Even in the laid-back, gum-chewing, wild-haired world of Rory McIlroy the immediate reaction was somewhat understated.
"Nice," said McIlroy when asked to describe his first-round 63 at St Andrews, the lowest first-round score in the 150-year history of The Open championship. The joint-lowest score in any golfing major.
The shining jewel, if truth be told, on a morning when the old lady of St Andrews was left naked by an absence of wind and the deluge of rain this week which had left the course soft and receptive.
But 'nice' still came nowhere close.
Nowhere near to revealing the nerve, nor the brilliance which makes the 21-year-old from Northern Ireland the most natural golfing talent since Tiger Woods turned professional back in 1996.
It was rather like George Best, that greatest of Northern Irish sportsmen, describing his destruction of Benfica in the Stadium of Light back in 1966 as 'a bit of fun'.
Actually, Best's two-goal performance that night in a 5-1 victory for Manchester United earned him the soubriquet 'El Beatle' and projected him to global stardom.
In years to come we might remember McIlroy's historic round at St Andrews in the same way. A round of aggression. The round of a man who saw the opportunity with the flags hanging limp and lifeless and seized the day.
And the comparison was swift and obvious, considering Woods's best round in a major was 64 at Troon in 1997 when he was also 21.
That is not meant to heap unmanageable expectation on the shoulders of a young man still at the start of his journey in the professional world.
It is just an obvious observation as Woods was later to put into words.
"Rory's an amazing talent," said Woods.
So he is. A talent who played the last 10 holes in eight-under-par, whose approach to three feet at the 17th Road Hole was exquisite and who has taken confidence from the triumph of his compatriot and practice partner Graeme McDowell in the US Open.
A talent, too, who might yet ease the disappointment of a summer which has witnessed England's dreadful World Cup and Andy Murray's disappointing Wimbledon exit.
But while McIlroy gave The Open a magical start it was a day when so many weighed in, bullying the old course like batsmen might batter the bowlers on a flat track.
All day the scoreboard was vivid red. Yet it was the names on it which added to the excitement.
None more so than John Daly, the big-hitting, hard-living, weight-fluctuating, cigarette-smoking, grip-it-and-hit-it champion of 1995.
Daly might not be the most consistent performer these days but at 44 he remains one of the most popular and colourful figures on the tour even if his trousers make Ian Poulter's look distinctly staid.
And he can still play, his straight hitting and solid putting taking him to six-under-par.
That was one shot better than Woods, who professed to be delighted with the respectful reception he was afforded by the St Andrews galleries.
His new putter, too, mainly behaved itself, apart from a three-foot miss on the 17th green which was uncharacteristically jerky and left him with the only bogey staining his card like a scar on a pretty girl's face.
There were more wonderful scores, 65 from South Africa's Louis Oosthuizen, 66 from Scotland's Andrew Coltart and England's Steven Tiley on a day when shooting par turned out to be some way below par, if you get the drift.
A day when McIlroy, who has never failed to beat 70 for a round at St Andrews, made the most glorious of openings.
Nice one Rory!