We have stood on these Open fairways waiting for him, the Englishman who would offer us life after Nick Faldo. There has been a small battalion of them; Rose, Casey, Donald, Poulter, tempting us to believe and, too often, they have seemed weighed down by our expectation. This time we thought Paul Casey might be ready, or even Ian Poulter when along came the younger Ross Fisher, strolling from the shadows, easygoing and easy on the eye. And he just may be the one.

Fisher is tall, elegantly built and is 28, which means he was 11 when Faldo won the last of his three Open Championships at Muirfield and there hasn’t been an English victor since. He went out in the second-last group yesterday and played the most beautiful golf to stay close to the top of the leaderboard. One shot behind the brilliant Tom Watson, Fisher has youth on his side, 31 years on the American.

Just as pleasing as the performance was the coolness with which it was delivered. With the winds gusting across the fairways, sweeping balls off course, ensuring everyone spent time in the tall grass, a young man contending for the first at only his third Open could have been knocked off balance. Not Fisher. He struck the ball with an assurance that belied his lack of experience and the not-inconsequential fact of impending fatherhood.

His wife, Jo, was scheduled to deliver their first child last Tuesday but perhaps the new arrival-to-be knows more than we do. Nothing happened on Tuesday, nothing since and though he is excited by the prospect of becoming a father, Fisher has been willing Jo to hang on until he gets this tournament out of the way.

He said his dream scenario would be to win the Open, Jo to then go into labour and he to get one of his mates to pick up the Jug and make the victory speech as he sped away to be with his wife in London.

Endearingly, he said that no matter his position, he would withdraw from the tournament if his wife went into labour before the Championship was decided.

That commitment was reiterated after yesterday’s splendid level-par round. “If Jo does go into labour, I’ll be supporting her 100%. And I’ll be with her, because it’s something that I definitely don’t want to miss. It will be a shame but we’ll have to cross that bridge when we come to it.”

Fisher is in his fourth season as a Tour professional and, though he has always had talent, he has achieved most this season. In last month’s US Open he played extremely well to get himself into contention on the final nine holes. Nobody struck the ball better than Fisher that afternoon and had he putted well, his fifth-place finish might have been a sensational victory.

The missed putts didn’t get him down, rather he was encouraged by being the leading European player in a major championship. “I can win one of these things,” he said at the time. He can because his excellent ball striking is backed by an easy and matter-of-fact demeanour on the course that allows him to best cope with the game’s mental challenge. If you can look at a missed drive, one that careers into the tall grass, and not consider yourself the world’s greatest fool, there is a chance you will hit a reasonable shot from the rough. If a missed putt is just that, and not a sickness that drives you towards the deep end, there is a chance that you’ll soon make a putt. And when Fisher says he’d rather be watching the arrival of his baby than winning the Open, you begin to understand his nature.

Yesterday, he hit most approach shots at the pins as if he was playing a fourball with friends at Wentworth, where he played so much and learnt how to be better. Defence has been everybody’s form of attack over the past three days at Turnberry but Fisher, you suspect, wouldn’t know how to spell the word. It was joyful to watch.

He went aggressively, too aggressively perhaps, at the fifth pin, and after the ball shot well past the hole he three-putted for bogey. It was a bad moment compounded by a poor tee shot at the par-three sixth. The long walk towards the green gave him a chance to compose himself, perhaps to remember that he was just playing a round of golf while his beloved was preparing for something far more daunting.

He played a delightful bunker shot, aiming it above the hole, knowing it would trickle back, and his four-foot putt sailed into the cup. That was an important moment. Even when he made bogeys on 12 and 14 there was little chance of him quietly disappearing off the leaderboard.

He just missed birdie on 15, then made one on 16 but it was at the 559-yard par-five 17th that one sensed Fisher’s greatest strength. A long hitter, he expects to reach par-fives in two and when his tee-shot settled into the light rough on the left side of the fairway, it cost him not a thought. His long iron approach flew directly at the flagstick, coming to rest 25 feet above the hole.

After tapping in for birdie, he plucked the ball out of the cup and gave the subtlest skip of celebration. Why not? He had taken a share of the lead in the Open and off he went to the 18th tee, knowing he was closer to the end of his round and being able to discover what Jo’s day had been like.

His par at the final hole was straightforward: drive, approach, two putts and he left the green in a good place; an Englishman only one shot behind in The Open.

So, Fisher finds himself perfectly placed to win. The most recent Englishman we remember in a better position was Nick Faldo, Muirfield, 1992. Before leaving the course last evening, Fisher’s feelings were mixed. “Hopefully, I can hang on for one more day and hopefully Jo can. To win, and get back home to see the birth of our first child, would be a dream come true.”