Video - The Open: History-chasing Spieth says it would ‘mean the world’ to win at St Andrews

But if the 21-year-old was feeling the pressure of trying to remain on course for an unprecedented calendar grand slam, he did a brilliant job of hiding it.

“I like to study the history of golf and I think it’s extremely special what this year has brought,” the Masters and US Open champion said yesterday.

“I’m sure embracing that opportunity, but by the time I start on Thursday, it won’t be in my head. It’ll be about how can I bring this Open Championship down to just another event, get out there and try and get myself into contention.

“It would be amazing (to win). It would be something I’d never forget. I don’t think there’s anything more special in golf than playing an Open Championship at the Home of Golf.

“I think here and Augusta National are my two favourite places in the world. It would mean the world to me to try and win this championship and to do it here would be even more special.”

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Just two men have won three major championships in the same year, with Ben Hogan winning all three in which he played in 1953 only to be denied the chance of a grand slam due to a clash of dates.

Hogan won the Masters by five shots and the US Open by six, but with the US PGA Championship – then still a match play event – not finishing until July 7 in Michigan and the Open starting a day later, he opted to travel to Carnoustie and secured his only Open title by four shots.

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In 2000, Tiger Woods won the US Open, Open Championship and US PGA before completing the ‘Tiger Slam’ in 2001 with victory in the Masters.

“I think I can certainly draw on the first two majors,” added Spieth, the second youngest Masters champion, behind Woods.

“But I’m not putting on added pressure to try and win three in a row. I don’t think of those other two majors as being in a row this year, I just think of them as tournaments that I’ve won that are of the same calibre.

“I look at this as trying to win the Open Championship at a very special place. The hardest thing for me is trying to forget about where you are because being here at St Andrews and looking at the past champions, that’s elite company.”

It was only two years ago that Spieth played his first Open at Muirfield having secured his place in the field four days earlier by becoming the first teenage winner on the PGA Tour since 1931.

Approaching the end of his second round he was tied for the lead at three under par, before dropping four shots in his last four holes.

“I remember almost thinking like that was too big for me at the time,” Spieth added.

“I felt like I wanted to compete, I loved the pressure and I felt like I could do it, but it was a position I’d never been in and it was an odd feeling being in contention in a major.

“But sitting here today, that’s where I expect myself to be. I don’t think I could have imagined sitting here this soon.

“I certainly wanted to at some point, but it’s pretty cool to be here this early and to have the opportunities we have going forward.”

The event Spieth won in 2013 was the John Deere Classic and he did it again on Sunday, although questions remain over its suitability as preparation for the Old Course, which the world No 2 had played just once before.

“I just liked the fact that I could go somewhere where I could play hard and possibly win a PGA Tour event in preparation. But certainly more time on this golf course couldn’t ever hurt anybody,” added Spieth, who can replace the absent Rory McIlroy as world No 1 by succeeding him as Open champion.