Rory McIlroy US Open Champion interviewed at nine years

Prodigies come and go, often without making much of a splash at all.

But when they do, it's often interesting, if not entertaining, to note the parallels in the trajectories of the ones who made the climb.

Witness Rory McIlroy.

Like Tiger Woods, he was identified at a very young age as a can't-miss kid and began appearing on television shows in Ireland as a lad, just as Woods did on the Mike Douglas Show over 30 years ago.

Here's an unbelievably charming clip of McIlroy appearing on the Kelly Show, shortly after he won a huge under-10 event in South Florida against international competition, while trying to chip golf balls into his mom's washing machine, like he did at home to hone his wedge game.

When world No. 1 Luke Donald saw the clip on Tuesday morning, he tweeted, "Classic! He still has that same chipping motion."

At the end of the clip, the impressed show host says, with an arm wrapped around McIlroy, "The Americans have Tiger Woods, and we have young Rory. And believe you me, this kid can hit a ball. I've seen it."

Hey, so have we. He just won the U.S. Open by eight shots and set or tied 12 scoring records.

Here's the link: http://youtu.be/6D7ReWQMGho

That's not all. Here's a terrific BBC clip from the Wee Mac archives as well: http://t.co/sftUJW8