A week on from Wimbledon, the ball is smaller and harder, the game more sedate, the venue more naturally beautiful and the question the same: how long must we wait until another British player lifts the trophy?

If we discount Paul Lawrie, who was the beneficiary of those weird, watery happenings at Carnoustie in 1999, we have to go back to the Muirfield Open of 1992, won by Nick Faldo, for a home winner.

Faldo was a champion to rank alongside Fred Perry, a man with the right stuff, that single-minded winning attitude, and against whom, again like Perry, all his British successors have to be compared, and have been found wanting. Faldo, incidentally, missed the cut at the Scottish Open on Friday and made his way to the practice putting green. Even now, he still wants to be the best he can be.

In the modern era, four distinct periods in the British challenge for majors present themselves. First, there was Tony Jacklin, who believed and proved that the top Americans could be beaten, even in the age of Jack Nicklaus. Jacklin, the son of a lorry driver, needed to beat the world to transform his life. He was followed by Faldo, another driven individual, and a golden time when European golf was in the ascendant. Their very names bring it all back: Seve Ballesteros, Bernhard Langer, and from the British Isles: Faldo, Sandy Lyle, Ian Woosnam. In those days, The Masters virtually became European property.

In the next wave, Jose Maria Olazabal sustained that sequence with two victories at Augusta, but the leading European player, Colin Montgomerie of Scotland, never won a major. Having received the baton from Ballesteros, Faldo and company, and given his enormous talent and his record in winning the European Order of Merit eight times, that failure demands explanation. In part, it was misfortune. He came second in majors five times. But in part it was failure of temperament, for Montgomerie, who had the skill of a champion, also had the irascibility of a bad-tempered club golfer, and that could betray him in the heat of battle.

Those who have played alongside Montgomerie, including many who have shared triumphs in team competitions, have done no better. Darren Clarke, Lee Westwood, Ian Poulter, Luke Donald, Justin Rose, Paul Casey and others have all looked capable of winning majors, yet none has managed it.

Perhaps the very success of the European Tour is a factor. These days, players do not need to win championships to drive Ferraris. Westwood, for example, did not win a tournament on the European Tour in 2008, yet he made just short of £2m in prize money. And that sum will have been handsomely augmented by sponsorship. Even the fellow who comes 100th in the Order of Merit is doing remarkably well financially, earning more than £225,000.

A small fortune, therefore, can be accrued in relative obscurity, in front of handfuls of spectators. It is no longer necessary for a tournament professional to win anything in order to avoid reverting to plan B: a job as a club professional and a lifetime’s frustration in trying to cure the members’ common slice.

Among the most talented, Westwood and Clarke, Ryder Cup heroes both, and ranked among the best players in the world for long periods of time, have been especially disappointing. Westwood has played in 47 majors, while Clarke has competed in 53. Each of them has only truly contended in two of them.

Poulter does not lack for self-belief, and has declared himself as good as anyone, Tiger Woods included. It has been unfortunate that he has often made a bigger impact with his trousers than his golf, for it suggests a flippant attitude. At Loch Lomond, he was joined in sartorial excess by Rory McIlroy, the latest talent to be touted as a future champion. McIlroy recently turned 20 and has already picked up his first Ferrari.

It would be easy and traditional to condemn Poulter and McIlroy for being less than wholly dedicated to the game but such a judgment would surely be superficial. They are young men having fun, but both have competitive steel. Poulter came second in last year’s Open, with a terrific final round of 69. McIlroy has played in two majors as a professional. He was 20th in The Masters and 10th in the US Open.

Winning any major when Woods is at his best is as hard as winning a Grand Slam tennis tournament while Roger Federer reigns supreme. Not many are available. But if any British player might win his own championship, Poulter and McIlroy look the most likely.