Harrington blitz

Nissan OpenEight birdies in the first 13 holes and 10 in all took Padraig Harrington to an eight-under-par 63 in the opening round of the US PGA Nissan Open at the Riviera Country C Pacific Palisades, California, yesterday.

Harrington held a three-shot lead over Phil Mickelson and Briny Baird as the morning players competed their rounds.

Harrington, who has never previously played the event, made birdies on his first three holes en route to a three-under-par 32 on the front nine after dropping a shot at the eighth.

However, he was quickly back on the birdie trail with four-in-a-row from the 10th. He droped ony his second shot at the par-three 14th, but again struck with birdies at the 15th and 16th in a homeward run of 31.

Phil Mickelson, who won last week's National Pro-Am at Pebble Beech by five shots, shot a flawless five-under-par 66 with halves of 32 and 34, while Baird shot seven birdies in his 66.

Jim Furyk shares fourth place with Cameron Beckman after both opened with 67s while Vijay Singh is among a group on 68.

USPGA NISSAN OPEN

(at the Riviera CC California)

Early first round scores

63 - Padraig Harrington (Irl)

66 - Phil Mickelson, Briny Baird

67- Jim Furyk, Cameron Beckman

68 - Eric Axley, Rod Pampling (Aus), Vijay Singh (Fiji)

69 - Bo Van Pelt, Robert Karlsson (Swe), Rory Sabbatini (Rsa), Will MacKenzie, David Toms, Rich Beem, Charley Hoffman , Steve Elkington (Aus), Ernie Els (Rsa),

70 - Richard S Johnson, Kevin Na, Trevor Immelman, JJ Henry, Stewart Cink, Brett Quigley, John Daly.

71 - Matt Kuchar, Nick O'Hern (Aus), Bill Haas, Craig Barlow, Ryuji Imada (Jpn), Steve Flesch, Billy Andrade, Mathew Goggin (Aus), Ben Crane, Jason Bohn , Vaughn Taylor, Retief Goosen (Rsa), Ken Duke, Johnson Wagner.