Imagine this. A 16-year-old kid packs a suitcase and a set of golf clubs, and gets on a plane in Johannesburg for London to attack the International Amateur Golf Circuit. My mother travelled with me to ensure I was able to get from event to event.

The British part of the trip ended with me teeing up at the pre-qualifying rounds of The Open Championship in 1969. Gary Player was the defending champion and the venue was Royal Lytham & St Annes.

I managed to qualify to play at The Open and got drawn to play the first two rounds with the 1967 Open champion, Roberto de Vicenzo. On the 1st hole, a par three, I hit a 6-iron a metre from the hole and made a two. I led The Open Championship after one hole.

Unfortunately, it took me another 78 shots to finish the round. Afterwards, a friend of mine asked Roberto what he thought of this young South African. He said: “On hole 6 he lose a ball. After that, he lose his head.”

That Open was won by Tony Jacklin and he was the first British player to win the Major since Max Faulkner in 1951. When Max won, he signed autographs before the final round “Max Faulkner, Open champion 1951”. How’s that for confidence?

After The Open, we went to Europe for a few tournaments. The first of them was the French Open in Paris. My mother told me at The Open that she was going home to South Africa and left me in the care of Denis Hutchinson and Simon Hobday. When I got to Paris I had just turned 17. I left seven days later and I was 42!

The Open Championship is the true world golf championship. The best golfers from all over the world tee it up there. It is real golf played at old, traditional links golf courses.

Bobby Locke’s win at The Open at Royal Troon with a record score of 279 was the second of his four wins after he’d won it the previous year. Locke and Thomson dominated The Open between 1949 and 1958. In those 10 years, they each won four times. Only Faulkner and Ben Hogan stopped a clean sweep by the two Commonwealth golfers.

Jack Nicklaus’ first appearance at The Open was in 1962, the year Arnold Palmer won his second Open Championship in a row. Jack finished a creditable 34th in his first attempt and his record for the next 18 years is unmatched in professional golf. At 18 Opens, he recorded three wins and seven runner-up finishes, and only finished outside the top six once.

Gary Player won his first Major in 1959 for a cheque of £1 000, despite making a double-bogey six on the last hole at Muirfield. He was already in the clubhouse and had to wait for Flory van Donck and Fred Bullock. Gary’s 68 in the final round was good enough to win by two shots over those two players as they faltered over the finishing holes. That year there were only four American players in the field, of which two were professionals. All four missed the cut.

The Open changed after Palmer played in 1960. Although he was beaten by Australia’s Kel Nagle, he made The Open an event the Americans want to play. Three years after Gary won, the entries from the US came flooding in and Phil Rodgers and Sam Snead both finished in the top 10. The prize money also started to increase rapidly and Palmer won 40% more than Gary had just three years earlier. Gary’s next win was in 1968 at Carnoustie when he held off Nicklaus and Bob Charles.

Gary’s last Open win was at Royal Lytham in 1974 where he beat Peter Oosterhuis by four shots, for his eighth of nine Major wins.

It was the 152nd Open Championship this year and I was so fortunate to have been invited to commentate at Royal Troon. It was the 10th Open at this iconic venue, which is a wonderful links golf course that always provides us with a great test of golf and is a brilliant spectacle for TV viewers.

Royal Troon features the shortest hole on the Open Championship rota and this year they lengthened the par-five 6th by 22 yards to 623 yards – just three yards longer than the 15th hole at last year’s venue, Royal Liverpool. The total distance of the course was 7 385 yards, an increase of 195 yards from the 2016 Open.

The past champions tell the story, the cream always rises to the top. This year we had so many of the world's best players in form, including Xander Schauffele (above) who prevailed to win his second Major of the year.

I attended The Open Championship for the first time 55 years ago and I’ve loved every one. I played at 12 Opens and I’ve probably attended another 20 or so as a spectator or commentatory. In my opinion, it’s simply the best golf championship.

IMAGES: STUART FRANKLIN/R&A/R&A VIA GETTY IMAGES/ROLEX