A number of other tributes will be made during the week, with an article in the official programme and numerous photos of the Spaniard around the site, while his image will appear on the drawsheets each day, with the proceeds from those being donated to his charitable foundation.

R&A chief executive Peter Dawson said: “We placed a book of remembrance at the registration for all the players to sign, and all of them have done so, and some of them have chosen – in fact the majority – to write a message in that book.

“That book will be passed on to Seve’s family as a memento of this year’s championship, of course, but more particularly of Seve’s connection with the Open.

“The players were invited to give their messages in private and I don’t think it would be right for me to publish them without a particular player’s consent, but the thrust of all the messages was what a wonderful inspiration Seve had been to golfers the world over and particularly in Europe, and many of them actually said that Seve was their own inspiration to playing golf.

“He was the guy they all watched when they were kids and so on, and that he was going to be greatly missed. That was the general thrust of what everyone had to say.”

Ballesteros won the first of his five majors at Royal Lytham in 1979. He was 22 at the time and just a month older than new US Open champion Rory McIlroy is now.

St Andrews in 1984 was the scene for his greatest triumph, his closing birdie denying Tom Watson the chance for a record-equalling sixth victory, and it was back at Lytham four years later that he shot a closing 65 to win again.