TPC of Europe: The trick, or so they say, when hunting a tiger is to do so with stealth; and it helps if there is an element of surprise, writes Philip Reid Hamburg

Yesterday morning, on the sort of windy, overcast day that could just as easily have belonged to an Irish winter, Padraig Harrington announced his arrival on the tee, for the first round of the Deutsche Bank-SAP Open TPC of Europe at Gut Kaden Golf Club, near Hamburg, with a cheery greeting and firm handshake for the world number one Tiger Woods.

It was a far from quiet arrival, hardly the type that a grizzled old hunter would have opted for. But it was one entirely in keeping with Harrington's thoroughly affable character, making everyone feel at home, and it was one that worked. The tiger was tamed, if only temporarily.

Just over four-and-a-half hours later, as Harrington rolled in a 12 foot birdie putt on the ninth green - his 18th hole, and the seventh birdie of a bogey-free round of seven-under-par 65 - it was Woods's turn to proffer a wisecrack and a firm, congratulatory handshake, for the Irishman had just outscored him by four strokes.

In many ways, there and then, it was a case of "Game On!" Harrington, though, is nobody's fool. He may have looked the tiger in the eye yesterday, but the game is only one-quarter played. "There's a long way to go yet," insisted Harrington, who was later joined as first round leader by Retief Goosen, his nemesis in last season's quest for the Volvo Order of Merit.

Indeed, on the three previous occasions that Woods has won this title, he has opened with a 69.

All in all, it was a good day for the Irish competitors in an event that has €450,000 on offer to the winner. Harrington led the way while proving that a week is a long time in golf - yesterday's round comprised of only 26 putts compared to the 35 he accumulated in his dismal final round of the International Open at The Belfry last Sunday.

Darren Clarke and Peter Lawrie also confirmed their liking for the flat layout to shoot 67s, sharing third place with Peter Baker, and trail the co-leaders by two shots.

Golf can be a strange game, with no rhyme or reason as to why putts go in one day and don't another. The putter that proved troublesome at The Belfry was like a magic wand yesterday. "Gosh, he made two long bombs and everything else he needed to," remarked Woods of Harrington's putting, before expanding on the reason for Harrington's emergence as one of the game's top players.

"He's more consistent than he used to be," explained Woods. "His bad shots aren't as bad as they were, and that's what we all try to do, to try to narrow the dispersion pattern. And he has made a good job of that. He's worked hard on his game and he's now showing the results of that."

Off the tee, ironically, Harrington struggled - only finding seven of 14 fairways - and there were times he resorted to a three-wood simply so that he could keep the ball in play. Before the tournament started, there were fears that the diseased greens would throw balls off line. But Harrington could do no wrong once he found the putting surface. "It got to the stage where it didn't make a huge difference whether I read them well or read them badly, if I hit them well or hit them badly . . . they just went in," he said.

There was to be no dropped shot from Harrington, always a good sign in terms of a player's ability to remain focused - "there was plenty of talking going on with Tiger," he said, "it was a really relaxed day . . . but you'll see the difference on a Sunday. Players don't talk."

And while his confidence is pretty low off the tee, and he is puzzled as to why he is not generating too much power, there were similarities with the Players' Championship at Sawgrass in the way the Dubliner used his short game to contrive a score.

Harrington had seven birdies, the first - having started on the 10th - arriving on the 12th where he rolled in a 20-footer. This was followed by an eight-footer on the 13th; a 45-footer on the 15th, and a 15-footer on the 16th. On his back nine, he had to work hard. After reaching the green on the par five third in two - hitting a five-wood approach to 40 feet and two-putting for birdie - he was forced to make a sand save on the fifth and then hole par saving putts of eight feet on the sixth and seventh before finishing with a flourish.

If Harrington showed stealth, so too did Lawrie who has grown in confidence since his recent second place finish in the Spanish Open. "I played steady, just kept hitting it close," explained Lawrie. "I'm just taking things shot by shot, not forcing anything and whatever is in there is coming out."

This is the first time that Lawrie has played in the same tournament as world number one Woods, and he is relishing it all. The key to his scoring was precision approach play and it was some feat that apart from a chip-in birdie from 15 feet on the 16th hole - his seventh, having started on the 10th - the longest birdie putt he holed with his putter was from three feet. A three-footer on the 14th started a sequence of three successive birdies and he added a further two on the third and ninth, his finishing hole.

Graeme McDowell's stop-start season, which has seen him miss three cuts in six events on the European Tour, showed signs of steadying up as he played solidly in opening with a 70, while Paul McGinley - who had two birdies and a bogey, confirming his assessment that he "has yet to hit the birdie trail this season" - shot a 71.