Ten years ago, Rory McIlroy had stood at the back of the 18th green at the Old Course in St.Andrew’s on October 7th, 2007 declaring: “It Paul Lawrie misses this putt, that’s my Tour card”,
McIlroy, and then aged just 18, had signed off for a round of 68 on the final day of the 2007 Alfred Dunhill Links Championship and his third event as a pro.
He was lying in third place at 15-under par and with Lawrie, who was the reigning Open Champion, sharing fourth place at 14-under par but now staring at a five-foot putt on the 72nd hole.
Ten years ago and Rory McIlroy earns his European Tour card in just his second event at the 2007 Alfred Dunhill Links.
If Lawrie holed the birdie putt he would tie McIlroy. If the Scot missed McIlroy would have remarkably earned enough in just his second pro event since joining the play-for-pay ranks a fortnight earlier.
McIlroy watched intently as Lawrie’s birdie putt failed to drop in putting out for a par and remain at second.
“Well, that’s my Tour card”, said McIlroy who was congratulated by Scotland’s Lloyd Saltman, his team-mate a few weeks earlier in the GB & I Walker Cup team, and who had missed the third round cut in the Alfred Dunhill Links.
McIlroy’s Euro 211, 322 and added to Euro 15,128 he earned for his T42nd at the British Masters was good enough to secure full European Tour membership for the 2008 season.
And then in finishing in a share of fourth a week later in the Portugal Masters, McIlroy merely rubber-stamped the expectations of so many.
“I’d received an invitation into the Alfred Dunhill Links so it was nice to repay the invitation in finishing third”, McIlroy recalled.
“It was average start but the pair of 67s the next two days got me right up there and then to play the Old Course on the Sunday and walk up the final hole was something special.
“And looking back on that last day, I felt very comfortable, very relaxed but then also very pleased with myself to secure my Tour card for ’08 in just that second event”.
