For instance, the most dominant of them all, Jack Nicklaus, established his record of 18 Major triumphs from a total of 155 events as a professional. Which works out at a success-rate of 11.6 per cent. By comparison, McIlroy’s return of four from 48 (8.3 per cent) is not at all shabby.

He will be joined on Thursday by Shane Lowry and Pádraig Harrington at a venue which has been kind to Irish challengers. When the 1991 Ryder Cup effectively launched the Ocean Course at Kiawah onto the world stage, David Feherty delivered the best individual figures from either side when being level-par for the 17 holes he needed to beat reigning US Open champion, Payne Stewart.

Turning to strokeplay, it was host to the 1997 World Cup in which Harrington partnered Paul McGinley to an Irish triumph. Then, for its first Major, McIlroy was clad in red and restored to world number one after sweeping to a record eight-stroke victory, with Tiger Woods a further three strokes adrift.

Even the most accomplished exponent is aware that winning is never easy. It becomes a lot less daunting, however, when you have the talent to make winning decisions. Like having the confidence on Quail Hollow’s 504-yard 18th to take an eight-iron from a squishy, hanging lie just above a riverbed and hit the ball 180 yards, perfectly on line to a distant target.

Among the variables to be considered was how the lie would influence the emergence of the ball and the distance it travelled, especially given his tight margin for error after a penalty drop had been taken. It was only proper that McIlroy should publicly compliment his caddie, Harry Diamond, on his timely input to a potential crisis. But Diamond knew his man.

Behind all of this spectacle, however, lay a disturbing truth. It was a day when McIlroy hit only three out of 14 fairways, which didn’t include the 18th, even with a three-wood off the tee.

So, much remained to be done when he and short-term coach, Pete Cowen, returned last week to the practice ground at the Bear’s Club in West Palm Beach. “Then I’m retiring,” the 70-year-old Yorkshireman texted me, with a few light-hearted emojis.

“It’s definitely a ball-striker’s course,” said the defending champion, Collin Morikawa, during a recent visit to Kiawah. “You have to be able to control your ball, flight different shots, work it left to right and right to left. And that kind of suits me.

“The greens are pretty small, but man, talk about that back nine! It’s a very good finishing stretch of golf, especially with the wind. You’re going to be tested on every shot. I was hitting a bunch of six-, five-, four-irons into greens, even a couple of five-woods. Yeah, you really can’t get lazy on any of these shots. You can’t take anything for granted.

“A guy like Rory, who won here nine years ago, is going to have great memories. It’s a brand new golf course to me. My only memory of 2012 was seeing Rory’s ball getting stuck in a tree [on the par-four third hole on the Saturday]. I’m sad to hear the tree is unfortunately not there anymore, but there’s a new tree for someone to hit into this year.”

My own memories of 2012 are of a particularly bright star enhancing the golfing firmament. There was also McIlroy’s exemplary politeness in responding to a question from a pompous, patronising American scribe. “There’s been a lot of talk about the paspalum greens,” McIlroy was informed. “I wonder if you could tell us at what stage in your life you first heard that word and if you can spell it for us.”

As if to a schoolmaster, the 23-year-old replied: “Paspalum. And the Bear’s Club actually have paspalum, where we practise all the time. We’re quite used to how it reacts. It’s very spiny. When you see guys chipping and hitting wedge shots, it bites a lot, really grabs the ball. So you can be aggressive with your chip shots and definitely aggressive with your wedge shots, too.”

And I sat there thinking to myself, “Good for you, Rory.”

Kiawah has changed in the last 30 years, though a constant has been its waste areas rather than bunkers. When the course was being built under the guidance of architect Pete Dye, attempts were made to plant grass surrounds for bunkers but without success, not unlike the problems encountered from Atlantic winds during the construction of the Tralee links at Barrow in the early 1980s. After several failed attempts, Dye eventually settled on waste areas where clubs can be grounded when playing recovery shots.

“One problem with waste areas is that you don’t really know what kind of lies you’re going to get,” said Morikawa. “So we’re going to have to kind of readjust and figure out what the best strategy is to make some birdies.”

In terms of overall length, the course has been extended to a formidable 7,876 yards, from 7,240 in 1991 and 7,676 in 2012.

Harrington is going back there for a third time, having been tied 18th behind McIlroy in 2012. He recalled that when he first experienced Kiawah in 1997, the nature of the game was very different.

“Guys were retiring in their 30s,” he remarked. “Now we’re looking at guys like Phil Mickelson and Steve Stricker challenging in their 50s. Attitudes have changed. All you have to do is have a look at a picture of me from ’97. I was three stone heavier. I now consider myself a very disciplined person and I’ve spent the last 20 years watching my physique so as to have a long and sustained career.”

Interestingly, his primary focus this week will be on the Ryder Cup, as skipper of the forthcoming European side at Whistling Straits. In 2012, he was attempting to make the team for Medinah a month later, but failed.

Meanwhile, Lowry made his first PGA Championship appearance in 2010, when he missed the cut at Whistling Straits. And he didn’t return until 2013 at Oak Hill. Since then, his performances have been decidedly moderate, with a best-placed finish of tied 12th at Bellerive, three years ago.

In America, he tends to save his best play for difficult terrain, as evidenced by his victory in the 2015 Bridgestone Invitational at Firestone and top-10 finishes in the US Open at Chambers Bay earlier that year and 12 months later at Oakmont. All of which would suggest that the demands of Kiawah should suit him.

McIlroy’s first experience of Dye’s handiwork at Major level was in the 2010 PGA at Whistling Straits, where he was tied third behind Martin Kaymer. That was when he discovered the appeal of an architect who has been described as the great illusionist, because of the sublety of his designs.

“Pete Dye courses generally offer more of a mental than a physical challenge,” he said. “Though I found Kiawah quite similar to Whistling Straits, it took me a bit longer to come to terms with Sawgrass [where he won The Players in 2019]. Kiawah is a little more straightforward. You’re not hitting across as many fairways and there’s a few more targets to aim at on the horizon.

“Even if you’re not comfortable with the shape of a hole, you can still just stand up there and hit at your target. It’s a golf course that is more in front of you than maybe other Pete Dye courses are, which is something I quite like.”

In 2012, prior to his exclusive clothing deal with Nike, McIlroy’s supplier, Oakley, give him a red shirt for the Sunday at Kiawah. “If I was playing with him, I wouldn’t have worn it,” he remarked back then. “And you know who ‘him’ is.”

Then, contemplating his stunning victory, he concluded, smiling: “I might have to do it from now on. No wonder he wins so much.”

As Morikawa indicated, these are great memories to bring to the first tee of a Major.