Teenager kicks on

THE CONSENSUS, not surprisingly, seems to be that young Rory McIlroy is a bit of a player. Which is nothing new, of course. Ever since the then 17-year-old played his way to international prominence with a bogey-free opening round of 68 in the 2007 Open Championship at Carnoustie, the charismatic Ulsterman has been making steady upward progress to the point where he is today ranked the 16th best golfer on the planet.

His week in Angus ended with him clutching the silver medal awarded to the leading amateur. Two months later, he was playing for Great Britain & Ireland in the Walker Cup against the United States. And, no more than three weeks after that, he had already clinched his European Tour card courtesy of a fourth-place finish in the lucrative Dunhill Links Championship. A star had not only been born, he was zooming his way to adolescence.

Last Sunday, however, McIlroy made his biggest leap up professional golf's highly competitive ladder. A closing round of 70 that contained nine birdies, five bogeys and a double bogey climaxed with a breathtaking bunker shot ("the best I've hit under pressure") and clinched the Dubai Desert Classic.

Mark O'Meara was just one effusive in praise of the teenager, with whom he played the opening two rounds. "In terms of technique, he's better than Tiger at the same age," said the former Open and Masters champion, a hyperbolic quote that all but sent the tabloid press gathered in the Gulf dancing into the desert.

Interestingly – and tellingly – the flurry of banner and admittedly over-the-top headlines that duly followed O'Meara's remarks set off something of a backlash across the Atlantic. Perhaps feeling a little touchy over the almost complete and continuing lack of excitement created by homegrown players on their own tour, a few American journalists felt able to pooh-pooh any comparison with the incomparable Woods. What courage! What insight! If only some of them had actually seen the young Irishman play even once.

Anyway, McIlroy was typically prosaic, even in the immediate aftermath of his maiden win. "This definitely moves me up a step," claimed the modest soul. "But success only makes me even more motivated to try to do better. I've realised that I've become a very good player but I've still got a lot of years to progress. I just want to keep trying to practise harder and improve. If I can do that, one day, hopefully I'll be able to compete with the likes of Tiger."

To do that on a consistent basis, McIlroy will have to eliminate the Sabbath sloppiness that saw him twice almost relinquish six-shot leads over the course of a fascinatingly topsy-turvy 18 holes. On the other hand, there was a gratifying and charming naivety about some of the Irishman's play before he squeezed past Justin Rose by the narrowest of margins.

Although he is clearly capable of playing some breathtaking stuff, McIlroy quite naturally makes mistakes that more experienced players tend to avoid. Arriving on the 72nd tee on the back of three successive dropped shots, he suddenly looked more than vulnerable and it is a testament to his inner steel as well as his inordinate talent that he eventually held off his increasingly close pursuers.

Let's be clear though: he dodged a bullet last Sunday, a fact of which he was only too well aware. About an hour after holing from four feet or so for the win, McIlroy stood up from a radio interview in the media centre and was asked how he felt. "Relieved," was the prompt reply that emerged from a broad smile.

"If I had not won today, having a six-shot lead, it would have been pretty tough to take, and it would have been hard to come back from that," was his earlier, endearingly honest verdict. "But I was able to scrape in at the end; I was able to get it done.

"But all of these situations that I've put myself in add to my experience, and I'm gathering it week by week. The experiences I've had in the past helped me today. Hopefully this one will help me in the future as well."

Most immediately, McIlroy will emerge from a two-week break at the Accenture World Match Play Championship in Arizona. From there, he will play three more times on the PGA Tour before making his Masters debut two months from now. At each event he is likely to be asked to deal with even more of the excessive hype that has characterised his most recent existence.

Sometimes, however, even the most hysterical media coverage is based in truth. And this is one of those occasions. McIlroy is the most naturally gifted European player to emerge since Sergio Garcia. That he will win more tournaments is a given. That he will be one of the more potent weapons available to Ryder Cup skipper Colin Montgomerie at Celtic Manor next year is all but a racing certainty. And it would come as no surprise to see him at least contend at Augusta National, even if the year's first major is notoriously difficult for first-time players. He's that good.

But whether such achievements translate into major championship success sooner or later is less predictable. What may work in McIlroy's favour is that, when he reaches his peak a dozen or so years from now, even the great Tiger will be past his best and ripe for the taking. The still majorless Garcia has not had that advantage.

For now, however, McIlroy has other priorities.

"It will be nice to get back and see all of my friends and family, and be able to soak it all in and reflect on this," he said last Sunday evening. "I want to look back and see what I did right and see what I didn't do so well, and try and learn from it and go on."

Such realism only completes the package. As O'Meara said last week, "he's got it!"