Rory McIlroy has disclosed that his hand began trembling once he heard his name called for his opening shot at The Open in Royal Portrush.
The home favourite missed the cut by a single shot on Friday with Shane Lowry going on to win his first Major over the weekend.
"I was so relaxed in the warm-up," said McIlroy at a press conference for the WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational in Memphis this week.
I was so relaxed on the putting green ten minutes before. Once I was announced and I put my tee in the ground, I noticed my hand trembling and I was like, 'Jeez, this is different'.
The first tee-shot wasn't a comfortable tee-shot for me anyway last week. In hindsight, I probably should have hit a driver rather than an iron down there.
Sub-consciously, I knew I was uncomfortable because I suggested a different club to Harry [Diamond, his caddy]. He said, 'Well, this is the club you've hit every damn practise on it's done well, why would you want to do something different?' I'm like, 'Oh, I don't know'.
I was surprised by how nervous I was but it came on so rapidly. That's what was different about it. I was totally fine and then once my name was announced, it was like, 'Oh, this is a little different'.
In an interview with Sky Sports after he missed the cut, there were tears in the world number three's eyes as he spoke about his performance. That was not the only time he had teared up during the tournament.
"It was more where I stood in terms to the people of my home country," said McIlroy.
"That was what was overwhelming to me. I didn't cry because I missed the cut, I was overwhelmed by the support that I got.
"At the end of the day, I didn't think I meant as much to them and I realised they mean more to me than I thought they did. It went both ways. It was really nice.
"I had to stop myself from crying about four times on the back nine, not because of the situation I found myself in but because of the support. It sounded like Sunday in terms of trying to win the golf tournament.
"I just had to take a step back and say, 'Wow I sort of mean a lot to these people'. It felt really good.
"Selfishly, I said this afterwards, that I would have loved to play in that atmosphere for another two days. It's such weird thing to say, to think of a missed cut as being one of the best experiences you've ever had on a golf course. There is some sort of silver lining in there somewhere."
