Early starters make most of conditions

Finally the weather gods have shed some sunlight on a golf event in Ireland and the early starters on the third morning of the European Open wasted little time taking advantage of such relatively benign conditions.

David Higgins was one of only three Irishmen who made the halfway cut last night. The Waterville man, playing on a sponsor's invite, kept his nerve to card a bogey-free second round 68 to make to survive the weekend on the cut mark of one over.

From there he forged ahead to reach the turn in three under 33 today. Another birdie at the 10th was followed by a rocky patch of three bogeys-in-a-row but he battled well to sign for another 68 to be one-under for the tournament.

That lead is held by little-known Swede Pelle Edberg, whose 65 yesterday was enough to keep the 28-year-old one shot ahead of Colin Montgomerie, who shot a best of the day 64, and fellow Swede Niclas Fasth (68).

The fact is the Smurfit Course is exposed after overnight rain, followed by calm morning conditions, mean the players can pick off pins on receptive greens with relative ease. With the high quality putting surfaces still intact, birdies, as opposed to a struggle for pars, became the currency at present.

There was nobody better than Argentina's Ricardo Gonzalez who went round in a flawless 64 to get to five-under.

Padraig Harrington and Graeme McDowell started the day as the best-placed Irishmen on one-under. McDowell set off with former US Open champion Michael Campbell and was quickly out of the block with a chip-in eagle three at the third. The Portrush pro birdied the seventh and was four-under through 10 holes.

Harrington's pace was a little more pedestrian with two birdies and one bogey to be two under through six holes.

The final group is an all Swedish affair with Edberg and Fasth due to take to the course at 1.50pm.

European Tour officials opted to keep the 18th as a par three, just as they have done for the first two days, instead of reverting it back to the normal par five. The change is due to unplayable conditions in the landing area after such heavy downpours.