THE main story from the recent West of Ireland championship concerned a loser not a winner. When Rory McIlroy, the overwhelming favourite going for a third title in a row, lost to Paul Cutler in the quarter-finals at Co Sligo, his exit was regarded as a minor sensation. It seemed for all as if McIlroy, the grizzled match play veteran, had been picked off by an up-and-coming kid, and it was understandably forgotten that Cutler, an 18-year-old who had represented Ulster at boys level last year, was actually older than McIlroy.

That's Rory McIlroy, the boy with the man in his eyes. When you're the youngest ever winner of both the Irish Close and the West of Ireland championships, you're the reigning European Stroke Play champion, you play off a handicap of plus five, you have reduced the famed links of Royal Portrush to an astonishing 61 strokes, you have made the cut at the Dubai Desert Classic with Tiger Woods in the field, and when you're a virtual certainty to be selected on the Walker Cup team for this September's matches against the USA, you might think all that would constitute a decent career.

But it's only the start for Rory McIlroy, who turns 18 on Friday. While further goals loom early this summer such as a shot at the British Amateur championship, and the defence of his national title, he will move to the professional ranks after the Walker Cup. Then, and only then, will he experience the difference between playing for teenage kicks, and playing for a living.

In recent years, some serious talent has set forth from McIlroy's neck of the woods. Ronan Rafferty, Darren Clarke, Raymie Burns and Graeme McDowell all looked the part in their different ways and, at one stage, it seemed as if Burns might even be the brightest star.

If Rafferty never won a major, he was Europe's number one and he also played in a Ryder Cup. The gifted Clarke has built a reputation as a world-class player and McDowell has more than confirmed his rich promise as an amateur, but Burns dropped like a stone out of tournament golf. In sport, there are no guarantees.

Because McIlroy is regarded as Ireland's next great hope, the weight of expectation is already on his shoulders.

Yet, it seems as if he is happy enough, confident enough, to carry the burden.

He doesn't see himself as a Justin Rose who had to live out a brutal professional apprenticeship in the public glare.

"Neither do I, " says Chubby Chandler, whose company ISM is in a strong position to sign McIlroy when he switches to the paid ranks. "If you'd asked Justin before that British Open at Birkdale in 1998 if he was going to turn pro, he'd have looked at you blankly. But Rory's had it in his head for the best part of two years now that he'll turn pro after the Walker Cup. Unlike Justin Rose, I reckon the transition should be pretty seamless.

"As far as I'm concerned there is no better teenage player in the world at the moment. When I first saw Darren [Clarke] as an amateur, he was an intimidating sort of player, someone who could overpower a golf course. At a younger age, Rory has a better all-round game."

The only son of Gerry and Rosie McIlroy, Rory was one of those kids who never seemed to be without a golf club in his hand. Gerry, who once played off scratch, could see that the boy, who was soon looking for greater challenges than his home course at Holywood in county Down, had an exceptional talent.

He and Rosie cobbled together the funds to take him to underage events in America during the summer, and their investment paid off when he won the World Under-10 title at Doral, Florida.

"It was just before that win that we were really starting to look at him, " says Michael Bannon who was the professional at Holywood at the time. "We knew that in a couple of years he was going to be down to scratch, but you don't like to bump people's expectation up because you could get it badly wrong.

And in truth, no one could be sure how good he was going to become."

Bannon was less cautious in assessing his star pupil when, at the age of 14, McIlroy won the Ulster Boys championship at Donaghadee. "Before that, I thought he was going to be really, really good, but then I knew he was special.

After winning the Ulster Boys, he just took off."

If his accumulation of titles has demonstrated mental strength beyond his years, one day in 2005 might just be a touchstone for the rest of McIlroy's career. During a qualifying round for the North of Ireland championship at Royal Portrush that July, he shot a 61 to break the Dunluce course record by three strokes. Eleven under par, 28 on the back nine.

"First of all, he had the game to do it, " says Bannon, "but 28 on the back nine at Portrush, that's ridiculous. That tells you that there's something special there.

He's not afraid when he's going well, he's honestly thinking about birdieing every hole."

McIlroy didn't wreak the same sort of havoc at another links the following year, but he still managed to tame the fiercely demanding European Club to win his second Irish Close title with a performance that impressed Pat Ruddy, owner of the European Club and a longtime observer of the amateur game in this country.

"We had the links set up very tough, and a lot of guys went down in flames, but McIlroy took the driver, and hammered it down the middle. He was aggressive and he was courageous. He went after the course, that was a really good sign, " says Ruddy.

However, with the amateur scene currently dominated by younger players, and with fewer and fewer gnarled career amateurs such as Joe Carr, Peter McEvoy, the Hoeys and Garth McGimpsey in tournaments, it's now harder to put a value on championship success.

"If a young fella of 18 wanted to win a title in the not too distant past, he had to shift a lot of lumber, but that's changed, " adds Ruddy. "A brilliant amateur career is not necessarily a guarantee of success in the pro ranks.

Let's be honest, there's a big difference between beating guys around Rosses Point who sometimes can't break 80 and beating guys who always break 72.

"It'll be different when some of the older pros see this young guy coming along and he's looking to take 250,000 out of their back pockets. Rory McIlroy's record has been superb, his approach to the game is superb, his mental attitude seems superb, he's a very nice young man, and without doubt, he has a ticket for the raffle. But turning pro is not as safe as taking a job in the bank."

School has been out for McIlroy since last year, and while his friends fret over their A levels, he has been more worried about whether his clubs will arrive in Australia, Dubai, or in Madrid where he played in his 11th pro event this week.

Whether or not he is on the cusp of fame and fortune, his life is already different.

"The level of expectation that surrounds him probably does make it more difficult, " explains Chandler, "but it also gives him more opportunity. As regards sponsorship and invitations to tournaments, the door is already open to a large extent. One doesn't come without the other when you're the best teenage player in the world. If there's no expectation, there won't be the opportunity."

He has climbed the hill, and soon the mountain will present itself. At 18, Rory McIlroy doesn't appear to be in the slightest bit afraid of heights.