Lawrie leads the Irish challenge

Volvo Masters/First round Details. As strange old days went, this one took the biscuit. At the start of the day, two Irishmen took star billing and were even paired together in the marquee two-ball.

By day's end, they were relegated to bit players and Padraig Harrington was confessing that he found Valderrama "a tough old golf course" and Darren Clarke was left musing how Fredrik Jacobson could conjure up an opening round 64 to lead the Volvo Masters. "I don't know what course he was playing," joked Clarke.

Joking aside, it wasn't a good day at all for the five Irish players in the season-ending €3.5 million tournament. Of the quintet, Peter Lawrie - who suffered three bogeys in his last four holes but who started his round with a nod and a wink from the powers-that-be that he will next week be awarded the 'rookie of the year' - was the best of them with a level-par 72, which left him trailing Jacobson by eight shots.

And, yet, the unpredictable nature of the weather, with more rain and strong winds forecast, and the course's propensity to give gifts one moment and snatch them away the next meant that nobody was intent on crowning Jacobson as champion just yet.

For most, this was a day to grind out a score, to forget, and to move on to better things. For Jacobson, it was a day to savour.

"I never expected such a low score," conceded Jacobson, whose 64 left him two shots clear of Anders Hansen with Spain's Carlos Rodiles a further two strokes back in third. But the strange thing, and the source of encouragement for the rest of the field, was that those three were the only ones to break 70. In short, it would seem there is much to play for in the next three rounds.

This course, though, can break your heart; and Harrington, despite recording four birdies, found himself signing for a 76.

"You know, I always find this course difficult. It always puts me on the defensive and I just find it a tough old track," he said. "I'm going to have to play damn well from here on in, but hopefully that's the bad round out of the way. I just can't see a 64 out there, but if it has been done once, it can be done again."

Harrington was actually grinding out a respectable enough score until he hit a disastrous stretch on the homeward run.

"I lost focus," he said, and the Dubliner paid a heavy price with three successive bogeys from the 13th. And, to rub salt into the wound, he suffered a triple bogey seven on the 16th where he pulled his drive into a bush, was forced to take a penalty drop, failed to find the fairway with his recovery, put his next shot into a bunker and then splashed out to three feet only to miss the putt.

At least Harrington salvaged something from the depths of despair when birdieing his last two holes, holing a 25-foot right-to-left breaking putt on the 17th and then sinking a 20 footer on the 18th. "What does that do for me?" he asked, before answering: "It improved my score by two."

Walking off the 18th green, Harrington and Clarke could simply smile and give each other a look that suggested they were glad their day was over. "We struggled to get each other going," suggested Clarke, who certainly didn't ignite over a front nine that saw him consistently come up short with his approach shots and, after turning in 40, he eventually signed for a 77.

"I'll just have to get on with it and try to play better. I tried my best on every shot, it's just that I couldn't hit a decent shot," he added. "That's just Valderrama. If you get on the good side of it, you can score very well. You get on the wrong side, and it penalises you."

Lawrie got unofficial confirmation that he will become the first Irishman to win the Henry Cotton award for 'rookie of the year' before he teed off, and he proceeded to shoot a 72 that at one stage looked as if it would be even better. Three under at the turn, he suffered a double bogey from the middle of the fairway when he duffed his approach and watched as the ball came back down the slope at the front of the green.

For his third shot, he tried to hit a "smart" pitch, only for the ball to come back down again and it was a case of third time lucky in eventually finding the putting surface, only for him to two-putt. "All in all, I'm happy with that round. I've still no great confidence in my game and my putting saved me.

I'm struggling with my swing and the simple fact is that you have got to hit good iron shots around here.

"You've got to hit it in the fairway and into the right places," insisted Lawrie.

Meanwhile, Gary Murphy opened with a 74 and Paul McGinley - who bogeyed two of his last three holes - had a 75.

Murphy had set out with the intention of keeping a double bogey off his card, but succumbed on the 16th where, after putting his drive right of the fairway, he made what he termed "a rookie mistake" of attempting to cut the ball around trees out of the rough and to the pin. "It was a stupid shot," was his self assessment. Yet, he bounced back with a birdie on the 17th, which is a sign of Murphy's growing maturity.

The man who stole a march on everyone, though, was Jacobson. In the German Masters last month, the Swede opened with a round of 60 - he failed to hold on, the title eventually going to KJ Choi - and he put yesterday's 64 marginally behind it in terms of his best ever rounds.

"I didn't miss too many greens, and in this wind, that's a great benefit. But a few of my approach shots finished up really closer to the flag than you might expect and, when you get a few bonus birdies like that where you don't have to pick out the line and don't have to make a long putt, that's a bonus on a tough course."

Jacobson - with nine birdies and just one dropped shot - played as if the course at Valderrama held no fears for him. It may be a different story in assuming the role of front runner, and knowing that possible bad breaks await. It ain't over yet!