TOM WATSON summed it up when he arrived at Turnberry yesterday to find Gary Hallberg’s name top of the Senior Open leaderboard, courtesy of a stunning 63.

“He’s a great player but he doesn’t know it,” said Watson.

American Hallberg, 54, is one of golf’s great enigmas. Blessed with all the talent in the world yet little more than three average PGA Tour event wins to show for his enormous potential.

From the moment he burst on to the tour in 1980 he was billed the new Arnold Palmer, thanks not only to the fact he’d excelled in college golf at the same school as Palmer, Wake Forest.

Like Arnie he was long off the tee and his love for the adventurous would see him take on any shot without fear. Such as the day he famously saved par by hitting his third shot from the gravel roof of the clubhouse at Indian Wells.

So when the first half of his rookie season on the Tour saw Hallberg’s scoring average ranked second only to leading money-list winner Watson, even Tom must have been looking over his shoulder and expecting big things from this kid.

Maybe, 32 years later, we are at last about to see it.

Hallberg’s round in yesterday morning’s blustery conditions was made even more remarkable when you consider everyone else seemed to be going backwards.

Tom Lehman staggered off the Ailsa Course delighted to have ground out a one over 72 to stay in the hunt – then took one look at Hallberg’s score and asked if he had been playing the par-three course in front of the Turnberry Hotel.

It was a performance as staggering as the fact he never made himself a bigger name in what should have been his heyday in the era of Madonna, Live Aid, Thatcher and Pacman.

His highest Major finish was tied sixth at the 1984 USPGA and the following year’s Masters. In 1991 he led The Open at halfway only for a slump to leave him flagging tied 32nd while Ian Baker-Finch stood on the 18th green at Royal Birkdale holding the Claret Jug.

Now Hallberg finds himself in the same position, only this time he’s going for the miniature version of the old trophy. His six-under-par score is followed by first- round pacesetter Bernhard Langer just three shots back along with his good buddy Lehman.

Lehman said: “That’s an astounding score in a strong wind like that – but then Gary is a character so nothing surprises me with what he might shoot.

“There are times he realises how great he is and then there are other times when he doesn’t. Anyone who knows golf knows how incredibly gifted Gary is. He’s a real creative, artistic kind of guy who for some reason tinkers a lot with his swing.

“He’ll do one thing one week and another thing the next – it’s a kind offly-by-the-seat-of-his-pants type of approach to golf.

“I wish he would just forget about his swing and just play. I’ve told him that many times and he listens for a couple of days.

“Of the guys around our age coming out of college and amateur golf there was Hal Sutton, Bobby Clampett, Fred Couples and Gary - they were the elite. The guys at the very top above everybody else. He was not just a good player, he was the best.”

Well to be the best this week he’ll have to beat Langer just as he did to claim his first and so far only senior victory two years ago. He shot a final-round 61 to come from behind to beat the German and Couples to the Ensure Classic title at Rock Barn.

This time it looks like another three-way shoot-out on a leaderboard that boasts only seven players under par. It would take a huge effort for the guys tucked in behind Lehman and Langer on one under (David Frost, Peter Senior, Dick Mast and Jay Don Blake) to catch up, especially with this strong breeze expected to last the weekend.

Hallberg modestly credited yesterday’s success to a Scottish caddie, John Harris, who gave him advice at The Renaissance Club in East Lothian last week.

He said: “I asked the caddie how do you handle the wind and he replied, ‘We lean on it’. That changed my thinking about using the breeze to my advantage so I leaned into the wind and found it favourable.

“That caddie was great. He said some classic things, like when I hit it in a bunker and he peered in then said, ‘There’s only room in there for an angry man and his niblick’. That was the greatest thing I ever heard. I loved it.

“If his advice was to help me win I suppose I would owe him a sizeable tip. I’ll tell him to keep his head down and follow through. And be nice to your elders.”

As entertaining off the course as he can be on it, let’s hope he Hallberg can sustain both through the weekend.