Molinari makes it look all too easy at Baltray

GOLF IRISH OPEN: GOLF IS not rocket science. The aim, in the main, is to hit the ball, find it, and hit it again.

Yet, there are days, such as that experienced at Baltray yesterday, where the first round of the 3 Irish Open produced a myriad of starkly contrasting scores, that would make you wonder if the golfing gods have a sinister motive in making the game easy for some and horribly difficult for others.

Yesterday, for example, Francesco Molinari – a talented but under-achieving Italian, with just one tour win in almost five years as a tour professional – conquered the Co Louth links with a display of near-perfection, firing an opening 63, nine under, to claim the first-round lead.

It was festive stuff, the perfect antidote to the dark clouds and persistent rain that accosted the course for much of a dank and miserable day.

In contrast, on an opening day when 89 players bettered par, Pádraig Harrington – a triple-major winner playing on home turf – struggled to 73, all of 10 shots worse off.

Go figure!

For sure, this was a remarkable first round. With an estimated 15,000 spectators trampling over the sand dunes, the vast majority dressed appropriately for the weather with winter woollies and raingear rather than sun cream the order of the day, Molinari and others made the game look easy.

At day’s end, the 26-year-old Italian held a one-stroke lead over Sweden’s Johan Edfors, with a quintet of players a shot further adrift.

The plethora of birdies, with the par fives devoured by most players and the third hole averaging 4.3 to be ranked as the easiest hole of all, ensured a buzz reminiscent of the old Irish Open days.

The mood had been set from early, with Rory McIlroy – among the earlier starters and commanding a sizeable gallery – negotiating his way to an opening 69, although the honour of leading the Irish challenge after the first round fell to Ireland’s leading amateur, Shane Lowry, who finished with a 67.

McIlroy opted to drive home to Holywood after his round – “my house is only an hour and 10 minutes from here” – so he could work with his coach, Michael Bannon, on correcting a tendency to leak shots to the right.

“I just want to put myself in position (to contend). If I can go about my business and improve a little day by day and play the way I know I can, I know I will be in the mix come Sunday,” he said.

There was a different vibe from Harrington, who finished his round searching in vain for a ball on the 18th. A lost ball pretty much summed up the Dubliner’s day, which had started with a change of travel plans from a helicopter to car because of the poor weather conditions. A 16-minute helicopter ride became a 90-minute road trip. By the end of his round, having signed for a 73 that left him in tied-107th position, Harrington had that look of someone unsure of what would happen next.

“Any time I (was) thinking of moving forward, I ended up moving backwards. It’s kind of like that at the moment. I just have to stay patient and work my way through these things,” said Harrington, who only managed to find three of 14 fairways off the tee. “It’s just a question of waiting it out and being patient.”

While the vast majority of players used the par fives as the basis for a good round, Harrington was two over on them.

“That’s the nature of the game at times, that’s the way the game goes. Some days it just doesn’t go with you. On a good day, everything goes with you and you are on top of the world,” remarked Harrington, whose woes were demonstrated by his bogey on the 18th, where his three-wood approach off a downslope was pushed into the right rough never to be seen again.

Now, Harrington faces an uphill battle if he is to survive the midway cut.

Was he depressed?

“It would be easy to go that way. This game goes in ebbs and flows and in three months’ time I could be on top of the world. So I’m not going to worry about not having a good run . . . the only thing that wasn’t positive about today was the score.”

Molinari, in contrast, had one of those days that all golfers dream about.

His course record 63 featured an eagle – on the third, where he hit a five-iron approach to 30 feet – and eight birdies with just one dropped shot.

His round included a run of four straight birdies, from the 12th, and a closing birdie on the 18th, where he chipped to three feet, enabling him to better Edfors by a shot.

In last week’s Italian Open on his home course, Molinari had finished with a 65 to secure a tied-sixth finish. It was evidence of a player playing with great confidence. Here, on links terrain, he brought that momentum.

“I played a lot of links golf as an amateur, but not in the last four or five years . . . it’s just a matter of getting used to it again. We don’t play much links golf on tour. I enjoy playing links, and I enjoyed it a lot today.”

He certainly did. But there are a lot of players ready to pounce over the next three days.