PGA Irish Championship: Padraig Harrington epitomises the term professional in its truest sense, and that supersedes mere golfing ability.
Yesterday at St Margaret's Golf and Country club he fulfilled a commitment to play in this year's PGA Irish Championship - sponsored by Cuisine de France and Anglo-Irish Bank - the mental and physical rigours of a three-tournament schedule in America that culminated at Augusta National cast aside once he strode to the first tee.
The neck strain is becoming an increasingly minor niggle, easing on a daily basis, but could have been thrust forward to excuse any golfing aberrations.
It's not Harrington's way, nor is he simply content to lend his name to the tournament. There was nothing lackadaisical about his approach yesterday and that's a huge plus for the championship.
He noted: "I put the same effort in every time I hit a shot whether it's at Augusta or here. I go through the same routines and give 100 per cent, the same as I would at the Masters or in any tournament."
It wasn't difficult to discern Harrington's progress around the north Dublin parkland course as he commanded pretty much the only gallery, numbering about 100. A three-under-par 70 eased him to a position of prominence on the leaderboard - tied first - and offered a springboard for the weekend.
"I'm aware of the expectation but it's one thing to get into contention in a tournament but to actually win it is another thing. That round keeps me in the hunt. When the sun came out, about my 16th hole (he started on the 10th), it was very pleasant, very enjoyable, and I wanted to keep going."
His coach Bob Torrance accompanied Harrington, with whom he'll work over the next five days.
His round hardly got off to an auspicious start, with a bogey on the 11th after he'd taken three to get up and down from a greenside bunker.
He enjoyed better fortune from the sand at the next, getting up and down for birdie. At the 14th he missed from four feet but atoned at the 16th, holing a short birdie putt.
He managed to eradicate the errors after the turn, holing from five feet and three feet respectively on the first and third holes for birdies, and at the long par-five eighth he hit the green with a three-wood from 220 yards into a strong wind to set up a two-putt birdie.
Despite an assertion that he would ease back on the practice, an acknowledgement of his neck injury, he was to be found on the range hitting balls some three hours after completing his opening 18 holes.
One of a clutter of players to join Harrington on 70 was Raymie Burns. The Banbridge golfer, who also started at the 10th, was five under after 11 holes but bogeys on the fourth and ninth provided a slightly disappointing finish.
"Some day I hope to come off a golf course saying that I couldn't have played any better. Just once would be enough," he said.
"I'm happy enough with my game. I haven't played (competitively) in six months so I'll just be concentrating on putting four rounds together."
His Achilles heel has been his putting and it was that aspect of his game that would eventually cost him his European Tour card at the end of the 1998 season, when he finished 158th on the money list.
It was a far cry from the days when he won the Challenge Tour (1994, two wins) and then had three reasonably good seasons on the European Tour, including finishing fifth in Dubai in 1996. He had been a brilliant amateur, winning all five Boys' titles - Leinster, Munster, Ulster, Connacht and the Irish Boys title - in one season.
He played Walker Cup alongside Harrington in 1993, played in the Eisenhower Trophy and won back-to-back East of Ireland titles before turning professional.
Eighteen months ago, at a low ebb in terms of his game, he went to Brendan McDaid and underwent a complete swing reconstruction. In a bid to improve his short game he recently headed for the Dave Pelz School in Florida.
A belly putter has given him confidence on the greens, a feeling he'll hope to sustain through this tournament and when he plays on the EuroPro tour this season.
He famously described starting out in professional golf as "like going into a gunfight with a knife. That's how it is. You are very much on your own out there and people get hurt."
Older, at 30, and more comfortable with his game, he has made a serious commitment to trying to regain European Tour status. Having tasted life among golf's elite, Burns is keen on a second helping. St Margaret's could be the start of a new beginning.
