Padraig Harrington demonstrated his fondness of the Club de Campo course when he opened with an eight-under par 63 to move into a familiar position at the top of the leaderboard in the Telefonica Madrid Open today.
The Dubliner, seven times a runner-up this season, aims to defend his title from 12 months ago - the last time he won. It is also the same venue where Harrington claimed his first professional title when the event was held here in his rookie season in 1996.
The highlight of Harrington’s record-equalling round came by way of an eagle three at the 540-yard seventh that formed part of his front nine in four-under (32).
A pair of birdies at the start of the inward half with two more before signing-off gave Harrington an early one shot lead from Scotland’s Stephen Gallacher.
South African Retief Goosen took a step closer to becoming the first non-European to win the Order of Merit title since Greg Norman won it in 1982 with an opening five-under par 66.
The US Open champion had a flawless round that was simply made up of five birdies and 13 pars. It will now be virtually impossible for Darren Clarke, his nearest challenger, to catch him.
Clarke is among the afternoon starters teeing-off at 1.40 p.m. The two remaining Irish participants, Des Smyth and Davis Higgins, will have started their rounds in the same group half an hour earlier.
Although Harrington has won over Stg£1million in prize money, he will not look back with much contentment unless he wins at least one tournament this season. He was disgusted with himself for losing the final of the World Matchplay to Ian Woosnam a fortnight ago.
He blames that on forgetting to eat. "One of my old habits is that I lose concentration when I don't eat properly, and that's what happened against Woosie," said Harrington.
"I eat bananas or energy bars every three holes. But because I had lunch between the rounds at Wentworth and we were a two-ball playing quickly I didn't do it."
It appears the Harrington requirements for proper nutrition during a round were spot on in Madrid today.