The European Club was an oasis of sunshine, a picture postcard homily to classic links terrain. For the second day in succession the relatively benign conditions offered an idyllic golfing theatre, framed by dunes and sea shore, and once again it was Padraig Harrington who took centre stage at the Irish PGA Championship.

The world number 10 played quite beautifully, his progress a welter of fairways and greens, and, while prone to the odd errant shot, he succumbed to just a single bogey and that was on the eighth, when he pushed a seven-iron second shot right of the green and failed to get up and down.

A three-under-par 68 allowed him to open a two-shot advantage on Headfort professional Brendan McGovern, who shot a 70, and three on his playing partner for the first two rounds, David Higgins, also 70, the only other golfers under regulation figures heading into the final 36 holes.

Harrington bore the smile of a contented man. "Yeah, most of the day (my ball striking) was pretty good. I hit it well off the tee and got it into play a lot. I created a number of chances, took a few birdies here and there and was happy to be four under.

"I was a little bit disappointed to bogey my second last hole (the eighth) from the middle of the fairway. Those are the ones I'm here to work on and a reminder of what I'm here to do."

The singular focus he craves over ever shot was largely prevalent, and he coped admirably with the distractions of a 100-strong gallery that owed more to golf's amateur sibling, as Harrington led them around the links. It's not often golf enthusiasts get to stand shoulder to shoulder in the workplace with Ireland's premier exponent of the game.

His entourage provoked a personal recollection in relation to his late father, Paddy.

"It's very nice, very pleasant down here. The weather is lovely. It has the feel of my amateur days with the crowds walking the fairways. I did actually say out there, and it is one of the few times that I have been out on the golf course that I miss my dad.

"It'd be a similar situation in that he would be following on - if he wasn't caddying - in the crowds very close by. As a pro I don't get to experience that because of the ropes and (the fact) we are a little bit distant from the crowds. There is no hiding out here today."

Harrington's closest pursuer, McGovern, showed admirable mettle in recovering from a lost ball off his tee-shot on the 17th (his eighth hole) to register a double bogey, to keep nudging forward on the leaderboard.

"Basically I didn't let it affect the rest of the game. I'm playing my game. Padraig is a different league and a class act."

Higgins is a shot further back on two under for the tournament and professed himself "happy" with his game, before adding with a smile that he would like a little bit more wind for the final 36 holes.

The long-time leader in the clubhouse by virtue of the fact he was one of the early starters yesterday morning was Noel Fox, who is on level par.

Weaned on the links of Portmarnock, Fox relishes this particular environment. "The place is perfect. If you hit it on the fairways, you can do anything with your iron shots, spin it or whatever. It's flawless, pristine. You won't find better fairways anywhere on the globe.

"Having said that, all you need is for the wind to pick up 10 miles an hour, to blow across the golf course and then it is a totally different animal. Pretty much all the tough holes are either into a light breeze or just down breeze. Those fairways are going to be tough to hit when there's a cross-wind."

One person who isn't too chipper is Athenry's Michael Mulryan. His latest setback - he didn't show for British Open qualifying because of a family matter and faces R&A censure - was a set of stolen clubs, taken from his car outside a friend's apartment in Foley Street near Connolly station.

"The clubs were in the boot. I had the woods on the back seat and as a precaution I took them out of the back seat and put them in the boot. They must have seen me."

The thieves made off with all his gear, including his caddie's waterproofs, a haul worth over €2,000. He ended up having to borrow his playing partner's caddie's woods and wedges and Philip Walton's caddie's irons and putter.

He missed the cut by a shot.