For Rory McIlroy Royal Troon, and venue for this week’s Open Championship, holds many special boyhood memories.

Royal Troon, and along with Turnberry, are closest of all the courses on The Open rota to McIlroy’s family home.

As a then seven-year old, McIlroy recalls back in 1997 the excitement of sitting in front of the TV and watching Darren Clarke go ever-so close to becoming the first Irishman to win the covered Claret Jug.

Then at age 15, McIlroy attended his very first Open Championship at Royal Troon when American Todd Hamilton, using a ‘hyrbid’ club that has since changed the game of golf, defeated then two-time Open winner Ernie Els in a play-off.

Rory McIlroy recalls his boyhood memories of Open’s at Royal Troon.

And teeing-up this week as an Open Champion, McIlroy’s appearance at Royal Troon will leave just Royal Birkdale as the only Open Championship venue McIlroy will not have played.

He said: “I have a lot of great memories from watching The Open over the years with the one of the first I remember watching on TV was at Troon in 1997 and seeing how well Darren Clarke played.

“Everyone back home in Northern Ireland was very excited about that.  Then I can remember Birkdale in 1998 when Mark O’Meara won, and then also in ’99 seeing Paul Lawrie come through the play-off to win over Jean (Van de Velde) at Carnoustie.

“So I remember a lot of them having watched them on TV.

“The first Open Championship I went to in ’04 at Royal Troon as I played in the Junior Open Championship up the road at Kilmarnock and the organisers took us down to watch The Open and that is my first memory of being present at an Open Championship.

“So after having watching The Open growing up and now to be able to call myself an Open Champion was a dream come true for me.”

When he won The Open two years ago at Hoylake, McIlroy ordered three replica three-quarter size Claret Jug’s, and a policy now in place at the R & A after Padraig Harrington sought eight replicas in capturing the 2007 Open at Carnoustie.

McIlroy has a full-size original in his Palm Beach Gardens abode while he presented his mum and dad and caddy JP Fitzgerald with replicas while a third replica sits in his Belfast apartment.

It means where in Florida or Ireland, McIlroy’s not far away from the most recognisable trophy in all of golf.

He said:  “You look it and first thoughts are seeing all the names, and your think of the history of the championship.

“I think also of things that have been inside the Claret Jug and knowing some of things that people have poured inside the trophy.

“But then seeing my name there on the Claret Jug really cements your name in history given all the championships and tournaments we play, so again, I am very proud to be an Open Champion.”

Unfortunately, a social game of footy ruined McIlroy’s goal of playing a year ago at St. Andrews but technically he can become the first player since Harrington to be handed back-to-back Claret Jugs.

And McIlroy would dearly love the scenario he faced at Royal Liverpool walking down the last hole leading by two and needing just a regulation par to become Open Champion.

He said:  “Luckily for me at Hoylake I had a few putts up my sleeve to win The Open so it wasn’t quite as pressure-packed as it might have been but it was still special given from how I had grown up watching The Open and then knowing my name was now added to a long list of some of the greats in the game was probably more special to me.

“Of course, holing the winning putt at Hoylake was the realisation of a long goal I had since I was first introduced to The Open.

“And the fact that the championship is played on a links course and the course can play so different from day-to-day and that it is the real uniqueness about The Open.

“The one thing also what is unique is the one-tee start with the first players out at 6.30am and the last not till around 4pm.

“I have often at The Open being thankful for the tee times I am given but then over the course of the four day’s conditions sort of even out for everyone.   There’s also that links terrain, the wind and sometimes the rain, as they can all play a massive factor.”

And when McIlroy was asked in one word to describe golf’s oldest Major?

He said:  “Unpredictable, yes unpredictable.”