Golf Walker Cup countdown: His curly locks sneaking out from beneath the blue baseball cap with the distinctive red lion perched on his head, Rory McIlroy yesterday looked toward the mountains of Mourne and surveyed a landscape he has seen a hundred times.
He was in serious mode, perhaps contemplating his swansong to amateur golf, and didn't look at all like the alleged mischief-maker on the Britain and Ireland team who, apparently, has been playing nightly jokes on his colleagues in what has been a relaxed build-up to the Walker Cup.
McIlroy, a plus-six handicapper at the ripe old age of 18, has been a regular visitor to the links at Royal County Down these past months and years.
Now, for the precocious teenager who has claimed a fistful of individual titles in his impressive amateur career, the time is nigh as he prepares to make his Walker Cup debut. It will be his one and only appearance in the match, as life as a professional beckons.
For now, though, McIlroy - who has constantly proven himself in individual competition - be it in winning the European amateur championship, as he did in Italy last year, or in taking the silver medal at the British Open, as he did at Carnoustie in July - is focused on contributing to B&I's quest to regain the most prized trophy in amateur team golf, which gets under way on the famed links tomorrow with morning foursomes followed by afternoon singles.
And, while there is added pressure on the Holywood clubman to perform on home soil, B&I captain Colin Dalgleish has no doubt about the player's ability to leave a lasting impression: "It's a great and amazing coincidence to have somebody of Rory's exceptional talent to come along at the moment that the matches are being played here . . . (but) Rory gets no special privileges and, in the team room he bonds very well. He's a very solid team member, and we're certainly expecting great things from him on the golf course also."
He may well be treated as just one of 10, but even McIlroy's colleagues acknowledge his special talent. As Lloyd Saltman, the charismatic Scot who is just three years older than the Ulsterman, remarked, "Rory is a fantastic talent. I mean, he's just 18 years old and has achieved so much already in amateur golf.
"He brings great things to the team because, obviously, he has proved he can perform under pressure . . . and this week is the highest pinnacle of amateur golf, so there's going to be pressure this week. It's great to have someone on your team that can pull you through."
McIlroy, for his part, has his feet firmly on terra firma. His time as an amateur is almost up - as it is for Saltman, Rhys Davies, David Horsey and Jamie Moul, who are also destined for visits to the first phase of Q-School - but he could hardly have planned a more fitting farewell, playing Walker Cup on a course less than an hour's drive from his home.
The B&I team have had a number of scheduled visits to Royal County Down. On one occasion, the former European Tour number one Ronan Rafferty attended and gave the players a personal insight into the course's nuances.
McIlroy, though, has squeezed in visits of his own. He is the player most familiar with it, but he has a simple solution on what it will take to combat it: "Keep the ball on the fairway, hit it on the green . . . . and don't do anything fancy. It's the sort of golf course where if you shortside yourself you're in trouble."
Certainly, the Britain and Ireland team's preparations can't be faulted. Having met up in St Andrews last weekend, where the former US Masters champion Sandy Lyle gave the team a pep talk, they travelled over to Belfast on Monday, where the reaction to McIlroy on arrival left his team-mates with no doubt as to his popularity.
On Tuesday, the team played 27 holes and, on Wednesday, travelled to Baltray, Co Louth, for a practice round. Yesterday, they were back at Royal County Down, where Dalgleish - "I'm 95 per cent sure of the foursome pairings," he confided - showed his hand by pairing Saltman with Moul, Davies with Daniel Willett, Nigel Edwards with Llewellyn Matthews, Horsey with John Parry and, surprise, surprise, McIlroy with Clandeboye's Jonathan Caldwell.
