Picture this: It’s your first tournament as a professional on the PGA Tour, and your nerves are through the roof. Your heart’s pounding, you’re overthinking every shot, every moment, and hoping you don’t make a fool out of yourself on the first tee. And in a twist of fate, you’re paired with one of the biggest names in the first round. Being a rookie on Tour already adds to the nerves, but playing alongside Rory McIlroy would even make seasoned players tremble. This was Luke Clanton at the RBC Heritage Open. “Didn’t sleep very much. I was playing with Rory … I’ve never experienced anything like that,” he said.

Talking about how he felt playing with Rory, Clanton expressed in a candid chat with Claire Rodgers, “Yeah, I mean, last week or two weeks ago, I played with Rory McIlroy, and it was nuts. I mean, I was on the first tee and I think we get off on 10 at pretty early in the morning and the range session, putting and chipping was fine, I was not nervous.” But little did he know that things would change so quickly.

“And I remember we walked to the tee like 10 minutes before just because we didn’t want to walk over Rory because everyone’s gonna scream. So we get out there, and I remember I was fine. I said hi to him, I was so excited. I remember we got up to the tee, I put my ball on the ground, and my hand just starts going like this..” Clanton expressed that his hands were trembling right before his first tee shot as a professional. This happens when you are playing with your icon! Luke tried to pacify himself so he could just get the ball somewhere in the fairway.

“And I was like ‘Okay I just need to chill out a second.’ I took it back I couldn’t feel the club, and I was like ‘Just please make contact.’ And it went right down the middle, and I was like ‘Thank God.’ Cuz I was like, If that.. I could.., I didn’t even know where I was going to hit,” Clanton added that all his years of being a confident player were nullified in a moment, and his career-defining moment was almost ruined.

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But Clanton expressed that you cannot blame McIlroy for being the star he is, and he eventually managed to calm his nerves later during the round. “So it was just so cool. And Rory was amazing with me, and he was um super nice with everything and super helpful with everything..” While he did confess post his round at TPC Toronto that “being paired with McIlroy is no joke,” he also added that it was one of his most memorable moments— “First pro start with Rory McIlroy, it’s definitely a day to remember.”

Luke Clanton was not the only one who was star-struck. Rory McIlroy also had good things to say about young players like him.

Rory McIlroy supports players like Luke Clanton

While McIlroy never openly expressed his opinion on Clanton, he did imply that the younger generation needs more chances. “I think this PGA TOUR U program is so good. If it was up to me, I’d give the college kids five or 10 spots on TOUR instead of just one,” McIlroy said when he discussed his pairing with Clanton at the RBC Canadian Open.

He also added that there should be more spots available to amateurs via the university program, so they can make use of the opportunities —“I think to bring that new blood through each and every year I think is so important for the TOUR, and to see Luke and some of his other peers take advantage of that opportunity and get their cards and come out here and play well, it’s awesome to see.” While there are incredibly talented players on the tour currently, they also need to think of the future generations and how they can continue to drive the game forward.

But in players like Luke Clanton and others, McIlroy is confident, the future of the Tour is bright —“That’s the future of the TOUR.”