Walking through the streets of Southport late on Tuesday evening, the bars and restaurants were bursting at the seams, spilling out on to the street in many cases.

The World Cup semi-final between France and Spain was on the big screens in the beer gardens, but the heat of Texas had nothing on this scorched strip of land on the Lancashire coastline.

For those who had no interest in the football, a cold refreshment in the shade offered welcome refuge from a day in the sun at baked-out Royal Birkdale.

Southport man Tommy Fleetwood is among the favourites to win The Open Championship

Galleries will cheer on the home favourite at Royal Birkdale this week

A large group of spectators had gathered outside a pub, all wearing matching T-shirts bearing the face of local hero Tommy Fleetwood.

About another half a mile or so along the road, a giant mural of Fleetwood has also been painted on the side of the Southport and Birkdale Sports Club building.

With the Open Championship rolling into town, this whole area feels like a shrine to Fleetwood. Quite simply, he is golfing royalty in these parts.

Speaking earlier in the week about the days some 20-odd years ago when he and his father, Peter, would sneak on at Birkdale, Fleetwood explained: ‘We always went on late enough when the members were in the bar. Dad was far too clever for them to catch us.

‘It’s obviously very, very special, I think, for anybody that was lucky enough to grow up in the town of Southport. It’s such a golfing town, and The Open at Birkdale holds such a special place in the area.

‘Yeah, it’s a dream just to be competing in an Open here, so I feel very, very lucky. I still have lots of memories from the 2017 Open here. Yeah, I’m just excited for the opportunity to play in front of everybody.

‘It’s very rare to have an opportunity to play a tournament, let alone The Open, in the town where you grew up in front of fans that were all there to support you. I am very excited.’

There would be no more popular winner than Fleetwood this week if he was to end up lifting the Claret Jug come Sunday night.

If he can do so, he would become the first English winner since Sir Nick Faldo won the last of his three Opens at Muirfield in 1992.

Indeed, all three of Faldo’s Claret Jugs came in Scotland. To find the last time an English player won on home soil, you need to go all the way back to Tony Jacklin at Royal Lytham in 1969, his sole Open victory.

Fleetwood will be roared on by the huge galleries. But with that raucous home support comes an extra sense of pressure. In every possible sense of the term, the heat is on.

This is links golf in its truest form, the oldest and purest examination in the game, with Birkdale set to play fast, firm and fiery as temperatures continue to soar amid the heatwave. The fairways are parched and running like polished marble, with some players already reporting drives of over 400 yards due to how far the ball is rolling out.

Fleetwood gets some bunker practice at a course he knows very well from childhood

The hot weather looks set to continue for the rest of the week and the R&A will have a job on their hands to make sure the greens don’t become too brown and frazzled.

This already has echoes of Hoylake in 2006, when Tiger Woods triumphed in similar conditions on a course that was yellow, dusty and baked.

With a premium on accuracy and quality ball-striking, this should suit Fleetwood. This is the sort of golf he was born to play, the sort of test where he learned his craft as a junior.

In a way, this feels like a proper Open Championship. The conditions, the venue, the town; it all aligns for what should be a magnificent week of golf. Birkdale is arguably the finest course on the Open rota and there is an unalloyed joy to be found in these venues where the golf course bleeds immediately into the adjoining town.

Not every venue enjoys this sort of buy-in from the locals but it’s clear why Birkdale is such a favourite among players, fans, and tournament officials.

It is an excellent course for spectators, with the dunes and natural undulations framing the holes quite superbly.

The crowds have already been swelling in their number, even on the practice days. Outside the official merchandise shop yesterday, a huge queue of people snaked its way back into the spectator village.

A young boy feasted on an ice cream cone, in a hurry to polish it off before it melted down his hand, whilst his father held aloft an umbrella to shield them from the sun. This is The Open as it was intended to be.

Birkdale drew crowds of 235,000 over the week when the championship was last held here in 2017 but that number will be comfortably surpassed this time around. What a memorable Open that was, too. Who could forget the incredible drama in the final round when Jordan Spieth channelled his inner Houdini to break the heart of Matt Kuchar?

Spieth hit his tee shot off the face of the planet on the 13th hole, missing the fairway by about 50 yards to the right, before somehow recovering and escaping with arguably the greatest bogey of his life.

His putter then caught fire over the remaining holes and he would conjure the most stupendous victory to deny his fellow American, who actually did very little wrong.

Fleetwood is excited to be playing in front of his home crowd 

What a treat it would be if we were to witness more of that kind of drama come Sunday afternoon, particularly if Fleetwood were to feature prominently.

Scottie Scheffler tees it up as the reigning champion golfer of the year, and whilst he has not won so prolifically so far this year as he has in the past, his overall form is still strong.

It would be extremely foolish to write him off on the basis of his first missed cut in almost four years in last week’s Genesis Scottish Open.

Scheffler put on a golfing clinic at Royal Portrush last year to win by four strokes from fellow American Harris English and, along with Rory McIlroy, will start this week as the player everyone else has to beat. Scheffler will be aiming to become the first man since Padraig Harrington in 2007 and 2008 to lift the Claret Jug two years in succession and join a select band of back-to-back winners.

But it is Fleetwood who will draw the biggest crowds over these opening two rounds, desperate to fire himself into contention for the weekend.

Could the boy who once sneaked on to these fabled links now conquer them to claim the greatest prize of all? It would be a hell of a story.

It promises to be a week of pure theatre on a gloriously sun-soaked stretch of north-west English coastland.

The heat is on, Birkdale is baked, now for Fleetwood to bring the fire.