It is often said that to make the Open a true test of golf, the wind needs to blow, preferably switching direction at frequent intervals. By common consent, seaside links courses are either benign and there for the taking or fearsome beasts that refuse to be tamed. It is all dependent on the weather.

There is some truth in the notion that the tougher the conditions, the better the competition. And yet when the game's followers recall their favourite Open moments, invariably Jack Nicklaus and Tom Watson's “Duel in the Sun” at Turnberry in 1977 is one of the first that comes to mind - the two giants of the game trading blow for blow, birdie for birdie before Watson prevailed by a shot.

Watson's score of 268 that year was the lowest at the Open since the end of the Second World War and has been beaten only once since, by Greg Norman's 267 at Royal St George's, in 1993. Coincidentally it is the score recorded by Nick Price on the same Ailsa Course in 1994, although Norman took 12 shots more in winning the Open here in 1986, his second round of 63 in dreadful conditions regarded as one of the great rounds in the Championship's history.

The forecast for the next four days is likely to please those who like to feel the sun on their backs and the winds not too fierce, according to Robin Thwaytes, the Met Office weather forecaster who is on site with his radar and computers.

“Turnberry is a very good place for avoiding particularly poor weather,” he said. “It has its own microclimate and comes off really well. It is protected from the south by high ground; from the west by Northern Ireland; from the north west by the Isle of Arran and Kintyre and from the north by the Grampians. It means that whatever weather it gets, other areas will be getting much worse.”

With the course having been lengthened to 7,204 yards, it is unlikely that the scores will be as low as in 1977 and 1994. But for those who want to see the wind getting up, they are likely to get their wish on Sunday.

“We're looking at quite an active area of low pressure forming in the North Sea,” Thwaytes said. “And although they will not get any rain, we'll get strengthening winds from the north to north west with gusts of up to 30 miles per hour, which would be quite testing.”