The Open 2017: Buoyant Nick McCarthy looking to Open new horizons

But the 29-year-old will not let that detract in the slightest from a week that began with him playing a practice round alongside Ryder Cup duo Rory McIlroy and Matt Fitzpatrick and, he hopes, will end with him playing the 18th on Sunday in a group whose late tee-off time indicates their high standing on the leaderboard.

Rather than brace himself for the probability of playing against a backdrop of litter bins being rattled tomorrow, he intends to embrace it as part of the Open experience.

“Whether I was the first out or the last out it wasn’t going to bother me at all,” says McCarthy, who realised his dream of playing in his home major by finishing second earlier this month in Final Qualifying at Hillside, and who will tee-off at 11.04am on Friday.

“I was talking to a pal, Dale Whitnell, about it and he qualified a few years ago (at Royal Lytham in 2012). He was out last on the second day and he said, ‘I was literally out there with the bin-men,’ but he said it was still class. He was the last man in and made the cut.”

Ensuring he plays at the weekend will be the first target – okay, the second after he hit a bullseye with his first ambition of being able to place his name alongside that of four-time major winner and former Open champion McIlroy for a practice round.

Then the aim becomes to challenge for the Claret Jug itself over Saturday and Sunday.

“I’m going there to win it, absolutely,” he says. “That’s what you do as a professional every event you play. I have earned my place to be in the Open like everybody else there.”

If it seems a fantastical notion, past Opens suggest otherwise having thrown up both surprise winners and those who, like Justin Rose as an amateur in 1998, altered the course of their lives with four great rounds. Rose tees it up this week at Birkdale as a former US Open champion and having only missed out on a second major when Spain’s Sergio Garcia beat him in a sudden-death play-off at the Masters in April.

McCarthy, who sits ninth on the EuroPro Tour’s order of merit, is carrying proudly the name and badge of his home club Moortown during his adventure after they decided to mark his achievement by offering him a free pick of clothing in professional Martin Heggie’s shop.

“I got a letter from Moortown saying they would like to support me with the event and how proud they are and if I needed any clothing they would sort it out, so that is what I did with Martin in the shop,” he says. “That is absolutely awesome of them. I can’t thank them enough.”

He will be followed by many familiar faces with those members for whom he could not obtain tickets making their own plans. Carrying his bag will be the most familiar face of all, father Dave, a former Yorkshire county player who has caddied before in the Open at Birkdale for another Moortown luminary, former Ryder Cup star Howard Clark.

“My dad had 50 odd caps for Yorkshire and he also played for England Boys,” says McCarthy proudly. “He has caddied for me all this year so why change something that has been good and has worked?”

Accommodation costs around any Open venue are exorbitant, but he says he “landed on my feet” after some friends of his father watched him qualify at Hillside and immediately offered to put him up for the week.

“It is only 15 minutes away. They are putting us up and it is absolutely awesome,” he says. “You look at the prices of renting some houses and some are asking £3,500 for the week.”

If things go McCarthy’s way this week, that might eventually sound a bargain price.

Ask Justin Rose.