Galway amateur Liam Nolan is living the dream at The Open, but he also received a swift reminder of what awaits him in the professional ranks after a practice round with Open champions Pádraig Harrington and Shane Lowry.

The Walker Cup star (24), who plans to turn professional later this summer, jumped at the chance to play a few holes at Royal Troon with two legends of the game.  But while it was all very laid back as they trundled through the first six holes, things changed when they played a skins match from the seventh to the 12th.

In terms of a life lesson, Nolan learned this much: This is a major and Harrington and Lowry aren’t here to have fun. They mean business.

“We played a money match for the last six holes and what I took from it was that when you think you have a great chance to win the hole, they very quickly shut that down with an amazing chip or a really big, long holed putt.  “They're the best in the world at what they do.

So just noticing that you can get a little bit better at everything is my big takeaway from today.
“This is definitely the best test you can have in terms of turning pro now at the end of the year. So I'm going to soak it all in and give it everything I have.”

Nothing better illustrated the ultra-competitive side of Lowry and Harrington than the frightening, 498-yard, par-four 11th, where players see nothing from the tee but a sea of gorse and the railway line, which marks the out of bounds, down the right-hand-side.

The Irish trio had been joined on the 10th by American Mason Andersen, who qualified by winning the Visa Argentina Open in February.  But of the seven drives that were hit from the tee at the 11th, only Andersen’s second effort found the fairway in the lightest of left-to-right breezes.

Nolan had to chip up the fairway from the edge of the gorse on the left, but just when he fancied he could win the hole with an up-and-down par, Harrington and Lowry kicked into gear.

“I thought I had a chance to win the skin, and I ended up having to make an eight-footer for par to match the two boys,” Nolan said.

“Pádraig was off the green left to a tight left pin, and Shane had a 40-footer for par.  

“So, of course, Shane holed his putt and Pádraig chipped to four feet. Thank god I holed my eight-footer! It was a great lesson. Just when you think you have one up on them, they show you very differently, very quickly.

Harrington ended up making a mid-range putt on the 12th to take all the money, fist-pumping in mock celebration in front of a disgusted Lowry.

Both men were generous with the time, especially to Nolan, but they did not forget Andersen.

After a poor first tee shot at the 11th, Harrington turned to the Arizona native and said: “Is this your first time playing here? Okay, the line is that crane there or the edge of that tent.”

When Andersen hit a perfect “second serve”, that met with the approval of the two-time Open champion.

“I’d take four of those this week,” Harrington said generously.

Nolan had planned to play 18 holes later in the day, but when Golf Ireland’s High-Performance Coach Neil Manchip told him Harrington and Lowry were on their own at 1:10 p.m., he jumped at the chance to join them and learned more in 12 holes than he might have done playing 18 with any other group.

“I grew up watching The Open from a young age and we're lucky to have had a lot of Irish success in it, so to play with two Open champions here today was really exciting,” Nolan said when he stopped to do an interview with The Open TV channel.

“They gave lots of advice —  just small things that you need to hear like, just enjoy it. But they also said that while it is a great achievement for an amateur to play in this, you are here to do really well in the tournament, so treat it like that.”

Later he explained how Harrington had underlined the importance of coming here to compete.

“Yeah, on the fourth hole. Padraig told me you can have your fun and everything this week, but at the end of the day, you're here to play a major,” Nolan said.

“It’s very easy for an amateur playing for the first time in a major tournament to get caught up in all the cameras and the crowds and signing autographs.  

"But he said you're here to concentrate and play as well as you can. That’s the most important thing.”

Even with little more than a one-club wind, Royal Troon was a challenge on Monday with the greens far firmer than anything seen at The Renaissance Club for last week’s Scottish Open.
For Nolan, it was an eye-opening experience as thousands of fans swarmed over the links, dotted with grandstands and that giant yellow scoreboard at the 18th.

“I was very fortunate to get to play the Walker Cup at St. Andrews last September and this, in terms of size, is just another step up,” he said.  

“It's absolutely incredible. Even the crowds out here on a Monday are very, very cool to see. So I'm looking forward to seeing what they'll be like on Thursday.

“The course is unbelievable. It's a perfect day to see it on a day like today with no wind and in tee-shirt weather. You get a really nice feel of the layout.  

"It's an awesome golf course and while the back nine and front nine are so different, both really really cool.

“Around around the turn, the visuals off the tee get a little bit more ambiguous. So today was a good day to learn to trust your lines and try and commit to the shot as best you can.

"But again, that'll change with the changing weather during the week. So yeah, it was great to get that experience out there today.  “I can’t wait for Thursday.”