Former British Open champion David Duval said he believes he still has what it takes to win the famous major for a second time.
American Duval won the Open Championship back in 2001 - the last time the tournament was held at 2012 venue Royal Lytham & St Annes Golf Club.
But despite being ranked 775th in the official standings, the 40-year-old Duval was still confident he could be in contention this weekend.
"I believe in what I do. I believe in myself as a person, as a golfer and I know I can play as well as anybody," Duval said.
"Everything just needs to fall into place a little bit. I need to feel a little better. You hit a couple of golf shots, you build confidence and you're off."
Duval has had a shocking 2012 PGA Tour season, surviving just two cuts in 13 tournaments, which included one withdrawal.
But the Denver resident opted to focus on returning to the scene of his breakthrough victory 11 years ago.
"I haven't been here for 11 years. I haven't had reason to make the trip here, so it was kind of cool to see my name just on the club board, in the gold ink on the wood, along with the other tournaments they have," he said.
"It makes you feel like you're kind of part of the club here. This is a special week regardless, and I think that people and players talk about the tournaments and the best weeks of the year, but I think the majority of the time that you hear this is the best week of the year, that's when they're finally telling you the truth."
Duval revealed he played through injuries in the years following his lone major triumph, which ultimately derailed his career.
He said he had endured a 'laundry list' of niggles - including tendonitis in his back, elbows and wrist; bone bruising, back problems and vertigo.
"The great thing about wonderful athletes, wonderful golfers and football players, whatever it may be - but also the big detriment is - that we're sometimes not smart enough to stop," he said.
"Our egos think that we can just play and get through it. And I continued to play and work through it, and all it did was get worse and worse and wreck my golf game and wreck my confidence, and there you are... in hindsight the big mistake I made in my career was not stopping sometime in early 2002 and probably not playing again until 2004.
"I should have taken at least a year, maybe more off, just made sure everything kind of got healed, protected my confidence, protected my golf game and moved on and just given away that year and a half, not give away eight years like I did."