While The Open Championship always has the potential to prove to be the most thorough examination of a golfer’s game, there is something a little different when the oldest major drops in on Carnoustie.
Carnoustie is often considered to be the most difficult of all the courses on The Open Championship rota. Paul Lawrie had lifted the Claret Jug in 1999 after finishing the tournament at six over par.
So those who made their debut in the event in 2007 must have felt somewhat intimidated about the course which was going to welcome them to the major championship stage.
One of those who did make his major bow on the east coast of Scotland 18 years ago was an amateur by the name of Rory McIlroy.
How Rory McIlroy fared on his Open Championship debut in 2007
McIlroy provided a sense of what was to come during the opening round. The teenager was the only player in the entire field who did not make a single bogey on Thursday. His three under par round of 68 was good enough to leave McIlroy in a tie for third, one shot ahead of Tiger Woods.
Friday proved to be much more of a challenge for the youngster. His 76 put paid to his hopes of becoming the first amateur since Bobby Jones in 1930 to win the Claret Jug.
McIlroy however, did secure the Silver Medal at the halfway stage by becoming the only amateur to make the cut.
He would end the week in 42nd place after rounds of 73 and 72 over the weekend. That left him at five over par for the tournament and 12 shots back of Sergio Garcia and eventual winner Padraig Harrington.
Rory McIlroy compared with Tiger Woods by one of his playing partners that week at Carnoustie
There have been a number of truly outstanding amateur performances in The Open over the years. Chris Wood would finish tied for fifth one year after McIlroy, while Jordan Niebrugge broke the record for the lowest score by an amateur at the 2015 Open.
But it was clear to many that there was something special about McIlroy. Arron Oberholser played alongside him during the third round at Carnoustie. And speaking to the Guardian in 2017, Oberholser explained what he thought after watching McIlroy in action.
“I watched him hit his opening tee shot and thought: ‘Man, who is this kid?’ We didn’t know about him in America. If you had said his name to me a week before the tournament, I don’t believe I would have known who he was. If he had won the British Amateur, for example, we would have known about him. So, quite honestly, he was this Northern Irish kid and I didn’t know who he was. I didn’t even know how he got into the tournament,” he said.
“I remember the fourth hole specifically. I hit a driver and seven-iron into the green. He hit driver and I thought: ‘That’s a different flight that I haven’t seen from many guys before.’ Then we get up there and he is 15 to 20 yards past my drive. I could overhear the chat with his caddie. Rory was asked: ‘Do you want to hit a soft eight?’ He was 145 yards out. It was grey, it was cold, it was windy. It was into the wind. He said: ‘No, nine‑iron.’
“He took the nine, put the ball back in his stance and the shot made a sound I’ll never forget. At that point I’d only ever heard one player made that sound with their irons: Tiger Woods. He just hit it so clean, so crisp and there was so much effortless speed at the bottom of the swing. The way he compressed the ball was unlike anything I’d ever seen apart from Tiger. At 18 years old. He hit these shots that just bored through the wind, the wind couldn’t affect them.”
In less than four years, McIlroy would become a major champion. And seven years after his first appearance in The Open, it was the European who won the Claret Jug, with a two shot win at Royal Liverpool.
It really did feel like a matter of time after his performance at Carnoustie in 2007.
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