American Scottie Scheffler will set out to end an Open Championship trend and become the first player ⁠to defend the title for 18 ⁠years at Royal Birkdale this week.Ireland’s Padraig Harrington ⁠was the last player to retain the Claret Jug in back-to-back years when he won at Carnoustie in 2007 and Birkdale in 2008, and the trend since then has favoured first-time winners.South African Ernie Els was the most recent repeat champion, at Royal Lytham & St Annes in 2012, after winning his first in 2002 at Muirfield.Several players will be favoured to snap the sequence of first-time winners, though, with world No 1 Scheffler and Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy the favourites despite both coming in with question marks about their form.Scheffler produced a links golf masterclass on the Antrim coast last year, with a processional four-stroke victory at Portrush adding a fourth major to his collection.The 30-year-old has not won since his first event of the season and his preparation suffered a jolt at last week’s Scottish Open when he missed his first cut in four years.