Garrido remains loudly confident

It was first blood to Spaniard Ignacio Garrido in the Ryder Cup race with Padraig Harrington when the Chem apol Czech Open began at the picturesque Karlstein course outside Prague yesterday. The 25-year-old from Madrid opened with a five-under-par 66 to take a share of third place, two behind surprise leader Scott Henderson from Aberdeen, who began with an eagle, and also had six birdies in his career-best 64.

Simon Hurley, from Bristol, also had an eagle and six birdies in taking second place on 65, while Harrington was in the group of 21 players who returned 69, thus ensuring the pace will remain hectic when the second round gets under way this morning.

Garrido and Harrington have just been handed invitations to compete in the US PGA Championship at Winged Foot next week, and it will be the first visit to the USA for the Spaniard.

He celebrated his call up with a confident performance that contained six birdies, and he is in no doubt that he will now follow father Antonio to Ryder Cup status in September. "I will make it easily now," he declared, "because I am playing well and I am putting even better."

Harrington's task is to keep pace, and match the Spaniard's infectious enthusiasm. But for the first nine holes yesterday the Stackstown professional looked as though he would rather have been elsewhere. Off the 10th tee at breakfast time, he had been forced to wait until almost the last minute to have his weak left ankle strapped because the Physiotherapy Unit had been late in opening.

The support was necessary because of the hilly nature of the Karlstein course, but it meant he had to curtail his putting practice and forego his usual snack just before starting to play.

All things that were in themselves trivial, but for a golfer under pressure to continually produce his best in order to gain a Ryder Cup place, disrupting to a familiar routine.

After starting with four pars, Harrington beat the card at the short 14th by holing from just off the green with his putter, but the bonus was immediately lost through three putts at the next.

He was further irritated because the bogey was only partially his fault. Players are handed a list of pin placings prior to teeing off, and that at the 15th showed the flag was nine yards on, and three yards from the left edge of the two-tier green. But a mistake had been made by PGA staff who had placed the pin on the right half of the green. Harrington's approach shot did not reach the upper plateau, and he found himself 70 feet from the hole.

"You could have boiled a kettle on the steam coming out of his ears when he realised the mistake," remarked caddie John O'Reilly.

By the turn, Harrington was in a better frame of mind, and though he missed a five-foot birdie chance on the 10th, he settled down to play solid golf. His reward came with two birdies in the last three holes, as he got down from 12 feet on the short sixth and then the ninth.

Darren Clarke's Ryder place is secure, but he also lacked momentum on a hot, drowsy afternoon, and there were only three birdies in his 69. Philip Walton also signed for two under par, thanks to a trio of birdie fours, while David Higgins, who played the course in a recent Challenge Tour event, was the best of the remainder with a 70.

Raymond Burns, Paul McGin ley and Christy O'Connor Jnr all took 72, while Eamonn Darcy and Ronan Rafferty were on 73.

Darcy was celebrating his 45th birthday, and was less than impressed with his surroundings. "It was a birthday spoilt by playing golf on the worst course I have ever seen," he said.