PHILIP REIDfollowed along as last Sunday's duellists picked up right where they had left it at Akron

TIGER WOODS stood on the back of the 10th tee and watched the man who would be his rival push the tee into the grass. Pádraig Harrington, whose last action before moving to centre stage on the tee-box had been to superstitiously tie his shoe laces, didn’t look behind him. The game was on again, just as if there had been no break from their duel in Akron on Sunday.

“On the tee, the defending PGA champion, from Ireland . . . Pádraig Harrington,” declared the announcer, before Harrington set the trend for the day by smashing a drive to the middle of the fairway.

The announcer fidgeted with his notes. “Next on the tee, the 2002 PGA champion, from Texas . . . Rich Beem.”

The roars from spectators crammed outside the ropes usurped the announcer for his next job. “Now,” he said, licking his lips with anticipation, “on the tee, the 1999, 2000, 2006 and 2007 PGA champion, from Windemere, Florida . . . Tiger Woods.”

And Woods unleashed one of his favoured stingers, a three-wood so low you could hear the whiz of the ball as it found a home inches off the fairway in the intermediate cut.

The game was on, and what a game it turned out to be. Maybe Harrington, whose season had seemed to resemble a child lost in a shopping mall for so long, is having the last laugh on all the doubters and prophets of doom.

If anyone had any doubts about Harrington’s capability to recover from his nightmare 16th hole in the Bridgestone and the ensuing controversy over himself and Woods been put on the clock, they didn’t have to wait long for a sign of his intensity. As he walked from the 10th green, the stare – the same one that encapsulated his final-round charge a year ago at Oakland Hills when he claimed the Wanamaker Trophy – was back. But not just for golf.

In making the short journey from the 10th green to the 11th tee, Harrington spied a young fan behind the ropes and threw him the Titleist with which he had started his round with a par.

The boy wasn’t quick enough. A man in the 50s reached out and grabbed the ball, whooping and hollering as if he’d won the lottery. Harrington stopped in his tracks, stared at the man, and uttered one word – “Hello???” – and waited until the ball was handed over to its intended recipient. The message had been sent out: don’t mess with me.

This first round of the USPGA was perfect for Harrington and Woods, who continued the momentum of their duel in Akron, and Beem – to shouts from the gallery of, “remember Beemer, you’re the winner around here” – who caught up with the pace after a slow start.

On their second, the 11th green, the three were left shaking their heads in disbelief when Spain’s Alvaro Quiros – in the match behind – reached the front of the putting surface of the 606-yard hole with his second shot. Quiros, embarrassed, raised his hands some 300 yards away in apology; and then split away from his playing partners to make a personal apology to Woods and Co as they moved to the 12th tee.

“You’ve nothing to apologise for,” said Woods, “that was a great shot.”

Everyone wanted to look at this evolving rivalry between Woods and Harrington. Even Elin – Mrs Woods – made a rare appearance out on the course, by the 15th green. Caroline Harrington, as usual, walked – part of the crowd – for the 18 holes.

From start to finish, the crowd, including the chief of police from Prior Lake who had managed to be part of the accompanying detail, were enthralled by this opening gambit in the quest for a Wanamaker which all three players have been custodians of in their time.

At one point, Beem – the forgotten man as necks strained to see Woods and, increasingly, Harrington – made a point of letting everyone know he hadn’t gone away. He reeled off successive birdies from the 16th to the 18th, where he almost holed his approach shot. It finished no more than two inches from the cup for the easiest of tap-ins.

But Beem wasn’t able to maintain that charge – finishing with a 71 that at least left a smile on his face.

Woods moved to the very top of the leaderboard and Harrington clung to his coat-tails, finishing just a shot adrift. For now.

No one would object if there were another three days of the same to follow.