. On Thursday it was because he had pitched up with a celebrity bride; yesterday it was because he had had a spectacular opening round in the Open; and today it is because he has forced us to consider whether he can lift the Claret Jug again.

At 53, this would be some trick because he would be the oldest winner of one of golf's four major championships by five years and the oldest Open winner by seven. His whole, successful approach has been his refusal to look at the bigger picture, but if he were to drop his guard for a minute he could take encouragement by reflecting on the Masters of 1998, when Jack Nicklaus, who was 58 at the time, mounted a thrillingly unexpected last-day charge to finish in a tie for sixth.

On that day at Augusta, the nostalgic cheers of “Go, Jack!” rang out louder than they did for Mark O'Meara, the winner, and although we were still two rounds from the finish here, there was a comparable air of delirium that blew Norman down the 18th yesterday morning in front of a packed stand, many rising to their feet in acknowledgement.

Norman said later that he felt as if he was stepping back in time and that the emotion on the 18th was his reason for hitting his first putt 20 feet past the pin. This explanation came as an interesting take on affairs from a growing band of observers who saw that weighty putt as evidence that he had indeed stepped back in time and was playing championship-winning golf, but with the old championship-losing tendencies at the finish.

Suspend judgment, though, because, having overhit that first putt, he holed the return, a remarkable escape that matched further remarkable escapes at the 16th and 17th. Indeed, if he had felt like collapsing like an umbrella in the seaside gale, he gave himself three opportunities here and yet marched off with a single bogey, top spot on the leaderboard and a philosophy lesson on why Rocco Mediate, the 45-year-old American, was the best thing to happen to golf. Mediate, he said, had shown in last month's US Open that, “No matter who you are or what you do or how old you are, if you truly want it, you can do it.”

Norman's round yesterday was a straightforward lesson in “Mediation”. He started with a 45-foot putt for a birdie on the 1st, saved a bogey with a 15-footer on the 2nd and then, when he hit a double-bogey on the perilous 6th, he put it right with birdies on the 7th and 8th.

Perhaps the most thrilling moment was towards the end when he plopped his second shot on the 16th into a bunker, where the lie was so bad that he started by attempting practice swings down on one knee. He elected instead to play out in such an extreme crouch that it seemed that he was answering a call of nature, but he got the ball to 12 feet and then down in one.

Thrilling stuff, indeed, and such a fairytale that even the weather seemed to play along. While it has poured down here on most of the other players, Norman has squeezed his two rounds into that minute window when it was dry. It was almost cartoon-like yesterday when, ten minutes after he came off the course, a near-tropical rainstorm opened on everyone else left on it.

As for winning this championship, one concern is that the laws of Mediation may not apply to the weather, even where Norman is concerned. What he may like to exert more control over, though, is his driving. Despite his waywardness off the tee, this 53-year-old is on top of the world. If he straightens out, it is not too preposterous to suggest that he will remain there.