“They gave lots of advice — just small things that you need to hear like, just enjoy it. But they also said that while it is a great achievement for an amateur to play in this, you are here to do really well in the tournament, so treat it like that.”
Later he explained how Harrington had underlined the importance of coming here to compete.
“Yeah, on the fourth hole. Padraig told me you can have your fun and everything this week, but at the end of the day, you’re here to play a major,” Nolan said.
“It’s very easy for an amateur playing for the first time in a major tournament to get caught up in all the cameras and the crowds and signing autographs.
“But he said you’re here to concentrate and play as well as you can. That’s the most important thing.”
Even with little more than a one-club wind, Royal Troon was a challenge on Monday with the greens far firmer than anything seen at The Renaissance Club for last week’s Scottish Open.
For Nolan, it was an eye-opening experience as thousands of fans swarmed over the links, dotted with grandstands and that giant yellow scoreboard at the 18th.
“I was very fortunate to get to play the Walker Cup at St. Andrews last September and this, in terms of size, is just another step up,” he said.
“It’s absolutely incredible. Even the crowds out here on a Monday are very, very cool to see. So I’m looking forward to seeing what they’ll be like on Thursday.
“The course is unbelievable. It’s a perfect day to see it on a day like today with no wind and in tee-shirt weather. You get a really nice feel of the layout.
“It’s an awesome golf course and while the back nine and front nine are so different, both really really cool.
“Around around the turn, the visuals off the tee get a little bit more ambiguous. So today was a good day to learn to trust your lines and try and commit to the shot as best you can.
“But again, that’ll change with the changing weather during the week. So yeah, it was great to get that experience out there today. “I can’t wait for Thursday.”