Rory McIlroy says Matteo Manassero makes him feel old.

McIlroy is a bit young to be entering his dotage at just 24, but if Manassero lifts the Claret Jug next weekend then the Northern Irishman might as well file his application to join the Seniors Tour straight away.

And the scenario – Manassero winning, if not McIlroy joining the seniors – is far from impossible. Manassero seems to have devoted almost all of his 20 years to setting records with his precocious abilities. And if he does add The Open title to his already impressive haul of achievements, he will be the tournament's youngest winner for 145 years.

So at least the reputation of Young Tom Morris, who was 17 years, five months and three days old when he took the first of his four titles at Prestwick in 1868, will survive a Manassero victory. But all the other striplings who won The Open at improbably young ages – Seve Ballesteros (22), Gary Player (23), Tiger Woods (24) – will immediately be overshadowed by the man-child from Verona who left his teenage years behind him less than three months ago.

So what exactly has Manassero done to justify the hype? Well for a start, at the age of 16 he became the youngest winner of the Amateur Championship when he collected the trophy at Formby in 2009. He backed that up by being the youngest player to win the silver medal in The Open when, competing at the event for the first time, he finished 13th at Turnberry a few weeks later. He bade his farewell to the amateur ranks the following April when he was the youngest player ever to make the cut at the Masters.

And the list goes on. In his rookie professional season his victory at the 2010 Castello Masters made him the youngest tournament winner in European Tour history, at 17 years and 188 days. When he took the Barclays Singapore Open last year, he became the first teenager to claim three Tour titles. His fourth professional win was at the BMW PGA Championship two months ago. Yes, you guessed it, that made him the youngest winner of the Tour's flagship event as well.

All of which could go to a young man's head, but the contraption that sits on Manassero's shoulders seems far older than the rest of him. He cites Ballesteros as his hero and inspiration, but has none of the late Spaniard's swagger or impetuosity. There is an air of self-containment, an almost other-worldly calm about Manassero's bearing, something quite ethereal at times.

Remind you of anyone? At his first Open, he was paired with Tom Watson, a man pathologically incapable of drawing a distinction between triumph and disaster. It was the tournament where Watson, the oldest player in the field, rolled back his 59 years and came achingly close to winning his sixth Open title. And Manassero, who bagged a hole in one at the eighth on his way to a round of 70 at the Scottish Open at Castle Stuart yesterday, liked his approach.

"I learned so much from those two days with Tom," he says. "You could see that he had the patience that is so important in links golf. At the start, he was obviously not expecting to contend, but once he realised he was playing well and in that position, his approach didn't change. He was still smiling and not putting pressure on himself. It was very impressive. He did not get down at all after a bad shot, which was a great attitude to have. But then, he was playing great golf as well. He was doing everything right and it was great to be close to it."

Manassero's composure sets him apart from Sergio Garcia, a player whose early career followed a similar trajectory. Garcia has racked up an astonishing total of 18 top-10 finishes in Major championships, but has yet to win one, a failure due, in no small part, to regular rushes of blood. It is hard to imagine the easy-going Manassero will plot a similar course over the next few years.

He has the ball flight – low – to thrive in the links environment, and the to-die-for short game to deal with the near-inevitable sticky situations The Open throws up. But it his outlook as much as his glorious talent that marks him out as a player who could thrive in East Lothian this week.

"You have to have that patience Tom had," he says. "You can hit a great shot and find you are not very close to the pin. That happens a lot. So you need to have patience to play smart and make smart choices. When you lose it, and try to force it, it's very easy to get into trouble."

Manassero has never played at Muirfield. He hasn't looked at any course guides either. He prefers to talk to people he trusts, take their advice on board, and then reach his own conclusions in practice rounds.

"A lot of the players have been down there over the past few days," he says. "What I'm hearing is that it's in great condition. I'm told it's not too narrow, but if you miss a fairway you are in real trouble. That probably suits me, as precise driving and a good short game will be key.

"I don't put a lot of spin on the ball, so I get a lot of run on the fairway. You need a bit of luck if you do that, but I hear it's a fair course, too. Most of the time I have a good short game as well, so it's a good combination and I'm looking forward to being there. The Open has always had a very special meaning for me. It is a tournament where I particularly want to do well."