What's the measure of Southern Hills golf course? Padraig Harrington is still making up his mind after his first serious day of work here yesterday. He carved out his performance with a coalminer's perseverance but a sculptor's vision and in the end was poorly rewarded by the 73 he had to display.

His day working the seam began early and it began badly. The sun was dodging clouds and a mischievous breeze was blowing when Harrington left the clubhouse. Reared on the wind and aware that the greens here had been well watered, he could hardly have asked for more.

Southern Hills begins with a temptation though. The first is a juicy, attractive hole with an elevated tee and a vulnerable looking green. Like about half the field, Harrington got sucked in by its charms. That cost him a bogey while he could still taste the toothpaste in his mouth.

He got his shoulder into the work after that, pulling pars through to the eighth where he lost a shot on an ungenerous par three. Back to business. He's hitting well, hitting well all day. It's just that the gap between plan and score is a tough one to judge.

"Off the tee I only used the driver six times in all out there, I used a lot of three woods. Despite what people say it's not really a big hitter's course - it's a straight hitter's course. I think I made the first 13 greens in regulation. I was hitting the middle of the green, staying under the flag mostly which is what I had planned to do, but . . ."

On 12 it seems like his day has begun. He makes the green in two shots of dreamlike simplicity and then pops in a nice six-footer. One over with six to play.

You've never seen a man work harder at his craft than Harrington does over the next few holes. He works his game like a fisherman keeping his boat afloat in a swell. On 13 his second finds the bunker. He needs a good chip to 10 feet and gets down in two for his par.

Next hole, he's surprisingly long off the tee. Bunker-back-left-of-the-green long in fact. His shot out scurries cautiously across the green and holds five feet from the hole. Par.

Fifteen and another bunker rushes out of nowhere to field his ball. This from the tee shot. His second is met by bad luck, spinning violently when it lands in a valley and running into the rough and a little divot. From a cabbage patch of a lie he hits a wondrous third just right but the green rejects it and he rolls back past the pin and keeps rolling. Thirty foot of punishment. He gets out with a bogey.

On the 16th, the longest par four in US Open History (they tell you this as if it's a rollercoaster ride - it is) he plays a fine drive. The green isn't easily approached. His second shot is a brave attempt to overfly the front bunker. It slips into the back bunker like mercury running down a shaving mirror into an enamel sink. The rollercoaster claims another shot.

So it goes. Seventeen and 18 are adventures too but he doesn't take on any more water. He comes in drained and philosophical.

"Seventy three" he says. "It's not bad but it's by no means good. I went out there to shoot a 70 and it's three off where I hoped to be, but I have a 73 now and there isn't anything I can do about it."

He has no heavy complaints to bring with him to his afternoon of practice. The heat was there but it was tolerable once he stayed hydrated, there was a little wind, the greens were soft, softer than he's ever seen at a US Open and the notorious skating rinks of nine and 18 had been left generously uncut to give human kind some chance. And he got his work done before the weather warnings began.

The tricks of the trade as it is practised here, well, he's still learning.

"The greens, yeah, they are intimidating. There weren't a lot of shots when I was striking the middle of the putter, you don't have a putt from 20 feet and think about dropping it in; you're thinking about rolling it down around there. You end up hitting a lot of weak efforts. But I'm not going to change the gameplan. I'll do a little practice but not tire myself out and I'll come back and try to play the same game tomorrow."

"It's tough" he says, looking back out across the monster, "it wears you down. Personally though I thought Congressional (Maryland) was tougher but I've changed since then, I'm a different golfer. A lot of the guys are complaining about it and the wind was out today but I don't mind that too much. You just have to keep concentrating."

On Wednesday night Harrington went to a local cinema to relax himself by watching Return of the Mummy. If he unwinds properly this week he should be just as scary.