The first two days of an Open Championship are two of the longest in the sport, starting at 6.30am and rarely ending before the approach of darkness. This long, and at times wet and windy, day was illuminated by three exceptional performances.

Rory McIlroy, an amateur from the Holywood club in Northern Ireland, had an eye-popping 68, which did not contain a bogey. Paul McGinley, the Ryder Cup player, went round in 67, which, given his recent woeful form, must have felt like a 57. Then came Sergio GarcÍa, that electric smile of his spreading across his face on hole after hole as he finally played the sort of round of which he has long been capable, a 65.

On the eve of this championship, few would have thought that such a total was on the cards, but it was for GarcÍa. One remarkable stroke after another flowed from his clubs. He looked inspired, as if he was transported to another level and playing a course that was easier for him than anybody else.

At 18, McIlroy is a couple of months older than Justin Rose was at the 1998 Open at Royal Birkdale, and McIlroy’s 68 was reminiscent of Rose’s 66 in the second round nine years ago. We know a prodigy when we see one. Rose was one. McIlroy is going to be another, surely? He hit a drive 40 yards when he was 2 years old. By the time he was 14, he was playing off scratch and two years later he set a course record of 61 at Royal Portrush. McIlroy, remarkably the only player to have a bogey-free round yesterday, is considered to be the most promising young golfer to emerge from Northern Ireland since Darren Clarke turned professional in 1990.

McGinley, on the other hand, is 40, and two weeks ago resembled a man nearing despair. His golf was so dark that there seemed to be no lightness in his life. Contrast that with the man who walked off the 18th green at Carnoustie yesterday. His eyes sparkled and he waved in all directions. Seeing McGinley accepting the acclaim of the spectators took one’s mind back to his holing the winning putt in the 2002 Ryder Cup at The Belfry. Then, on a day when he wore black and white, his excited, arms-raised shuffle across the green was described in one American newspaper “as resembling a penguin crossing a cracking ice floe”.

Although there was more than enough excitement as the day wore on, it had begun far more quietly. In this, it chimed perfectly with the way the Masters and the US Open got under way. At Augusta in April and at Oakmont last month there was a calm about the play on the first days. Observers were rendered quiet at the spectacle of men completely engrossed by every aspect of the struggle with the golf courses they were playing.

The calm was soon broken, though, by a man who walked briskly between his shots and sometimes gave the impression that he had a train to catch, so little time did he devote to stroke preparation and production. John Daly’s passage round Carnoustie was a metaphor for his life. His early successes as a golfer corresponded with the way he got to five under par, including three birdies and an eagle. The troubles that have beset him recently in his private life corresponded with the way he fell back to finish on 74, including an eight on the 14th. Mark you, he was one of many who found Carnoustie’s closing stretch exceptionally difficult.

The last five holes total 2,194 yards and have a combined par of 20. Many players struggled to cope with them regardless of the way in which they had been playing when they arrived at the 14th tee. K. J. Choi, the tournament leader when he stood on the tee, played them in 22 strokes, Nick Faldo in 23, Duffy Waldorf, Graeme Storm and Todd Hamilton in 24 and Raphael Jacquelin in 25.

Before Daly and before McGinley, there had been the intriguing sight of Tiger Woods and Carnoustie having an arm-wrestle. The initial advantage went to the defending champion, who later had to give back some of it to the course. His 69, in which he benefited from a controversial ruling at the 10th, was one of his more conservative opening rounds in recent Opens, compared with the 67, five under par, with which he began at Hoylake last year and the 66, six under par, at St Andrews in 2005. It included the day’s longest holed putt, one of 80ft for a birdie on the 16th.

There was a further episode in the saga of drugs in golf, started by Gary Player on the eve of the championship. After Woods, Phil Mickelson and Ernie Els had earlier in the week cast doubt on Player’s allegations that as many as ten players were on drugs, Retief Goosen did so as well. “I am actually very shocked by his comments,” Goosen said. “I don’t know if he is trying to damage the sport. If he wants to come and make these comments, why doesn’t he name them?”

It is hard to exaggerate the importance of Goosen’s stinging words. He and Player are both South African and friends. Goosen, who has considerable respect for his countryman, rarely criticises other players, indeed rarely says anything controversial. It may be that the words of a strong, silent man such as Goosen will speak the loudest in rebutting the allegations of Player.

First-round leaders

*denotes amateur

-6S GarcÍa (Sp)

-4P McGinley (Ire)

-3M Campbell (NZ), M Brier (Austria), Á Cabrera (Arg), *R McIlroy (GB), B Weekley (US)

-2K J Choi (S Kor), T Woods (US), S Cink (US), P Harrington (Ire), M Á Jiménez (Sp)