Teen has the eye of Tiger, and everyone else, with 68

For a day anyway, Holywood seemed altogether Hollywood as an 18-year-old kid from Holywood beat Tiger Woods by one stroke in the first round of the British Open.

Rory McIlroy, born in the outrageously recent year of 1989, played Carnoustie in 68 nimble strokes in his major tournament debut, without making a bogey and lending instant fame to his hometown of Holywood, Northern Ireland.

“I think from an early age Tiger Woods has always been my hero, like he won the ’96 U.S. Amateur and I think after that it was just Tiger, Tiger, Tiger,” McIlroy said. “And he’s been my one big influence in my whole golfing life.”

McIlroy is a prodigy too, who has been the subject of a documentary. “I’ve sort of grown up around the media,” he said. He left school at 16 to pursue golf with the help of his nation’s sports programs and McIlroy learned the game on a par-69 club course that’s “not much of a test for me anymore.”

Across the sea and across to eastern Scotland, he started off the Open nervous but calmed after two holes. He passed scoreboards at which his golfing friends from home worked. He closed with his favorite shot of the day, a two-iron “probably 230 to the pin” that set up a par. “It was just like a chill down the back of my spine with the ovation I got,” he said.

He appeared on the BBC TV set with renowned English host Gary Lineker, who wondered if the time had crept past McIlroy’s bedtime. Then he came into the interview tent, looking utterly comfortable in front of about 100 reporters, and forecast an excellent night’s sleep.

“I’m knackered,” he said.

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Irish prowess became an early theme of the tournament, with Paul McGinley from Dublin sitting second after one round, McIlroy from Northern Ireland in a tie for third, and Padraig Harrington from Dublin in a tie for eighth, one shot behind McIlroy.

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Charges of favoritism greeted the Royal & Ancient’s decision to award Woods a free drop on No. 10, after the twice-defending champion hit his drive into some rough atop three TV cables. The official at the hole, Alan Holmes, ruled the cables immovable and said Woods could move his ball without penalty by a club length, into shorter grass.

“It was a weird drop,” Woods said. “I was as surprised as anybody. Usually TV cables are movable, but they deemed it immovable. I’ve never seen that ruling before.”

Adding to the weirdness, former European Tour player Mark Roe, disqualified along with Jesper Parnevik from the 2003 British Open after they forgot to trade scorecards, nowadays a commentator for the BBC, moved the cables easily himself.

The R&A; stood by its ruling.

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K.J. Choi has won two of his last three events, the Memorial and the AT&T; National; he has won $3.2 million already this year, and his opening 69 at Carnoustie suggested a possible run at weekend contention and at his wish to become the first Asian to win a major.

The K.J. stands for Kyoung-Ju and, he said, “The first time in 1998 at British Open, the first tee announce ‘Kung Choi,’ it’s very difficult. My idea is next day Kyoung-Ju is very long, who is that? And the initial ‘K’ and ‘J,’ everybody understand K.J., so very simple name and Choi. And the next day, K.J. Choi from Korea, so easy.”

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In another example of an attempt at some pioneering, Markus Brier, 39, landed high upon the first-round leaderboard with a 69. He’s the only Austrian to win on the European Tour -- he did that in 2006 -- and he knows Franz Klammer, the downhill skier famous for an epic run for Olympic gold in 1976.

“I grew up in Vienna, which isn’t the skiing part of Austria,” he said. “We don’t have any big mountains or anything. Obviously he’s a hero. I know him quite well. He plays golf quite well. He played here in Carnoustie, as well. He’s one of the obviously most well-known sportsmen in Austria. But skiing was never really my talent.”