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Opening 75 leaves Harrington with plenty of work to do

EUROPEAN TOUR : Pádraig Harrington shot a disappointing three-over par 75 in his opening round at the Austrian Open in Atzenbrugg…

Fri Sept 23 2011 - 01:00

EUROPEAN TOUR: Pádraig Harrington shot a disappointing three-over par 75 in his opening round at the Austrian Open in Atzenbrugg yesterday.

Welshman Liam Bond set the pace with a 66 to leave Harrington with plenty of work to do.

“It was a disappointing finish. Having played the first eight holes in two under you are in a good position and I had a couple of downwind par fives coming in,” said Harrington. But I broke my five wood yesterday and put a new one in the bag today and it cost me four shots. I put it in the water twice today.

“It was the same five wood that I hit the shot into the 17th at Birkdale in 2008. That was a pity and then it was a pity to finish badly as well. I hit a terrible tee shot into the 16th . . . I couldn’t have been happier with how I drove the ball today and that has been the weakest part of my game for a while . . . but if you look at the round today it was a couple of five woods and the putting that did me in.”

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Gary Murphy (72) was the best of the six-strong Irish contingent, Damien McGrane shot a 74 and Michael McGeady and Jonathan Caldwell joined Harrington on 75. Walker Cup hero Paul Cutler shot a disappointing opening 77.

US TOUR: USPGA champion Keegan Bradley shot a six-under-par 64 to take a two-shot lead over the field when thunder storms stopped play at the Tour Championship at the East Lake GC in Atlanta. Jason Dufner and Chez Reavie were in in second place after shooting 66s.

EUROPEAN SENIOR TOUR: Des Smyth lies three shots off the pace after a three under par 69 in the opening round of the Cannes Mougins Masters.

Smyth recovered from a bogey on the first hole to fire four birdies and an eagle three on the eighth hole before dropping another shot on the ninth to reach the turn in four under par 32.

Bogeys stalled his momentum on the 12th and 13th but another birdie on the 16th saw him keep his playing partner Mike Harwood and fellow joint leaders Marc Farry and Bruce Vaughan in his sights. Harwood fired four birdies and an eagle en route to his opening 66, while defending champion Farry hit that total with five birdies and an eagle on the 14th hole. Former Senior Open champion Vaughan then joined them at the top of the leaderboard when he birdied the last.

CHALLENGE TOUR: Simon Thornton got his quest for Challenge Tour glory off to a decent start in the south of France when an opening five under par 66 left him inside the top 10 after the first round of the Golf Open Grand Toulouse.

The 34-year-old produced a flawless card at Golf de Toulouse-Seilh with five birdies and no dropped shots to lie four shots adrift of leader Christophe Brazillier of France who posted a 62.

TOUR QUALIFYING SCHOOL: Stephen Grant's slim hopes of progressing were virtually dashed at Fleesensee in Germany yesterday when he slipped to a three-over par 75 in his third round. He is languishing in joint 39th place some five strokes outside the top crucial top 15 and is 13 strokes behind leader Christoffer Lange of Denmark. Cian Curley and Shane Franklin are further down the field and well out of contention. At Wychwood Park the Irish fared even worse with Ross Oliver who had moved into contention with an opening 69 slumping to a 77 and out of contention on 222. Matt McAlpine is on 223 with Damian Mooney on 226, Chris Hughes 230 and Andrew Hogan 231.