Garcia leads by two at Sawgrass

Padraig Harrington is six shots off the pace set by Spain's Sergio Garcia at the Players' Championship at Sawgrass in Florida.

The Dubliner birdied the first two holes of his round but could not maintain that momentum and bogeyed the fourth and seventh.

A birdie on the eighth meant he made the run at one under but again he slipped back to level par with a dropped shot on the par four 10th.

The Open champion finished with a birdie on the last after another dropped shot on the 17th the threatened a one-over-par round.

Garcia leads the American duo of Kenny Perry and Paul Goydos by two, with a quartet of players, including England's Ian Poulter and Sweden's Niclas Fasth on three-under-par.

Garcia is a fan of Sawgrass and speaking after his round compared the course to another favourite of his.

"I guess it just fits my eye," he told reporters. "You know, another course that I really like is Vaderrama, and it has got some similar looks to it with the tree line and some of the greens and the undulations on them and stuff like that, small greens. I guess that's probably one of the reasons.

The Spaniard has not won for almost three years on the PGA Tour but is not short of motivation. "Even if I would have won last week, I would still be as motivated trying to win this week, so that doesn't change. I don't think it changes for any of us."

Defending champion Phil Mickelson shot a 70 but was not surprised to see a lot of players shoot lower.

"I think that anything under par is a very good score. There were a decent amount of rounds under par. I don't think I was overly surprised. There's enough playability around the greens where you can salvage some pars and get up-and-down, but the golf course is not easy by any means. To go low out here is very difficult.

"I'm pleased to have shot under par and pleased to get off to a good, solid start," he added. "I feel as though I'm turning 66s into 70s and I'm going to have to fix that this weekend.

"I'm going to have to stop letting those shots slide in the middle of the round that are costing me in the end. But I would have taken anything under par starting the day."

Poulter, out in the first threesome of the day off the 10th tee, took good advantage of idyllic morning conditions.

He made two straight bogeys soon after the turn, but could hardly complain about a score that gave him a share of the early clubhouse lead with Australian Steve Elkington and American Heath Slocum.

"I made a couple of bogeys, which was frustrating, but you're going to make a couple of mistakes around this course and the mistakes I made were just single bogeys, which is nice, since I have been making double bogeys of late," said the 32-year-old from Buckinghamshire.

"I have been making an awful lot of bogeys lately. Last week I made 17 birdies and one eagle and shot two under par, which is insane."

Poulter birdied the famous island-green 17th as well as the tough par-four 18th to reach the turn at three under, before stumbling.

His first bogey, at his 12th hole, was a three-putt, which he described as a "silly mental error", while at the next hole he yanked a pitch from only 84 yards into a greenside bunker.

However, he finished strongly with two birdies in the final three holes. At the par-four seventh he rolled in a 20-footer, before hitting a wedge to six feet at the par-five ninth.

This week's tournament, with a £4.75million purse, is the richest in golf, but it also offers something else that has not gone unnoticed by Poulter.

"There are huge world ranking points and obviously that will contribute to the Ryder Cup standings, and that's obviously what I'm playing for this year, to make the side," he said.

Meanwhile, Masters champion Trevor Immelman pulled out before the round, after falling ill overnight. He began vomiting during the night and decided to return to home to Orlando, a two-hour drive down the road in central Florida.

Dustin Johnson joined Harrington on the tee after Immelman's withdrawal and shot a one-over-par 73.

Yeah, it was okay, solid," said Johnson, who played three practice rounds to familiarise himself with the course. "I made one bad hole, but other than that, I played pretty solid. It wasn't too bad.

"When I got the call I was happy that I got in. I mean, I was already prepared to play. It was pretty exciting."