Padraig happy with Open venue

BRITISH OPEN: Pádraig Harrington has taken his first look at the Turnberry course on which he will try to become the first player…

BRITISH OPEN:Pádraig Harrington has taken his first look at the Turnberry course on which he will try to become the first player since Peter Thomson in 1956 to win three successive British Opens.

“It’s a super course – it’s lived up to expectations,” said the Dubliner. “There are not a huge amount of opportunities out there, but a lot of steady holes with difficult par threes.

“I have learned what the set-up will be like and what shots need to be practised and played, although the course will change over the next two months.

“From watching it on TV and hearing what other people have had to say, I knew it was a great course and I really like what I see.

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“I’m going to take it like any other major – winning them individually is big enough, but if they happen to come three years in a row well that’s very special.”

WOMEN:Sweden's Johanna Westerberg fired a career low round of seven-under 65 to lead by a stroke on day one at the German Open.

The seventh year tour player recorded seven birdies with five on the front nine and two on the back at Golfpark Gut Häusern near Munich, before play was cancelled for the day at due to torrential rain and thunderstorms.

Spain’s Emma Cabrera-Bello and Jade Schaeffer of France are a shot back on six under par, with Australian Karen Lunn, Italy’s Stefania Croce and Spain’s Paula Marti on five-under-par.

England’s Melissa Reid started the day with a hole-in-one at the fourth hole and finished on 68 alongside South Korean rookie Jessica Ji and Scotland’s Lynn Kenny.

Hazel Kavanagh shot 78.

CHAMPIONS TOUR:It was tale of two finishes for Scott Hoch and Tom Purtzer, but the final stories were the same at the 70th Senior PGA Championship.

Hoch bogeyed his final two holes, while Purtzer birdied two of his final five as the two carded four-under-par 66s to share the clubhouse lead at Canterbury Golf Club in Ohio.

IRISH PGA: Damien McGrane fired a five-under-par 65 to win the Dunmurry Pro-Am by two strokes from former Holywood amateur Darren McWilliams, Peter Martin and Simon Thornton.

The European Tour full-timer from Kells stayed away from the PGA Championship at Wentworth this week because of a family commitment today.

He reeled off five successive birdies, starting on the elevated green at the long fourth hole.