Harrington left washed out

Padraig Harrington spoke of percentages at the K-Club this week. More specifically, the highest ranked player in the Smurfit Kappa European Open field suggested 75 per cent of the field could be ruled out of contention if the inclement Irish weather continued.

If that's the case, the world number 10 will need some fireworks if he's to haul himself back into the crucial top 25 per cent and have any chance of winning on Irish soil once more.

The fact is the current Irish Open champion was, for the most part, steady, if unspectacular, and got within touching distance of the overnight lead on six-under, held by Maarten Lafeber from the Netherlands. That was until his round unraveled somewhat at the 16th when Harrington found water before recording a double-bogey six. It meant he signed for a one-over 71 to be seven shots off the lead.

"At no stage in the day was I unhappy with my score, until what happened at the 16th that is," said a resigned Harrington, still baffled at how he made six after his seven-iron approach ended up in the water by the green.

"I thought I hit a good tee shot and a decent second but to come away with a six was a pity, because one-under would have been a good score."

Harrington also had an issue with his driver after he discovered a chip out of the graphite shaft. Concerned at how it would affect the club's performance he replaced it but was never satisfied with it and was sure he lost distance. After the round he had the original driver checked out and discovered it was fine so it will be back in the bag tomorrow. Should the chipped shaft break during the round he will be allowed to replace the club as normal.

Harrington was joined by Paul McGinley on one-over but his fellow Dubliner was left to rue too many errors. "It was the good, the bad and the ugly out there today," said McGinley after his round. "It's not often I have six birdies in one round these days. To do that and only shoot one over is what disappoints me. If I'm to take a positive, at least I know birdies are possible, I just need to stop the mistakes."  His two bogeys at 14 and 15 were particularly frustrating.

Damian McGrane also shot 71 to be on the same score as US Open Champion Angel Cabrera and one shot back from Philip Walton's level par 70. It was an encouraging start for the 1995 Ryder Cup hero considering he opened with a disastrous 89 in France last week. Walton played alongside the current Irish PGA Order of Merit winner Simon Thornton who shot a six-over 76, the same score as Michael Hoey. David Higgins and Peter Lawrie shot 73 and 74 respectively.

Lafeber was one of the early starters and his flawless round over the Smurfit Course contained six birdies and no dropped shots for an opening 64. The 33-year-old said the key was finding fairways and avoiding the penalising rough.

"The course played very tough and you obviously get no run on the ball," said Lafeber, who has gone back to his old Irish coach, Tom O'Mahony from Cork. "It's vital to stay on the fairway to give yourself a chance of hitting the green. And the greens were great under the conditions. I've worked with quite a few coaches over the last year before going back to my old coach Tom who knows my game best."

Lafeber is one shot ahead of the chasing pack of; England's Robert Rock, Sweden's Niclas Fasth, India's Jyoti Randawha and France's Gregory Havret.

Gary Murphy had threatened to barge his way into a share of the lead late in the afternoon when four successive birdies from the 10th got the Kilkenny man to five-under. However, the promise was short-lived as he followed with a double bogey six at the 14th before eventually signing for a still respectable 68 to be leading Irishman.

Graeme McDowell was one of the early starters and he built on the good work of qualifying for the Open at Carnoustie at the start of the week by opening with a one-under 69. He also found himself in an interesting
situation on the ninth green, his final hole.

"I had a 20 footer with a  frog directly on my line at the ninth which was pretty interesting. It was certainly the weather for frogs," quipped the Portrush pro.

"Raphael (Jacquelin) certainly appreciated the joke," added McDowell sharing the moment with his French playing partner. "I'm happy with one under because I left a few (shots) out there on the greens. Overall I'm pretty happy with how I hit it because conditions were difficult."

So severe were today's weather warnings that European Tour officials were left with no option to safeguard the course as best they could against deluge of rain forecast on the opening day. No less than six tee boxes were moved up with the most significant change coming at the 18th.

The closing hole is normally a classic risk-reward dogleg par five measuring 578yards. But with so much overnight rain the lay-up area became saturated and unplayable. It meant the hole was reduced to a 162-yard par three, which in turn reduced the par from 72 to 70. The course was so wet that placing of one club length - not the usual six inches - was used on all the fairways. This is expected to continue through the weekend.

However, it wasn't all doom and gloom on the other side of the River Liffey from last year's memorable Ryder Cup scenes. Ulster Bank played their part to create buoyant atmosphere as the general public were given free entry to the tournament, just as they did last year. The strategy worked for despite the morning conditions almost 23,000 passed through the gates. And the die-hards amongst the masses were rewarded for the weather eased as the day grew long.

Even though the wind got up in the afternoon to make club selection difficult, the rain kept off to offer the late starters, and galleries, some welcome respite.

Collated Scores

64Maarten Lafeber (Ned)

65Robert Rock, Niclas Fasth (Swe), Jyoti Randhawa (Ind), Gregory Havret (Fra)

66Soren Kjeldsen (Den), Stephen Dodd, Patrik Sjoland (Swe)

67Simon Khan, Ian Garbutt, Ariel Canete (Arg), Mikko Ilonen (Fin), Jeev Milkha Singh (Ind), Benn Barham, Pelle Edberg (Swe), Simon Dyson

68David Frost (Rsa), Jose Manuel Lara (Spa), Michael Campbell (Nzl), Peter Hanson (Swe), Joakim Haeggman (Swe), Steven Jeppesen (Swe), Mads Vibe-Hastrup (Den), Thaworn Wiratchant (Thai), Anthony Wall, Peter Gustafsson (Swe), Peter Hedblom (Swe), Jean-Francois Remesy (Fra), Marcel Siem (Ger), Gary Murphy

69Ignacio Garrido (Spa), Martin Erlandsson (Swe), Per-Ulrik Johansson (Swe), Graeme McDowell, Colin Montgomerie, David Howell, Phillip Price, Anton Haig (Rsa), Jean-Baptiste Gonnet (Fra), Jesus Maria Arruti (Spa), Marcus Fraser (Aus), Soren Kjeldsen (Den), Richard Green (Aus), Rafael Cabrera Bello (Spa), Marc Warren, Johan Edfors (Swe), Andrew Marshall, Johan Axgren (Swe), Christian Nilsson (Swe), James Hepworth

70Alessandro Tadini (Ita), Steve Webster, Ian Woosnam, Peter Fowler (Aus), Thomas Levet (Fra), Paul Lawrie, Andrew McLardy (Rsa), Alexander Noren (Swe), Oliver Fisher, Philip Walton, David Griffiths, Steven O'Hara, Brett Rumford (Aus), Sandy Lyle, Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano (Spa), Simon Wakefield, Phillip Archer, Martin Kaymer (Ger), James Heath, Andrew Tampion (Aus), Alexandre Rocha (Bra)

71Terry Price (Aus), Gregory Bourdy (Fra), Raphael Jacquelin (Fra), Thongchai Jaidee (Thai), Kyron Sullivan, Taichi Teshima (Jpn), Mark Pilkington, Gary Lockerbie, Matthew Zions (Aus), Richard McEvoy, Stephen Gallacher, Padraig Harrington, Angel Cabrera (Arg), Paul McGinley, Graeme Storm, Damien McGrane, Markus Brier (Aut), Christian Cevaer (Fra), Richard Bland, Francesco Molinari (Ita), Barry Lane, Jamie Spence, Shaun Webster

72David Lynn, Joakim Backstrom (Swe), Lee James, Rafael Echenique (Arg), Tom Whitehouse, Lee Slattery, Edward Rush, Miles Tunnicliff, Garry Houston, Andrew Coltart, Alastair Forsyth, Paul Broadhurst, Peter O'Malley (Aus), Santiago Luna (Spa), Emanuele Canonica (Ita), David Drysdale, Oliver Wilson, Fredrik Andersson Hed (Swe), David Carter, Sam Little

73Ricardo Gonzalez (Arg), David Park, Robert-Jan Derksen (Ned), Jonathan Lomas, Henrik Nystrom (Swe), David Higgins, Carl Suneson (Spa), Scott Drummond, YE Yang (Kor), Andres Romero (Arg), Sam Walker, Andrew Raitt, Sven Struver (Ger)

74Richard Finch, Sion Bebb, Carlos Rodiles (Spa), Kenneth Ferrie, Bradley Dredge, Mardan Mamat (Sing), Wade Ormsby (Aus), Peter Lawrie, Matthew Millar (Aus), Steve Alker (Nzl), Jean-Francois Lucquin (Fra)

75Christopher Hanell (Swe), Daniel Vancsik (Arg), Marcus Higley, Eirik Tage Jophansen (Nor), Peter Senior (Aus), Cesar Monasterio (Arg), Gareth Davies

76 Simon Thornton, Michael Hoey, Jarmo Sandelin (Swe), Mattias Eliasson (Swe), Gary Emerson

77 Craig Lee, Juan Parron (Spa)

78Gary Marks

79Louis Oosthuizen (Rsa), Shiv Kapur (Ind), Alejandro Canizares (Spa)

Withdrew: Gary Orr, Darren Fichardt (Rsa)