2010 British Open: The Coming of Rory McIlroy at the Open at St. Andrews

Featured Columnist Andy Reistetter is home in Jacksonville Beach, Florida taking a break after 10 straight weeks on tour. While enjoying watching the Open at St. Andrews on television this week, here are his thoughts and comments…

Mike Tirico pointed out something interesting on ESPN this morning…

Rory McIlroy finished his round and shot three times his age. Big deal, we all can do that at some point in our life, right?

Think about it!

The real deal with McIlroy is that he is only 21-years-old, the score was a 9-under par 63 and it happened in the first round of the British Open at the home of golf, the Old Course at St. Andrews.

Now that is really a big deal!

We saw him take his American debut earlier this year at Quail Hollow shooting a 62 to beat Phil Mickelson down the stretch on Sunday afternoon.

Perhaps this is his world debut, his own rendition of Tiger Woods' "Hello World."

No doubt inspired by his fellow countryman Graeme McDowell's triumph in the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach, the Northern Ireland youth is well prepared for this only his seventh major championship as a professional.

He took McDowell's advice and skipped the Scottish Open at the parkland Loch Lomond course last week to play links golf back home at Royal Portrush Golf Club.

This kid knows how to play links golf and wants to win his "home major."

Starting with his eagle 2 after driving the 352-yard par-4 9th hole, the young Rory went 8-under for his last 10 holes of the opening day.

The whiz kid missed a short birdie putt on the penultimate hole, the Road Hole which with the ensuing birdie at 18 would have been a 62, the lowest round ever in a major championship.

No worries, as he will likely get another shot at that record someday. Maybe even pulling a "Goydos" in a major?

But it was a perfect day for scoring at St. Andrews—no wind, no rain and fairly mild temperatures in the upper 50 degrees Fahrenheit.

As Tom Watson commented after his of 1-over 73, 10 more than McIlroy "the lady was naked today and will put on some clothes…"

Not so sure about that analogy but earlier in the week on Sunday there was gusty 50 mph winds and for yesterday's last practice round there was horizontal rain and nary a golfer was on the links.

So undoubtedly this will be a very special British Open!

Tiger Woods looks like he is all the way back with his new grooved Nike putter. He looked in the groove except for a few missed short putts on the last two holes. Woods is going for the trifecta at St. Andrews having won the last two Opens here in 2000 and 2005.

Rocco Mediate joining the ESPN broadcast team…wonder why?

Perhaps it's forecasting a strong Tiger Woods finish down the stretch with commentary from the guy Tiger last beat in a major in the U.S. Open (Torrey Pines in June 2008)?

Since then, in five out of six majors that Tiger has played, his worst finish is T6.

Tiger Woods gave a warm post-round interview with Tim Rinaldi who as you may remember was one of two reporters to first interview Tiger after his personal scandal way back on March 21st.

The other reporter? Golf Channel's Kelly Tilghman.

Also with 67s, Sean O'Hair, Nick Watney and Lucas Glover join Woods in T5 position four strokes behind McIlroy.

Another heartwarming story is that of John Daly's opening 6-under 66 at the Old Course where he won his second major back in 1995.

He started hot birdieing seven of his first 11 holes and like Woods the only blemish on his scorecard was a bogey at the 17th.

McIlroy misses an easy birdie and Woods and Daly struggle to make bogey—is the golf world changing or what?

Okay, for Daly, it did change a while back. But he may come back—maybe all the way back this week—right?

How special is this to see the Open being played at St. Andrews, where golf was first played over 600 years ago? And at a time 150 years after the very first Open itself was played?

First tee announcer Ivor Robson starting with Paul Lawrie at 6:30 a.m. local time through Simon Edwards at 4:41 p.m. without taking a pee break.

This is the Open- enjoy it!

Have you figured out when you first shot three times your age?

Good living and good golfing my friends…

Andy Reistetter is a freelance golf writer. He follows the PGA TOUR volunteering and working part time for CBS Sports, NBC Sports, and The Golf Channel.

He resides in Jacksonville Beach, Florida near the PGA TOUR headquarters and home of The PLAYERS Championship at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach.

He enjoys pursuing his passion for the game of golf and everything associated with it. He can be reached through his website www.MrHickoryGolf.net or by e-mailing him to [e-mail]