Padraig Harrington made a solid start with a four-under-par 68 in the first round of the Abu Dhabi Golf Championship at the Abu Dhabi Golf Club, United Arab Emirates yesterday.
However, Harrington trails Phillip Archer by five shots after the Englishman made 10 birdies and one bogey in a nine-under-par round of 63.
Archer is three shots clear at the top of a high quality leaderboard containing fellow Englishman Nick Dougherty, Retief Goosen and a lucky-to-be-alive Henrik Stenson, who was involved in a collision with a lorry while driving to the golf course.
As birdie putt after birdie putt bolted into the hole, Archer was inwardly congratulating himself on the decision to improve that element of his game after managing to keep his card at a pinch at the end of 2005.
He booked a consultation with Dr Paul Hurrion at the latter's "putting laboratory" near Birmingham, an establishment used by Harrington and David Howell among others, and last year improved 138 places on the putting statistics.
"It's common sense what he tells you what to do" explained Archer, who is now one of only 12 players on The European Tour to shoot 60.
"It's got me better in terms of my weight distribution over the ball and the big thing he changed was my grip. He's got me gripping with both palms facing each other, so my thumbs are basically the same height and it levels up my shoulders.
Dougherty is Archer's nearest challenger after carding a six-under 66 alongside tournament debutant Goosen and last year's runner-up Stenson.
Dougherty enjoyed a faultless round that included six birdies but he confessed he was not surprised by the display from Archer, insisting he was surprised he has not made more of a name of himself before.
"I wouldn't have thought I would be three behind," he said. "Phil played awesomely, he's a great guy.
"I've played practice rounds with him as well and he's just got a really solid golf game. You wonder where he's been until now."
Goosen was also happy with his performance on his return to golf after a month's break.
The South African carded the first eagle of the day on the par-five 18th and added four birdies to ensure a solid finish.
"I putted really well," he said. "I had 21 putts and that will always help your score. Otherwise I was hitting it a bit sideways. I hit a few good iron shots coming in and hopefully the rust will fall away as the week goes on."
Elsewhere Paul Lawrie hit three successive birdies from the first and then again from the 10th to card a five-under-par 67 alongside Gary Emerson.
Harrington had a mixed bag on the outward journey of 34 with birdies at the second, fourth, fifth and eighth and bogeys at the third and sixth.
Two more birdies at the 10th and 15th saw him home in 34 for his 68 while Peter Lawrie shot a one-under-par 71. Damien McGrane and Gary Murphy are a shot further back on level-par 72.
Defending champion Chris DiMarco made a solid start, carding a three-under-par 69 alongside Scotland's Colin Montgomerie, while there was slight disappointment for Paul Casey as he closed at just one under.
Stenson, second behind DiMarco last year, has enjoyed a chequered history with the Abu Dhabi Championship, having arrived in 2006 suffering from a back injury, picking up a virus on the first day, shooting a course record 62 on the Saturday and just missing out on the title on Sunday.
"I was feeling a bit sleepy in the morning but what happened woke me up" said Stenson, who was able to joke about his lucky escape. "I missed the road as I was driving to the course and had to take a detour. Not far from here, a lorry turned right across the traffic in front of me and I had to hit the brakes and just managed to avoid going into the side of it.
"I scratched my car and ended up in the sand off the road. I got here 45 minutes before my tee time instead of an hour and 45 minutes. The guy didn't speak English but said sorry and I had to leave the scene without waiting for the police. I didn't have many swings on the range so 66 was a good start after everything that happened."
