Britsh Open: Rory McIroy made an instant impression on his Open debut at Carnoustie today, recording a blemish free round of 68 to lie just three shots off the lead.

At three-under, the Co Down teenager is hot on the heels of Sergio Garcia's lead while long-time leader Paul McGinley (four-under) and Padraig Harrington (two-under) made sure there was a strong Irish presence at the top of the leaderboard.

McIlroy, at 18 the youngest player in the field, turned in 35, birdied the difficult 10th and then hit his tee shot to within four feet of the flag on the short 13th but missed chances to pick up further shots at the 14th and 15th, failing with short putts.

Nevertheless, he remains just three behind Garcia and also enjoyed the distinction of being the only player to card a bogey free round.

Darren Clarke fought back after a disappointing start to his campaign to finish on one-over but Graeme McDowell (six-over)  Justin Kehoe (seven-over) and David Higgins (eight-over) all struggled.

With his rivals trailing in his wake, McIlroy is clear favourite to win this week's silver medal for the best amateur to make the cut.

McIlroy also led world number one Tiger Woods (69) and that pleased the youngster as much as anything.

"It's a pretty special feeling finishing one better than Tiger and also out-shooting my playing partners," McIlroy told a news conference.

"I was just trying to learn as much as possible from (Spain's) Miguel Angel Jimenez, who's terrific, and (Swede) Henrik Stenson, who's won a world golf championship. Coming into the week I just wanted to try to make the cut to win the silver medal."

His round could have been at least two shots better, with McIlroy missing birdie putts of four and three feet on the 14th and 15th holes.

"I pushed both of them but to play the toughest Open course with no bogeys is pretty good," he said.

"I was very nervous for the first few holes but when I birdied the fifth it got me into my stride and then I just soaked up the atmosphere and enjoyed myself. Bogeys never really crossed my mind and I'm going out with that mindset tomorrow."

Justin Rose's achievement of fourth place in the 1998 Open when he was 17 is a target now.

"Justin was phenomenal and I feel if he can do it at that age I'm sure I can as well," McIlroy added. "Hopefully I can be in Justin's position nine years on."

The last time the event came to the Scottish town eight years ago — also the last time a European won a major — Garcia finished dead last after rounds of 89 and 83 that remain the worst of his professional career.

The 27-year-old, who has never been back until this week, improved an incredible 24 shots on that horrendous opening effort in 1999 with a marvellous six under par 65.

As a result Garcia takes a two-stroke lead over McGinley into the second round, the Dubliner having marked his return to big-time golf in fine style too after missing out on both the Masters and the US Open.

Tiger Woods, though, remains the favourite after kicking off his bid for the first hat-trick of Open titles since Peter Thomson in 1956 with an incident-packed 69.

Garcia cried into his mother's arms after coming off the course almost a broken young man last time.

He was only three months out of the amateur ranks, but he had won the Irish Open two weeks earlier and just four days before had come second to Colin Montgomerie at the Scottish Open.

Instead of starting with a triple bogey seven again, though, he kicked off with a birdie and really made his move at the start of the back nine with four more in five holes.

Finding a bunker and bogeying the 16th proved only a minor setback as the Spaniard, who has had 12 top 10s in majors without a win, came straight back with another birdie on the 461-yard 17th and got up and down from sand at the last.

It hurt McGinley so much not to be in the first two majors of the season after his slump outside the world's top 150 that he could not bring himself to sit in front of a television.

But it should be easier for the 40-year-old to watch the highlights this time. McGinley, who has not had a top 10 finish all year, said: "It obviously feels wonderful to be leading a major championship," he said before Garcia had completed his round to claim the lead.

"The thing that pleased me most was I played with quality — and it's a pretty
good tournament to do it in."

This is not the first time McGinley has been in such a position. But the other occasion was long before he started his Ryder Cup heroics in 2002.

Helped by a front nine 29 — one outside the Open record — at Lytham in 1996 the Dubliner shared the halfway pace with American star Tom Lehman. But he was then caught like a rabbit in the headlights.

"It was just a circus. It was something I'd not seen before. I remember 20, 30, 40 photographers around the greens and just off the tee boxes and everytime somebody hit a shot there was a massive click, click, click.

"Of course, I was over-awed by the whole thing, no doubt about that. It was a big, big, big learning curve."

Lehman had a third round 64 and went on to win. McGinley shot 74 and ended up 14th. That remains his best finish in the event, but with three Ryder Cup wins under his belt that is clearly something he hopes to change.

"When I'm playing well I feel as good as anybody, but when I'm playing bad it's 'Christ, am I ever going to play well again?'

"I've had a great start, but there's a long, long way to go and this golf course is so difficult and relentless."

"I'm very pleased with the score, I did a lot of good things all the way through," said Harrington after his round, who was equally pleased to see Ryder Cup and World Cup team-mate McGinley card a 67.

"It's hard to lead a tournament like this for three or four days, so I'm in a good position and 69 is a good return. Just have to keep doing more of the same."

First Round Scores
(Irish and British unless stated, Irishin bold)

65 Sergio Garcia (Spa)

67 Paul McGinley

68 Rory McIlroy, Michael Campbell (Nzl), Boo Weekley (USA), Markus Brier (Aut), Angel Cabrera (Arg)

69Tiger Woods (USA), Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spa), KJ Choi (Kor), Stewart Cink (USA), Padraig Harrington

70Rodney Pampling (Aus), Retief Goosen (Rsa), Peter Hanson (Swe), J J Henry (USA), Jim Furyk (USA), Thomas Bjorn (Den), Shaun Micheel (USA), Alastair Forsyth, Rich Beem (USA), Luke Donald, Gregory Bourdy (Fra), Carl Pettersson (Swe)

71Steve Stricker (USA), Lucas Glover (USA), Nick Dougherty, David Toms (USA), Achi Sato (Jpn), Nick O'Hern (Aus), Paul Broadhurst, Phil Mickelson (USA), Trevor Immelman (Rsa), Sean O'Hair (USA), Mike Weir (Can), Andres Romero (Arg), Lee Westwood, Henrik Stenson (Swe)

72Nick Watney (USA), Anders Hansen (Den), Ben Curtis (USA), Pelle Edberg (Swe), Johan Edfors (Swe), Toru Taniguchi (Jpn), Vijay Singh (Fij), Brett Quigley (USA), Ernie Els (Rsa), Gregory Havret (Fra), David Howell, John Senden (Aus), Matthew Zions (Aus), Darren Clarke, Fredrik Andersson Hed (Swe), Hideto Tanihara (Jpn), Paul Casey, John Rollins (USA), Richard Green (Aus), Scott Verplank (USA), Ryan Moore (USA)

73Charles Howell III (USA), Won Joon Lee (Aus), Sandy Lyle, Arron Oberholser (USA), Pat Perez (USA), Adam Scott (Aus), Zach Johnson (USA), Colin Montgomerie, Peter Baker, Tom Lehman (USA), Ross Bain, Steve Parry, Hunter Mahan (USA), Jon Bevan, Robert Allenby (Aus), Paul Lawrie, Ian Poulter, Jonathan Byrd (USA)

74Ross Fisher, Adilson Da Silva (Bra), David Frost (Rsa), John Daly (USA), Robert Karlsson (Swe), Chad Campbell (USA), Justin Leonard (USA), Yong-eun Yang (Kor), Mark O'Meara (USA), Peter Fowler (Aus), Stuart Appleby (Aus), Brian Davis, Jerry Kelly (USA), Steve Alker (Nzl), Mattias Eliasson (Swe), Paul Waring, Chris DiMarco (USA), Tomohiro Kondo (Jpn), Tom Pernice (USA), Toshinori Muto (Jpn), Matt Kuchar (USA), Raphael Jacquelin (Fra), Mark Calcavecchia (USA), Loren Roberts (USA)

75Charley Hoffman (USA), Charl Schwartzel (Rsa), Llewellyn Matthews, Geoff Ogilvy (Aus), Toshimitsu Izawa (Jpn), John Bickerton, Kevin Stadler (USA), Justin Rose, Niclas Fasth (Swe), Dong-Hwan Lee (Jpn), Brett Wetterich (USA), Paul Sheehan (Aus)

76Francesco Molinari (Ita), Spencer Levin (USA), Richie Ramsay, Rory Sabbatini (Rsa), David Shacklady, Chih-bing Lam (Sin), Drew Weaver (USA), Mark Foster, Richard Sterne (Rsa), Bradley Dredge

77Jeev Milkha Singh (Ind), Anthony Wall, Joe Durant (USA), Graeme McDowell, Kevin Harper, Doug McGuigan

78Desvonde Botes (Rsa), Aaron Baddeley (Aus), Justin Kehoe, Michael Putnam (USA), Tony Jacklin, Graeme Storm

79Nick Faldo, Davis Love III (USA), Mark Hensby (Aus), Scott Drummond, David Higgins, Adam Groom (Aus), David Coupland

80Oliver Wilson

81Ben Bunny (Aus), Todd Hamilton (USA), Stephen Ames (Can)

82Duffy Waldorf (USA), Vaughn Taylor (USA)

83David Gleeson (Aus), Ewan Porter (Aus)