• Winner of the Open this year is likely to come from ‘a group of 10 to 12 guys’ • Spieth won first two majors of 2015 but has not dominated like Tiger Woods

Jordan Spieth is as qualified as anybody to talk about the next big thing, having been considered the game’s dominant figure after he won the first two majors of 2015. Things have now normalised for him as they did for Rory McIlroy after his double of the year before and the Texan thinks the days of a pre-eminent world No1 and a Tiger Woods-like era are gone for good.

“What Tiger’s done, having experienced a year like he continued to do for years, it just takes a lot out of you,” Spieth said. “It’s very tough to do. And you have to have a lot of things go right at the right times. I doubt you’ll see a dominance like that maybe ever again in the game. I just think guys are learning, guys are getting stronger. I wouldn’t get your hopes up whatsoever.

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“You’ll see a group of 10 to 12 guys over the next 15, 20 years that are going to have a lot of different competitions that come down the stretch. And it’s different than one person being the guy to beat. It’s exciting for us as players.”

Seven successive majors have already been and gone since Zach Johnson won his second major at the 2015 Open, with Spieth in a tie for fourth at St Andrews, and there have been seven maiden winners. “There’s a lot more guys who haven’t won majors than guys who have that are playing, so the chances are it is going to be someone who hasn’t won one,” he said, pointing out Henrik Stenson and Dustin Johnson were among the seven and they were always likely candidates.

Spieth is defined by 2015, when he also managed second place at the US PGA and where Jason Day became the first of the seven, and while he acknowledges it was a high-water mark, he expects to have other purple patches, though he discounts talk of a so-called big four and feels luck can play a part.

When it comes to things going right for you at the Open, he says that being on the right side of the draw is probably the biggest of them, an unfathomable that can see sections of the field virtually eliminated from contention when playing in sometimes markedly different weather conditions from the rest on the first two days.

“This is my fifth Open now and I’ve seen really dry and favourable conditions and then last year [Royal Troon] was pretty wicked on Friday,” he said. “And I’ve kind of seen a bit of everything. It may be the easiest of the majors to win, just because the draw can take out half a field. But the type of golf you have to play is totally different than in the other three majors.

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“So I’m not saying it’s easy based on competition. I’m saying it because a lot of the time some of the field is thrown out and you’re actually playing a smaller field. I plan on playing 30 of these and I guarantee you it will end up being 15 and 15. I was in the bad end last year.”

This time he is out at 9.47am on Thursday with last year’s champion, Stenson, and Kim Si-woo, the winner of the Players in May, and 2.48pm on Friday, with the weather forecast suggesting early starters on day one and later starters for the second round may well be in the better half.