That’s the view of the Holywood star’s manager Chubby Chandler, who sees the life of the troubled Spanish star as a lesson to be avoided.

Rory and his caddy JP Fitzgerald

Garcia, 30, went berserk at Whistling Straits when he lashed a bunker five times with his club as he crashed to a missed cut to remain winless after 41 majors starts as a pro.

The former world No 2, who has struggled badly with his putter, will miss the Ryder Cup as he takes two months out of the game.

But Chandler does not believe that McIlroy will end up the same way, despite missing a series of vital putts as he came down the stretch on Sunday.

Chandler said: “You have to look around at what is going on, don’t you. And you see what is happening to Sergio and you have to take things out of that to make sure it doesn’t happen to Rory.”

The ISM boss believes McIlroy will learn from his third place finish in the US PGA and go from strength to strength.

He explained: “Rory is getting better and better and he is getting more experience all the time. On the front nine today [Sunday] he had a tough start but hung in there. Twelve months ago he would have gone out in 40 and been out of it. He’ll look back on this tomorrow morning and think it was a great week.”

Garcia shot to fame in the US PGA in 1999 when he finished second to Tiger Woods at Medinah. He was expected to go on and become a multiple major winner but has just three runner up finishes to his credit – two of them at the hands of Padraig Harrington.

McIlroy is well advised and Chandler believes the young Ulsterman knows how to listen. He said: “He is very, very astute at listening to the right bits and tosses out the stuff that doesn’t matter. You can imagine the number of people who are trying to tell him what to do.

“Outside of us, everybody has got a theory. Everybody tells him he should be this and he should be that.”

As for McIlroy’s putting, it’s improving all the time and despite missing several chances on Sunday he still finished sixth in the putting charts at Whistling Straits.

Chandler said: “His putting is getting better and better. I thought he was brilliant on the greens. He made a lot of putts that would have finished his round off early.

A lot of putts. “And then he made a lot of putts coming down the stretch that also kept him in it. That is where he is going to improve.”

McIlroy’s caddie JP Fitzgerald has come in for heavy criticism from some sectors of the British press in recent weeks.

But Chandler defends the Irish bagman to the hilt, insisting he’s the perfect “minder” for his precious star.

While he has never claimed to be the best caddie in the world, Fitzgerald has toted the bag for a host of stars such as Paul McGinley, Darren Clarke and Ernie Els.

“JP is a very protective individual,” Chandler said when asked if McIlroy had received approaches from other coaches. “He would make sure that doesn’t happen. JP gets abit of stick but an awful lot goes around Rory McIlroy that a normal caddie wouldn’t do.

“If you take the bits that JP does very well, it may make up for the fact that he is not the best caddie in the world. But he is certainly one of the better caddies in the world and for Rory he is definitely the best caddie in the world.”

Improving McIlroy will not be easy but Chandler believes that the youngster could add a few more shots to his armoury.

“Decision making and shot-making,” when asked about the areas that could be tidied up. Without mentioning McIlroy’s putting, which is improving slowly, Chandler added: “He is a great shot maker but it is the same shot all the time. He plays the same stock shot and there are more shots coming in.

“In four years’ time we will have the same conversation and he will play totally differently. Ball-flight will be down and it will be totally different. He hasn’t got any experience really. He is just getting it after playing only nine majors in his life. And only eight of them as a pro.”

tiger-adare-mannor

The Holywood star, 21, came within inches of a dramatic final hole birdie that would have seen him force his way into the three-hole play-off between eventual champion Martin Kaymer and big hitting American Bubba Watson.

But while he missed the putt, the world No 8 reckons his future looks bright after grabbing his third share of third place from his last five major starts.

All set for a sailing holiday with his mates in the Mediterranean this week, McIlroy said: “I think what happened will make me stronger. It would have been a lot better if I had gone on to win, but I’m sure I’ll look back on this week, take the positives from it and move on.

“I feel within myself that I am ready to win a major because it was a tough day and I felt I handled myself well.

“I only finished one shot outside the play-off and if a putt here or there could have dropped, who knows what might have happened.

“At the end of the day I feel within myself that I am ready to win a major.”

Set for the FedEx Cup play-offs in two weeks, he added: “I will move on, have a week off now and go into the play-offs in good spirits and hopefully give that a good run.

“It was a good learning week for me and one I can take the positives from.”

Many will point to the string of birdie putts that McIlroy missed on the back nine and the three-putt bogey at the 15th that ultimately cost him the title.

Yet while he failed to hole the putts when it mattered, McIlroy is proud that he dug deep when things weren’t going his way and stayed in the hunt to the death.

He said: “I was proud that I hung in there. I didn’t hit it well and it wasn’t the start I wanted but I made a great up and down on the first, a great up and down at the third and really held it together on the front nine.

“The only thing thinking back was that putt on 15. I actually read it straight and it went left to right. Just one of those things. I was always hanging around, just waiting for that one putt to drop here or there.

“It’s the first time I have been in contention in the last round of a major and going out in the second last group.

“I was feeling it on the first tee and it was a new experience for me and today will stand me in good stead in the future.”

McIlroy struggled early in his final round, sandwiching a birdie at the seventh between missed par putts at the fourth and eighth.

He birdied the 10th from 12 feet but when he badly needed a putt to drop, he failed with similar chances at the 11th, 12th and 13th.

A birdie at 14th saw him briefly grab a share of the lead on 11 under par but he missed a four footer for par at the 15th, failed to take advantage of the par-five 16th and narrowly missed chances on the last two holes.

Looking on the bright side, he said: “I stayed very patient and didn’t let anything get to me or my head drop once which was one of the main objectives going out today.

“I was very happy with the way I dealt with the start. I was shaky but I didn’t let it get to me and I saved pars.”

He added: “It was a good week and I’ll take the positives from it. It wasn’t the result that I wanted going into today, but it’s a learning experience and hopefully one that I can establish myself for the next majors.”

McIlroy closed with his worst round of the week, a level par 72.

But it was an even tougher day for overnight leader Nick Watney, who crashed to 18th after a nightmare 81, or Dustin Johnson, who missed the play-off by two shots after being handed a two-stroke penalty for grounding his putter in a bunker at the last.

Joint third in the US PGA at Hazeltine last year, McIlroy missed the cut in the Masters and the US Open before opening with that incredible 63 in the Open at St Andrews.

He took 80 in Friday’s high winds to crash down the leaderboard but bounced back with sub-70 rounds at the weekend to tie for third.

Massively ambitious, he said: “I have put myself in position the last couple of majors, finished third at St Andrews and I will be top five here. It is not a bad week but I would have liked a little bit better.”

US PGA champion Kaymer hailed golf’s new generation of stars but he does not believe that McIlroy be inspired by his win at Whistling Straits.

Kaymer said: “It think seeing Graeme McDowell win the US Open already inspired Rory for the majors.

“I know that seeing Graeme win at Pebble Beach certainly inspired me this week.”

The Holywood star, 21, came within inches of a dramatic final hole birdie that would have seen him force his way into the three-hole play-off between eventual champion Martin Kaymer and big hitting American Bubba Watson.

But while he missed the putt, the world No 8 reckons his future looks bright after grabbing his third share of third place from his last five major starts.

All set for a sailing holiday with his mates in the Mediterranean this week, McIlroy said: “I think what happened will make me stronger. It would have been a lot better if I had gone on to win, but I’m sure I’ll look back on this week, take the positives from it and move on.

“I feel within myself that I am ready to win a major because it was a tough day and I felt I handled myself well.

“I only finished one shot outside the play-off and if a putt here or there could have dropped, who knows what might have happened.

“At the end of the day I feel within myself that I am ready to win a major.”

Set for the FedEx Cup play-offs in two weeks, he added: “I will move on, have a week off now and go into the play-offs in good spirits and hopefully give that a good run.

“It was a good learning week for me and one I can take the positives from.”

Many will point to the string of birdie putts that McIlroy missed on the back nine and the three-putt bogey at the 15th that ultimately cost him the title.

Yet while he failed to hole the putts when it mattered, McIlroy is proud that he dug deep when things weren’t going his way and stayed in the hunt to the death.

He said: “I was proud that I hung in there. I didn’t hit it well and it wasn’t the start I wanted but I made a great up and down on the first, a great up and down at the third and really held it together on the front nine.

“The only thing thinking back was that putt on 15. I actually read it straight and it went left to right. Just one of those things. I was always hanging around, just waiting for that one putt to drop here or there.

“It’s the first time I have been in contention in the last round of a major and going out in the second last group.

“I was feeling it on the first tee and it was a new experience for me and today will stand me in good stead in the future.”

McIlroy struggled early in his final round, sandwiching a birdie at the seventh between missed par putts at the fourth and eighth.

He birdied the 10th from 12 feet but when he badly needed a putt to drop, he failed with similar chances at the 11th, 12th and 13th.

A birdie at 14th saw him briefly grab a share of the lead on 11 under par but he missed a four footer for par at the 15th, failed to take advantage of the par-five 16th and narrowly missed chances on the last two holes.

Looking on the bright side, he said: “I stayed very patient and didn’t let anything get to me or my head drop once which was one of the main objectives going out today.

“I was very happy with the way I dealt with the start. I was shaky but I didn’t let it get to me and I saved pars.”

He added: “It was a good week and I’ll take the positives from it. It wasn’t the result that I wanted going into today, but it’s a learning experience and hopefully one that I can establish myself for the next majors.”

McIlroy closed with his worst round of the week, a level par 72.

But it was an even tougher day for overnight leader Nick Watney, who crashed to 18th after a nightmare 81, or Dustin Johnson, who missed the play-off by two shots after being handed a two-stroke penalty for grounding his putter in a bunker at the last.

Joint third in the US PGA at Hazeltine last year, McIlroy missed the cut in the Masters and the US Open before opening with that incredible 63 in the Open at St Andrews.

He took 80 in Friday’s high winds to crash down the leaderboard but bounced back with sub-70 rounds at the weekend to tie for third.

Massively ambitious, he said: “I have put myself in position the last couple of majors, finished third at St Andrews and I will be top five here. It is not a bad week but I would have liked a little bit better.”

US PGA champion Kaymer hailed golf’s new generation of stars but he does not believe that McIlroy be inspired by his win at Whistling Straits.

Kaymer said: “It think seeing Graeme McDowell win the US Open already inspired Rory for the majors.

“I know that seeing Graeme win at Pebble Beach certainly inspired me this week.”

The Ulsterman, 21, confessed that he’s in a big hurry to join pals Graeme McDowell and Louis Oosthuizen and become a major winner.

And having been warned by reformed hot-head Darren Clarke to go easier on himself on the course, the Holywood hotshot knows that patience is key to his chances of victory this week.

He said: “I played with Darren for the first two rounds of the Irish Open and shot seven under for the first two days.

“I thought I was playing quite nicely and I shook his hand on Friday and he said: ‘Be patient, ya muppet.’

“He could obviously see I was getting a little bit upset because I felt for the first two days in Killarney that I could have gotten to 11 or 12 under par and been leading.

“Sometimes it is hard for me to accept that you’re not going to have a good day all the time.”

Tied for third at halfway in the Irish Open, McIlroy slumped to 35th at the finish as he lost the plot over the weekend.

He confessed: “I was very, very down on myself in Killarney and wasn’t accepting of the fact that I was having a bad day on Saturday.

“I let my head go down and tried to get to the clubhouse as fast as possible. But it’s hard for someone as young as I am to have patience all the time.”

McIlroy, 21, knows he has a golden opportunity to become the youngest winner of the US PGA for 79 years and the third youngest in the event’s 92-year history.

And as the third favourite behind superstars Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods to lift the Wanamaker Trophy on Sunday, he’s finding it tough to wait for his first major win.

He explained: “Everyone tells me, ‘Rory just be patient’, but sometimes it’s hard to do that and when you’re trying to get somewhere so fast.

“It’s only my third year as a pro and success has come quite fast and you don’t really want to slow down.

“If there has been anything in the past two and a half three years that I have struggled with it, it has been accepting and being patient.

“I have to curb my enthusiasm and just let it happen a little bit. Patience is the key this week because there are going to be times when you’re going to hit the ball in the rough or in one of these deep bunkers and you’re going to have to take your punishment and be happy with a bogey and move on.”

McIlroy has just two tournament wins to his credit and while he was third in the Open at St Andrews and third in the US PGA last year, he’s never contended on the last day of a major.

Believing he has what it takes, he said: “The hardest part is getting yourself into the position but if you look at the win that I had this year at Quail Hollow, I held off Phil Mickelson and Angel Cabrera down the stretch, who are two major champions.

“So if I can do that on a golf course like Quail Hollow, then there’s no reason why I shouldn’t be able to do it here.

“I know it’s a little bit different, it is a major, but the idea is the same, trying to get the ball in the hole.”

But the lure of European golf is not the only home comfort the Holywood hotshot has on his mind as he heads to Baltray for what he hopes will be a birdie bonanza.

With a move to the PGA Tour firmly knocked on the head for the next few years, McIlroy has splashed out £GB 2.2 million on a new, 13-acre pad at Moneyreagh, just a 20 minute drive south of Belfast.

The future Chez McIlroy?

Excited about the prospect of building a driving range and swing studio that will put him in the same league as Padraig Harrington, he said: “I never thought I’d have made enough money to do something like that. I’d been looking at land for a while and this place came up. It’s perfect.

“It’s got a house that’s only three years old and a gym as well. It’s a beautiful place. It’s even got its own lake and a separate guest house as well, so there’s more than enough room for everyone to come and stay.”

McIlroy bought himself a five-bedroom house near his family home shortly after he turned professional in 2007.

But he has rocketed up the world rankings since then, winning the Dubai Desert Classic and racking up more than €2.5 million in tournament earnings in just 20 months as a professional.

He has also signed sponsorship deals with Dubai based Jumeriah Hotels, equipment giants Titleist, shoemakers Footjoy, construction company Bennett and financial gurus FL Partners.

Not only that, he represents the luxury Lough Erne Resort in Fermanagh as its touring professional and will play a $300,000 exhibition match against Harrington – dubbed the Duel on the Lough – on July 22.

He has a house there too, as well as the use of a villa in Dubai, but his plan is to keep his feet on the ground and stay close to his Ulster roots for the next few years before taking on the PGA Tour.

Explaining his plans for his dream home he said: “It’s still in the process. But we have agreed everything and it will be a done deal on July 31 and hopefully it will be ready by next spring.

“It’s 13 acres, there’s already a house on five acres and then there’s two four acre paddocks and one of the paddocks is perfect.

“It’s quite narrow but it’s quite long, so you could clear a few trees out and make a perfect range.”

Harrington spent a fortune on an indoor golf room and a floodlit outdoor practice ground with multiple greens he calls “Elysian Fields” at his palatial Rathmichael home in south Dublin.

McIlroy visited the triple major champion there shortly after turning pro but he has plans for a more modest but equally impressive facility that could soon be dubbed “Rory’s Range.”

He explained: “I’ve got enough room to do everything. I’ve space for a separate short game facility and a 280-yard driving range. Basically everything.

“I’m actually going to use the guys that built Lough Erne to build the range. They are going to come and have a look at what I have and will design a place for me. So I don’t think it’ll cost astronomical prices.

“As for the house where I currently live, I’m not sure. The way the current market is, I’ll probably keep it for a while until it comes back again.

“The great thing about this place is that there’s more than enough room to bring a lot of people over.

“I mean it’s perfect and the completion date is July 31 and we’ll try and get everything underway. Hopefully it will be ready by next spring.”

McIlroy’s focussed on Europe right now and the 3 Irish Open is the second event in a four tournament run that will take him to Wentworth for next week’s BMW PGA Championship and the European Open at the London Club.

After missing the cut by seven shots in the Players Championship at Sawgrass, he’s seen enough of the US for the moment and will only return for the Majors and World Golf Championships this season.

Speaking in Florida, he said: “I don’t see myself playing over here full time. I don’t see myself taking my card here, to be honest. I wouldn’t mind playing my World Golf Championships and my Majors over here and that’s it. I feel more comfortable in Europe.

“If I can play 15 events in Europe and then add in the World Championships and Majors, that’s more than enough. Play a couple in Asia in the winter months and that’d be fine.”

McIlroy experience a massive high at the Masters but found the atmosphere flat in Hilton Head the following week and was stuck at the back of the field at Sawgrass and failed to perform.

“I just didn’t have an atmosphere or a buzz to go out and really try. But it will be different at Baltray I’m looking forward to playing in front of thousands of people and the course should be set up for scoring.”

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That is Tiger Woods at Augusta, we are talking about. The golfing equivalent of Pele at the Maracana, Pavarotti at La Scala, Elvis in Vegas. When the world No 1 steps on to the manicured turf he has all but owned for the last dozen years it should not be possible for any other player to intensify the spotlight. Particularly when he is a Augusta rookie and, get this, he is not even American.

Rory is in fine form coming into the 2009 US Masters

But such has the been the hype surrounding Rory McIlroy’s debut at the Masters this week that Woods’s decision is perfectly understandable. As McIlroy himself acknowledged when arriving here yesterday. “It’s just not going to happen,“ he said with a tone that was part resigned, part relieved. “If I played with him there’d be too much going on. It’s extra stuff that Tiger doesn’t really want to deal with either. It’s just extra attention you don’t want.”

Things have clearly changed since Mark O’Meara partnered the young Ulsterman in the first round in Dubai in January and was so impressed by what he saw that he told McIlroy he would fix up an Augusta three-ball with his great friend. As far as Rory is concerned, everything has changed.

In the three months since that Desert Classic he was destined to win, McIlroy has gone from having a boy with all the potential – indeed from being as O’Meara announced “a kid with a better swing than Tiger at the same age” – to an established member of the world’s top 20. And as daft as it seems to suggest so, Woods may even have a ulterior motive for agreeing to call off the get-to-know-you date. When O’Meara first mooted the idea, McIlroy was nothing more a curio. Now he is nothing less than a rival.

He happens to be a rival with a live chance as well, if the word of Padraig Harrington is taken as being rather more than an overly generous compliment to a countryman. When asked whether McIlroy could become just the second golfer to win on his Masters debut, Harrington took time out from his own meticulous preparations in his pursuit of a third successive major to reply: “Yes, I actually do believe it is possible for Rory to do it, to emulate Fuzzy Zoeller in 1979. He has a good caddie on the bag in JP Fitzgerald, who has been here numerous times. There won’t be a pin position or a shot JP won’t know about.”

In that short statement Harrington revealed what was always going to be the major concern with the McIlroy challenge here this week. Granted, he has the game suited to Augusta with that length, that natural draw, that high ball-flight and he also has a short-game that seems appropriately god-given to cope with the hellish demands of these infamous greens in golfing heaven. Yet what McIlroy so obviously does not have, cannot have, is what every Masters expert worthy of their Amens claims he must have: the experience. It is surely like tackling the Cape Horn without a salt-bitten skipper.

Well, maybe and maybe not. In his short career, McIlroy has already bashed down enough barriers to realise that the impossible is, in fact, only the implausible and as avowed “Tiger anorak” who can recite the numbers of the record-breaking triumph of the 1997 Masters, he also appreciates that the Augusta National is not averse to staging the occasional miracle. It will simply take a case of quick-learning of which those young Oxbridge freaks would find mind-boggling.

Or then, McIlroy could draw from the “loosest goose in the west” inspiration of Fuzzy and turn up on Thursday swinging like he always swung, without a care in the world, without a fear in Georgia. That is plainly how McIlroy dealt with his first experience of Augusta in two practice rounds last week, afterwards sounding anything like a student trying to break the code of the game’s greatest enigma. “Yeah, I could see where you’ve got to land the ball to cope with the slopes,” he said. He then went on to admit

that he had been more in awe on his maiden visit to St Andrews three years ago.

To Harrington’s mind this is exactly the philosophy McIlroy should be adopting. “Above all, Rory has to be true to himself,“ said the 37-year-old. “A cautious strategy isn’t him and if his approach isn’t good enough this year, let it moderate over time.”

The message was enjoy it; and if Augusta enjoys you, then so be it. There will be plenty of time to get his own back. In this regard, McIlroy is blessed with the ideal temperament. “He plays the game like Seve,“ said his manager, Chubby Chandler. “He hits and runs after it and then hits it again. He is so refreshing for the game, so much fun to watch. Unlike most of the other guys, he is not bloody dilly-dallying over the ball taking an absolute age to hit it. It’s why the galleries warm to him so much.”

As the patrons drooled over his rhythm on the range yesterday and then followed him on to the course for his nine holes practice it was obvious that Augusta was hot for McIlroy. It was not Tiger he was accompanying, but Graeme McDowell and although it was not the dream pairing it was more than likely the ideal pairing. McIlroy could be himself.

“You know what I’m like, I’ll just go out to play,“ he said. “If I play well enough to win, I do. If I don’t, it is another valuable bit of experience I can bring to the Masters next year.”

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