Philip Reidwatched as Pádraig Harrington sank an outrageous 40-foot putt from off the 18th green to put a spring back in his step.

THE BUG is infectious, and everyone - from the tour player to the society hacker - has a shot that, after a tough old day at the open-air office, brings him back again with a spring in his step.

Yesterday, for Pádraig Harrington, that moment was perfectly timed. It came on the 18th hole, not long after he had incurred a soft three-putt bogey on the infamous island-green 17th at Sawgrass.

"I was miserable walking off the 17th," confided Harrington.

His misery was short-lived, however. On the 18th, as if to prove that the gods take with one hand and give with the other, he holed a 40-footer from off the green to finish with a birdie for level-par 72.

That birdie typified a real swings-and-roundabouts kind of day for the Dubliner, who started his round with a chip-in birdie on the first and an up-and-down from a greenside bunker on the par-five second.

It was a flying start that didn't have the desired effect of allowing Harrington to kick on.

Instead, with the wind swirling, his first competitive round in three weeks turned into something of a grind that combined four bogeys with four birdies.

It was Harrington's first outing since a tied-fifth appearance at the Masters last month. Was there a lack of sharpness?

"No, I'm sharp enough. I made sure I prepared reasonably well at home last week and I felt good . . . it's just that I struggled with the wind and I'm working on the principal that, over 72 holes, I'm going to have swirling winds that don't go in my favour but over the week, if I stay patient, should even itself out. One of these days, my approach shots will all be the right distance."

What did bother Harrington was that, after he had scrambled to save pars on a number of holes, the four bogeys - which came on the fourth, where there was a wicked pin placement, the seventh, 10th and 17th - were given away a bit cheaply.

"I was in a good frame of mind all day but three-putting the 10th and 17th was disappointing. I was disappointed to give up those shots so easily because, to be honest, those four bogeys came in positions where I wasn't in the worst trouble," he claimed.

Still, even after a poor three-putt on the 17th, Harrington salvaged something with his birdie on the 18th.

It was an outrageous birdie, his approach missing the green to the right. Crucially, he was able to use his putter.

"I was trying to hit the best putt I could, to try to get it stone dead. In my mind's eye, I could see it rolling into the hole. But the only reason I was convincing myself I was going to roll it into the hole was to try and get it there so close that I could tap it in."

And, fittingly, the ball bounced off his putter head, negotiated a mound, ran onto the green and was destined to find the tin cup from a long way away.

The crowd in the bleachers around the 18th gave the effort the deserved acclaim.

"I was miserable walking off the 17th and I was happy walking off the 18th. If I had two-putted both of them, I wouldn't have had the highs and the lows."

Harrington's three-week break ahead of the Players is the longest he will have for the rest of the season.

"There's a lot of tournaments ahead, and the break was needed," he explained.

"You get more done if you take that extra week. If you just take a week, you get nothing done. If you take two weeks, you tend to rush things. If you take three, you get everything done at a reasonable pace. But I only have one more two-week break before December; all the rest are single weeks. So I'm glad I took that extra week for here."