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When Rory McIlroy arrives at St Andrews for the 150th Open in July, it will surely set in motion a swirl of conflicting emotions and a look back with regret at perhaps the most fateful moment of his career.
Cast your mind back to the last time the golf world descended on the Old Course, in 2015, when McIlroy and Jordan Spieth held all four majors between them.
The Northern Irishman had won the Open and the PGA in the space of four magical weeks in 2014, with the American responding in kind by taking the Masters and the US Open, where McIlroy finished fourth and ninth respectively.
Now the duel for supremacy had moved to McIlroy's favourite venue, one he had dominated with a brilliant opening round of 63 in the 2010 Open, on his way to finishing tied third at the age of just 21. He was full of confidence that he would move on to the same mark of five majors on the all-time list as Seve Ballesteros.
A week before the event, he decided to take his mind off what was to follow with a light-hearted game of football back home in Northern Ireland with his mates.
McIlroy knew he was in trouble the moment he fell awkwardly following a tackle. The pain was considerable and soon his ankle had swollen to the size of a cricket ball. He was diagnosed with a ruptured ankle ligament and forced to take the decision to withdraw from the Open.
Hindsight tells us that he was only out of action for a few weeks. He even defended his PGA title the following month. In the course of a career, surely missing out on one major hardly amounts to much?
In the normal course of events, perhaps. Except major
