Peter Baker is one of the later starters at Royal Birkdale

Peter Baker has every reason to feel confident when he tees off at Royal Birkdale on Thursday afternoon.

The Shropshire-born Wolverhampton golfer enjoyed his best finish at an Open Championship when he tied for 15th at the Southport course in 1998.

"I like the course," said Baker. "I like links golf and I've always done all right at Royal Birkdale.

"I shot a 69 on the first day last time and wasn't too far away and I've had a couple of other decent performances."

Baker tees off at 1548 BST and he is a little concerned at the late start, especially if the windy conditions on Wednesday return.

"If it blows like this it's going to make it difficult. But we haven't had it at an Open recently so maybe it'll be something to relish.

"The major thing is to control the ball flight and get your distances right. If you can do that you're half way there," he said.

Baker actually had his first top-20 finish in Europe at the Lawrence Batley International at Birkdale in 1987 and he returned the following year to come second to Howard Clark in the English Open.

But, less than a year on from memorably coming through the rigours of a year on the far less rewarding Challenge Tour to reclaim his European Tour card on his 40th birthday, Baker admits he could do with another good week on Merseyside.

After an encouraging start to the season he has not made the cut at his last four European tour events and has slumped to 154th on the Order of Merit.

PETER BAKER FACTFILE Age: 40 Opens played in: 12 Best finish: 15th in 1998

"I don't feel I'm a million miles away," said Baker. "I've not been missing by much, there's such a good standard on tour these days."

Back in 1998, he finished tied for 15th alongside a group including Jose Maria Olazabal on the Open's last visit to this prized corner of West Lancashire.

That was enough to finish just nine shots adrift of winner Mark O'Meara, who, having finished a shot clear of a young Tiger Woods, eventually saw off Brian Watts in the play-off.

And, ironically, he finished tied with double Masters champion Olazabal again at the European final qualifying event at Sunningdale earlier this month.

That put them both into a six-man sudden-death four-hole play-off, for which just the final two places at the 137th Open Championship were up for grabs.

"We went off in two three-balls, which then became one four-ball after two of the others three-putted," said Baker.

"Then it became down to just the three of us and, at the third extra hole, Simon Dyson and I both drove down the middle and made par, but Jose missed the fairway and did not make the green with his second, he was then just wide with a 20-foot par-for-par.

"I made a 20-foot par on the last in fading light to make it to Carnoustie last year so you could say the course has been fairly kind to me."

And, even on his 13th appearance at an Open Championship, Baker hopes his luck stays in and that Birkdale will also stay kind to him this week too.