It may well be case of nothing ventured, nothing gained but Padraig Harrington must surely be ruing his decision to add the Mallorca Classic to his schedule at the last minute after a disastrous opening round this morning.

While his order of merit rival Paul Casey was resting up at home in Arizona, Harrington was struggling desperately at the Pula course and finally carded a seven-over par 77, his worst competitive round of the season.

Harrington trails leader Paul Casey by €219,900 with just two events remaining but had hoped to overtake his Ryder Cup team-mate by adding this title to the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship he won 11 days ago.

That victory, his 10th on the European Tour, prompted Harrington to add this week's event to his schedule and he missed yesterday's pre-tournament pro-am to fly back to England for a company day at Wentworth.

It was hardly the ideal preparation for his 8.50am tee-time this morning and the Dubliner was perhaps paying the price as he started from the 10th with three pars before a bogey on the 13th.

Having reached the turn on one-over, his game simply fell apart on the back nine with a bogey on the second an indication of things to come. Harrington finally carded his first birdie of the day on the third - his 12th hole - but it was rapidly downill from then on.

Bogeys at the next two holes were followed by a triple-bogey seven on the seventh and another bogey on the eighth left him seven over par, 11 shots off the clubhouse lead set by fellow Irishman Gary Murphy.

"I didn't play very well at all and a change of wind direction from what I had practiced in put some doubt in my mind," admitted Harrington afterwards, who drove out of bounds on the seventh en route to an inward half of 41.

"I made a few bad swings and it knocked me off my stride. I didn't inspire myself with ball striking out there; I'll go out and try tomorrow but I can't say I'm full of confidence."

Harrington was at least not alone in finding things tough, defending champion and course re-designer Jose Maria Olazabal crashing to a 78.

"I hit the ball awfully so there can be no excuses," said Olazabal, who ran up a nine on the 17th after driving two balls out of bounds. "I was out of bounds twice and in the water twice, such a bad day. If you believe in miracles, one will have to happen tomorrow."