British Open Leaderboard 2011: Did Rory McIlroy Disappoint with Day 1 Showing?

If your expectations at the beginning of the week were that Rory McIlroy would dominate the field in the same way that he dominated the US Open, then yes, his one-over par round disappointed.

If your expectations were that he would dominate in the same way that he dominated the first three rounds of the Masters, then yes, the fact that he is six off of the pace is disappointing.

The problem with assessing McIlroy is that we have been looking for the next Tiger Woods since the real Tiger Woods burst onto the scene at the 1997 Masters.

First, we were looking for a rival of his and now, we're looking for someone to be the game's figurehead in the same way that Woods has been since 1997.

The truth is, with Tiger and some of his older peers fading away, McIlroy probably is the next big thing in golf.

He showed just how dominant he could be at the US Open, where the conditions were custom made for scoring and he still lapped the field.

But realistically, we may not see another golfer as good as Tiger Woods for a very long time.

So how does that relate to McIlroy's opening round at the British Open? Well, it means that it wasn't as big of a disappointment as it maybe looks.

For one, at one-over par, he's not really even out of the tournament. Sure, he's six back, but the lead at a British Open frequently goes backwards from round to round. A decent round from McIlroy tomorrow makes him a factor for the weekend.

Two, let's say he doesn't win. Heck, let's say that McIlroy doesn't even make the cut. What does that mean? After all, are we really expecting him to win every major he plays?

If we are, then we're looking far too hard to find another Tiger. McIlroy has the game to win all four majors. He's been in contention in all of them and now that he's won one, the talent shouldn't be overridden by any mental block.

But think about this, in the current grand slam era, only Woods, Jack Nicklaus, Ben Hogan, Gary Player, and Gene Sarazen have won the career grand slam. Only Tiger has won all of them at one time, and that wasn't all in one calender year.

If we're really expecting that kind of production from McIlroy, then we're expecting too much from him. On that note, if we're calling his one-over opening round a disappointment, then we're expecting too much from him.

Completely eliminating any comparisons to Tiger or any of the game's greats, a one-over round is just not that disappointing.