Clarke awaits fired-up Harrington

In a golfing duel, nobody dies. And no-one is physically hurt. But, emotionally, the strain can simply be too much to take - and, yesterday, a first round mauling from Padraig Harrington in the Cisco World Matchplay championship at Wentworth left Nick Faldo wondering if his future would involve more designing of courses than actually playing them.

"It's time to get the chain-saw out and have some fun in the garden," said Faldo, referring to the only type of activity that could safely get the frustration out of his system after he suffered his biggest ever defeat in the event.

In stark contrast to Faldo's despondency, Harrington - after a 9 and 8 win over his one-time idol - was like a man who had discovered the knack of walking on clouds. To add extra spice to the victory, it set up an intriguing quarter-final encounter today with Darren Clarke.

Yesterday, though, belonged to Harrington. It is estimated that Faldo has played over 200 competitive rounds on the West Course and, as such, when the first round draw was made, nobody envied the task that awaited Harrington.

And, yet, it is a measure of Harrington's development as a player of world-class stature that there wasn't a hint of fear about the job at hand as he took the five-minute walk from the house beside the 18th green that he has rented for the week to the putting green in preparation for the match with Faldo. "I felt no nerves whatsoever," he remarked.

Once they commenced battle, Harrington dictated affairs to such an extent that Faldo could find little solace by the time defeat came.

Faldo's previous biggest defeats in this championship were by 5 and 3 margins, to Ben Crenshaw in the first round in 1981 and to Nick Price in the semi-final in 1991, and the misery of years ending in one was more than compounded on this occasion.

From the very first hole, when Faldo duffed a chip into a greenside bunker, the initiative lay with his opponent - but it wasn't so much poor play from Faldo as some superb play from Harrington (who, with a couple of concessions, shot a 63 for the first 18 holes) which decided the outcome.

"This is a big scalp for me," said the Irishman. "I know things went against him early on but I put it up to him and that is the nature of matchplay. I made a good start and it was hard for him to come at me. One guy can dictate how another plays."

That was demonstrated most vividly at the sixth hole in the morning. Having lost the opening three holes to Harrington, and then missed putts on the next two holes where he could have reduced the deficit, Faldo's desperation to salvage something and perhaps kick-start a fightback led to him getting too greedy with his approach from the rough.

He put the ball into the greenside bunker, played too delicate a recovery shot with the ball barely escaping the sand, and then conceded Harrington his eight-foot birdie putt.

Four-up after six holes, Harrington's only concern was not to lose concentration, to keep the pressure on. "On too many occasions in my amateur days I thought I had matches won and relaxed too much. I kept telling myself not to relax, to grind it out and not to let Nick back into it. He's the type of guy you just can't afford to give a chance to," he said, adding: "I also wanted to get the match finished as quickly as I could, because it would give me more rest."

Traditionally in this championship, it is the players who have avoided playing on the first day (the top four seeds go straight into the quarter-finals) who have come out on top. Harrington's fitness, however, should prove to be a considerable asset in his attempt to break that particular hoodoo and, also, he resisted the urge to head to the driving range last evening, settling instead for some practice on the putting green.

Earlier in the day, just after Harrington and Faldo had completed their first 18 holes, Clarke made a brief appearance at the course, hit some chips and putts, and then returned to his nearby Sunningdale home to watch the action on television.

"I'm looking forward to the match with Padraig, it should be interesting," said Clarke, no doubt aware that his previous two competitive outings with Harrington - in the 1990 Irish Close amateur final at Baltray and the South of Ireland semi-final at Lahinch two weeks previously - finished in wins. Harrington's only success in head-to-head combat came at a GUI training camp in Portugal, some 12 years ago.

Much has changed since then, however. Clarke is currently ninth in the world, Harrington is 15th; and the all-Irish edge to the match, particularly over 36 holes, when, as Clarke stated, "the best player should win", gives the encounter a significance all of its own.

The winner will meet either Vijay Singh or Sam Torrance in the semi-finals.