Rory McIlroy will say "Hello" to the world of professional golf at a news conference at The Belfry today. His soon-to-be manager, Andrew Chubby Chandler has lined up an impressive array of sponsors for arguably the biggest talent to emerge from Ireland since Darren Clarke approached him in a £1,500 cashmere overcoat in 1989, looking for advice on his impending move into the professional game.

Chandler has since made Clarke, as well as Lee Westwood, Paul McGinley and Graeme McDowell, multi-millionaires.

But 18-year-old McIlroy needs little in the line of advice from his Irish stablemates, and to a man they have told the youngster to change nothing as he prepares to play for cash for the first time in this week's Quinn Direct British Masters.

Far from getting a rude awakening, McGinley, Clarke and McDowell believe McIlroy already has the game to make it on the tour.

And while his amateur swansong in the Walker Cup didn't quite go to plan, he is oozing confidence after cruising through the first stage of the European Tour Qualifying School at The Oxfordshire last week.

"The kid is full of confidence," said McGinley, who was 25 when he turned professional. "Let him play on that confidence for a while and see where he is going. Then he can stop and think, I need to change this or that or keep going.

"I hate to hear people saying he is going to get a rude awakening in the pro game, because you don't want to knock the kid's confidence. Confidence is such an important thing, so let him ride this confidence."

McDowell had just a handful of appearances in professional tournaments under his belt when he turned pro in June 2002.

By comparison, McIlroy has played 12 professional tournaments since he teed it up in the British Masters as a raw 15-year-old in 2005, shooting rounds of 82 and 81 to miss the cut.

And of course he showed his class by winning the Silver Medal in the Open at Carnoustie.

McIlroy has been taken under Clarke's wing in recent years and the pair will play a practice round at The Belfry today.

But the big Ulsterman has no great fears for his protege, advising him to stick with what he knows before searching for something new.

"He has enough people around him to keep his feet firmly planted in the ground," Clarke said. "He will be fine. And he will done fine.

"The biggest difference he will notice is that the short game in the professional ranks is like chalk and cheese compared with the amateur game. That is the biggest difference. That is the whole difference."