It could well have been inadvertent, for the impression overall was that McIlroy played his part in one of the most sporting of Opens of recent years, one in which one top player after another came across as the best of role models.
McIlroy had talked of his new-found patience at the start of the week. Yet how much of his enhanced performance was down to patience and how much to the spring and bounce with which he goes about his business on a good day?
Where others who work on patience can become too ponderous for their own good, McIlroy stays alive at the address and his shots are correspondingly full of zing. On top of that, he plays at a pace which sets precisely the right example to all would-be Rorys.
The other thing the young champion did so well was in showing time and time again that he had the mental wherewithal to keep the advancing Garcia successfully at bay.
Both Fowler and Garcia, who ended up two shots to his rear, were generous in defeat whilst letting everyone know that they have no intention of letting McIlroy leave them behind.
Fowler has benefited from working with Butch Harmon, of that there is no doubt. Aside altogether from helping with technical issues, Harmon would appear to have advised his charge to come across as more of a serious player.
The freaky hair-style has gone, as indeed has the over-the-top use of orange. Where, previously, he has set out on Sundays looking like a volunteer for the local lifeboat crew, he is now restricting himself to an orange shirt.
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