In europe, for much of this year, it has seemed that Retief Goosen has had some sort of infallibility bestowed on him. Certainly, after yesterday's first three holes, Padraig Harrington - playing alongside him in the first round of the Volvo Masters at Montecastillo - must have felt as if he'd been sucked into the slipstream of someone playing like a human golfing god.

Goosen, on his coronation as Europe's number one, was four under par after three holes, the result of a birdie, birdie, eagle start.

On the fourth tee, however, Goosen - who is unbelievably brilliant when he is good and, quite simply, rotten when he is bad - showed he is merely human by pushing his drive 25 yards right of the fairway on to a cart path and over the boundary fence.

By day's end, with the sun setting and shadows lengthening, Harrington's 67 was one better than the score recorded by The Goose.

Neither man was unduly happy, however. For Harrington it was a case of beating a well-worn track to the practise range, and a phone call to his coach Bob Torrance, to figure out a few chinks.

"There were times out there my arms and legs didn't know what my body was doing," remarked Harrington.

In truth, he was probably being over-hard on himself.

After a long, trying day in the sun - with the temperature tipping the high 20s - Harrington was only three shots adrift of first round leader Ian Poulter, of England; two behind second placed Peter Lonard, and one behind third placed Paul McGinley.

Darren Clarke, meanwhile, continued to have problems with his putting and, having turned in one-over, at least salvaged something on the homeward run to sign for a 70.

Harrington, meanwhile, spent the first holes hanging on to Goosen's coat-tails before taking the upper hand. On the ninth, the Irishman hit a huge drive up the middle of the par five, a hole of 517 yards, and then hit the most magnificent five-wood approach to 15 feet. Had the eagle putt dropped, Harrington would have been out in 30; it didn't, but the momentum seemed to continue when, using his new Odyssey putter, he holed a 15-footer for birdie on the 10th to move to six-under.

At that stage, with two par fives to come, it seemed Harrington would become the main challenge to Poulter's clubhouse lead. But a loose approach to the 12th, where his three-wood shot actually hit off the cliff face before rebounding back down to greenside (he failed to get up and down for birdie), was the first sign of problems to come..

On the next hole they arrived.

Harrington used his three-wood off the tee and the ball flew to the right and into bushes. A search proved fruitful in the sense that he found four balls, but none of them was his - and so he had to play his provisional ball from the fairway, and ended up with a double bogey six.

He had to wait for the 16th - where he two-putted from 20 feet - for his only other birdie, and it was with a touch of frustration that he signed for a 67.

Generally, though, it was a good day for scoring. With barely a breath of wind, and greens that were receptive if a little bumpy in places, Poulter was the one who made most of the conditions. Having put so much into his failed quest to make the Ryder Cup team, he has taken some time out in recent weeks and gone back to an old putter. He could even manage to take a penalty drop on the ninth, where he put a ball into a bush, and avoid dropping a shot in a round that featured six birdies and an eagle.

The eagle came on the 16th, a 517-yard par five but by far the easiest hole on the course. Poulter's seven-iron approach finished 15 feet from the pin and he rolled in the eagle putt.

His work wasn't finished yet, however, as he holed a 20-footer for birdie on the 17th.

For others, though, it was extremely frustrating. For much of the past decade, Colin Montgomerie has come to the season-ending tournament ready to be crowned king of European golf.

Yesterday, in the role of bit player, he shot a 71 which included a double-bogey six on the 17th and much arguing with a referee over the decision.

There were no such histrionics from Clarke, whose problems recur again and again on the greens. "It has been the same old story for the entire second part of the season," said Clarke. "I am finding it hard to get the ball into the hole and, then, if I do something right, I just hand it straight back."

A case in point came towards the end of his round when, after a drive and seven-iron approach to eight feet gave him an eagle on the 16th, he then three-putted from 20 feet for bogey on the 17th.