Sergio Garcia started poorly and never got on track, shooting 44 on the front and 45 on the back.

The 19-year-old, who won the Irish Open two weeks ago in just his sixth tournament as a pro, started with a triple bogey 7 and posted five double bogeys as he found rough or sand on virtually every hole.

"Yes, I was suffering," he said when he finally spoke to the media after two hours of "calming time" with his family. "I couldn't do anything, I felt I couldn't swing the club. Today everything came out the wrong way.

"I don't think there is too much I can take from this except possibly patience. The Open is always difficult but this year is too tough," he said.

Hs erratic golf was a sign of his inexperience, although playing partner Rocco Mediate said on the course there were no flashes of temper, no bad manners.

"He was looking at a huge number and he kept trying to play," said Mediate, who finished with a 6-over 77. "He never whined, he never moaned. He never acted like a kid today."

Garcia's caddie Jerry Higginbotham was at a loss to explain what had happened to the man being described as Europe's Tiger Woods.

"When you start with a triple bogey in a major you are in major trouble," said Higginbotham. "The wind was affecting everyone, and when it blows like that it's hard to put your finger on what's going wrong technically.

"We got no good bounces, no good breaks and the bunkers were like magnets."

Garcia played badly throughout, Carnoustie's punishing rough only exacerbating his errors.

He was among the early starters and had by no means the worst of the wind, but after hacking through the rough and into a bunker he began with a triple-bogey 7 at the first.

After two pars he then set about a tour of most of Carnoustie's bunkers, collecting bogeys on Nos. 4, 5 and 8 and a double bogey at No. 9 for a front nine of 44.

The teenager seemed at a loss to know what to do, and his score would have been even worse but for some scrambling recoveries.

The turn did him no favors as he dropped five shots over the next three holes, his shoulders drooping lower with each successive disaster.

He stopped the rot at the par-3 13th and finally found a birdie at the par-5 14th -- his only one of the day. But it was only a brief respite as he immediately dropped another shot on 15.

Three more shots went astray on Nos. 16 and 17, and he ended with another double-bogey after blasting out of a fairway bunker straight into the deep rough.

As Garcia stood forlornly on the 18th, Higginbotham put a comforting arm around the youngster's shoulders.

"I tried to cheer him up, told him there would be a lot more majors," said the man who carried the bag for Mark O'Meara when he won last year's title.

With 7,361-yard Carnoustie playing as tough as any course in the world, Mediate suggested Garcia could still make the cut.

"I told him not to apologize. We all shoot bad scores," Mediate said.