The Open: Fab Four ready to forget Zika and Rio and do battle at Troon

Jason Day and Dustin Johnson start as favourites but Rory McIlroy has a point to prove

Rory McIlroy hopes to win a first major since August 2014 when The Open starts on Thursday (Getty)

So after all the talk of the Zika virus and a plague on the Rio Olympics, there will be a healthy outbreak of the 145th Open Championship on Thursday. The only bug the players are likely to catch on this windswept Ayrshire coastline is man flu.

The Fab Four are all here at Royal Troon. Which one of the world’s top four players will impose himself to be the front man at claim the Claret Jug on Sunday? Will it be Jason Day, Dustin Johnson, Jordan Spieth or Rory McIlroy? Or perhaps Troon will throw up a quirky Todd Hamilton champion, who was world number 56 when he won here in 2004. Perhaps Johnson, who won the US Open last month, will enjoy the statistic that the last six winners at Troon have been Americans. How he would love to join Hamilton, Justin Leonard, Mark Calcavecchia, Tom Watson, Tom Weiskopf and Arnold Palmer.

England’s golfers will be hoping to be the new Arthur Havers who won the first Open held at Troon in 1923 and lay to rest 23 years of hurt since Nick Faldo won the Open at Muirfield in 1992. Defending champion Zach Johnson will know that the last player to successfully defend his title was Padraig Harrington in 2008. Tiger Woods did likewise in 2006. Royal Troon was also the venue for the first screaming madness of Tigermania in 1997. Whatever happened to Tiger? Elvis has left the building and he’s never coming back. The Fab Four are top of the pops now. McIlroy is the only one of the top four who has failed to win a major in the last two years. He bristled when one reporter suggested the Northern Irishman was in danger of becoming Ringo, the anonymous one who sits at the back.

“I haven't heard that,” he said. “Probably not the first time I've been compared to the Beatles. Those guys are having a great run at the minute. But I'm happy where my game is. I can't worry about other guys. If I focus on myself and make sure that I'm playing the best that I can, I'm pretty confident that if I go out and play my best golf I'm going to win more times than not.” To emphasize the point that McIlroy would rather be Paul McCartney, he reminded his detractors of the simple maths of major victories. “I've got FOUR major championships, and I'd love to add to that tally, just as those guys would love to add to the ONE or TWO majors that they have.”

McIlroy missed the Open at St Andrews last year after injuring his ankle playing football. The look on his face this week and the way he blasted golf’s participation at the Olympics and the paucity of drug testing in the sport suggests he is in a feisty mood and ready to make some noise on the big stage again.

Jordan Spieth is without a major victory in the last four after winning the first two of 2015 (Getty)

So if McIlroy is McCartney, that leaves the dozy, dry-witted one as Johnson. But the US Open champion isn’t as daft as his slow Ringo drawl and laid-back manner would have his rivals believe. He said the monkey was off his back after winning his first major. One wag asked him where that monkey was now. “He’s good. He’s riding in the bag,” Johnson said. He really is Ringo.

Johnson is hovering around joint favourite with Day to win. Is Ringo cool with that? Does it bother him? Does he get a kick out of it? “Honestly, I don’t care,” he said, to much laughter. “I mean I like my chances but I go into every tournament liking my chances,” he said. Enough to win this week? “If I bring my best stuff, I believe so. I always feel like I'm the best player in the world,” said the world No.2. “But that's just me. I've got a lot of confidence. Obviously I'm playing very well. If I keep playing like I am, then, yes, I will win a few more majors.”

That leaves John Lennon and George Harrison. Day is John - sharp-witted and open. Which leaves Spieth as the deep-thinking quietly spoken genius, George. “The Claret Jug is something I've now held in my hands - I was with Zach the night that he won it last year,” Spieth said. “I crave to have that trophy in my possession and to reach a third leg of the Grand Slam this week would be fantastic.”

Maybe there is revenge in the mind of world No.1 Day. He missed by one shot the play-off won by Johnson at St Andrews last year. “It was the start of my run where everything kind of changed in my world,” Day said. He went on to win the US PGA Championship in August. “I would love to one day hold the Claret Jug and be able to put my name down in history with the best that have ever lived and played the game,” he said.

Day said if it came down to a shootout between the Fab Four on Sunday it would be his own game he would be more worried about. “I'm not so worried about them beating me. I'm worried about myself beating myself,” he said. “Sometimes you stand up there and think you can play shots that are not percentage shots,” Day said. “Even though you want to take them on and hit that heroic shot and turn out to be the victor, sometimes it's just not the right time. That's kind of conquering your ego a little bit.”

A word of warning for the Fab Four. It was a clash of egos that finally broke up The Beatles. Maybe there’ll be a surprise Open champion. How about 53-year-old Colin Montgomerie, playing the Open on his home course where he learned to play from the age of six? How about Monty as the Fifth Beatle? Maybe not. There's more chance of Yoko Ono winning at Troon.

Three to follow:

Big four: Rory McIlroy

If you are going to say you’d rather watch the track and field, diving and swimming at the Olympics and can’t be bothered with the golf, then you criticise the lack of drug testing in golf, but you haven’t won a major for two years, you’d better show up with your A-game. McIlroy plays well when he’s feisty.

Each-way bet: Lee Westwood

Could this weekend be the time for Lee Westwood to finally break his major duck? (Gettty)

So many close calls in the majors. Has nine top-threes. Was runner-up to Danny Willett at the Masters. Veteran 43-year-old is back in form in a Ryder Cup year. Royal Troon is made for him. Tight fairways for his accurate driving. Flat greens to help his sometimes iffy putting.

Outsider: Shane Lowry

The Irishman blew a four-shot lead at the US Open to lose to Dustin Johnson. “People say you have to lose one to win one, but feck that. I don't see it like that. If you have a chance, it's there to be won.” His mercurial short game will be a threat at Troon.