McIlroy wise beyond his years

A NUMBER of the world’s finest fell foul of Turnberry’s treacherous 16th hole yesterday. The 455 yards par 4 is fronted by the menacing Wilson Burn and even if the player clears it, anything but a perfect approach almost invariably rolls back into the hazard.

Graeme McDowell, Sergio Garcia and Lee Westwood, three vastly experienced players, ran up double bogeys there. But not 20-year-old Rory McIlroy who knew what dangers lurked there and took evasive and highly-successful action.

“There’s a scoreboard out in the distance that’s covered in green net and stuff and you hit it right of that,” he advised. “I hit my drive right on it and had 114 yards to the pin. My sand wedge goes about 115, but where the pin was, I just saw it and so I took 15 yards off a wedge and played past the pin just to the left. So I just played it smartly, and I was lucky enough to hole about a 25-foot putt.”

He certainly was smart but I didn’t see much luck about that most immaculately played birdie. McIlroy really has a wise head on young shoulders and even when disaster struck – as it did when he had to take penalty shots at the eighth and 10th – he never panicked or even looked like doing so.

His reward in the end was a one under par 69 that contained five birdies, a double bogey and two bogeys. It was far from perfect – he hit no more than eight of the 14 fairways but he also drove the ball an average of 310.5 yards and took 28 putts so he was also doing a whole lot right as well.

“It got a bit bad and a bit ugly but overall I thought I played very solidly,” he stated. “I had eight threes on my scorecard, which is good around here, good around any golf course. And I hit the ball a lot better today than I have been the last week or so. I struggled with my game at Loch Lomond and I found something on the range on Tuesday afternoon, and I hit the ball really good today.”

He also had a massive piece of luck at the eighth where he was in knee high rough after two shots and the search had exceeded four minutes when the ball was found by his coach Michael Bannon. He escaped with a double bogey when, as he admitted, it could have been an eight or nine.

“Any time you shoot under par in a major in the first round is good,” McIlroy maintained. “Obviously the scoring is very good today. But I’m only five off the lead, so going into tomorrow if I start well, I’ll be right there. The conditions were fantastic. Hopefully it can stay like this for [this] morning. I think there’s a bit of wind that’s going to get up in the afternoon, so hopefully I can get in before that.”

Asked to comment on Tom Watson’s round of 65, Rory pointed out he was “39 years younger” than the great American before adding: “it’s incredible what Tom’s done today. It was Greg Norman last year who was doing it, and Tom’s done it this year. If I can go around Turnberry in 39 years’ time in 65, I’ll be very happy. He’s got a bit of experience on this golf course. I think he’s done okay here in the past,” he added knowingly.

* PAUL MCGINLEY got his 16th Open Championship off to a solid start with a round of 71 that contained a birdie at the fifth and bogeys at the third and 14th. But it was a disappointing day for Damien McGrane who signed for a 78.

Full Irish scores: 68 – Graeme McDowell. 69 – Rory McIlroy, Padraig Harrington. 71 – Darren Clarke, Paul McGinley. 73 – David Higgins. 78 – Damien McGrane.