US Tour: England's David Howell birdied the last three holes to grab the early first-round lead in the Barclays Classic at Westchester yesterday as Padraig Harrington made a disappointing start with a three-over-par 74.

Harrington, who lost a play-off to Garcia two years ago and then last June pipped Jim Furyk to the title with a dramatic 66-foot eagle putt on the final green, had double bogeys at both the fifth and short 14th.

Birdies at the third and seventh were cancelled out by a double bogey at the fifth in a first nine of 36 and despite a birdie two on the 16th, four dropped shots in three holes from the 13th saw the Stackstown man home in 38.

Meanwhile, just four days after completing a nightmare round of 83 to fall out of contention for the Memorial tournament in Ohio, Howell, the European Tour number one, returned a five-under-par 66 that contained no fewer than eight birdies.

The last of them came when he two-putted from over 90 feet at the 505-yard ninth and that gave Howell a one-stroke advantage over Swede Fredrik Jacobson in the final warm-up event for next week's US Open.

It could have been even better for world number 10 Howell. He had a 25-foot birdie chance on the long fifth - his 14th - but three-putted for a bogey six.

American Ryder Cup captain Tom Lehman had earlier threatened to be the story of the day, but after reaching six under he bogeyed the same three closing holes which Howell then birdied.

Graeme McDowell, who on Monday came through a qualifying tournament for next week's US Open, finished with birdies at the 17th and 18th for a one-under-par 70.

CHALLENGE TOUR: Mikko Korhonen, a rock music fan from the land of Eurovision Song Contest winners, Lordi, aims to become the next big noise to emerge from Finland after grabbing a share of the first round lead in the Thomas Björn Open at Horsens GK in Denmark.

The 25-year-old European Challenge Tour rookie from Helsinki birdied four of the last seven holes to move into a tie for the lead with Manchester-based South African, Michiel Botham, and Sweden's Raimo Sjöberg on 68, four under par.

However, the Irish trio of Danny Sugrue, Justin Kehoe and Tim Rice had a disappointing open day.

Sugrue finished best but is on four-over-par 76, Kehoe is two shots back on seven-over-par 79, while Rice has a lot of work to do if he is to take the halfway cut after posting an 81.