Harrington showing positive signs

GOLF BRITISH OPEN:WHO'D HAVE believed it? A pet day on the craggy Scottish links, with ne'er a hint of a wind all day. Almost target golf on a links, in a way. And, despite the Royal and Ancient doing their best to defend the course by sticking flagsticks on slopes, Spain's Miguel Angel Jimenez was the prime architect in exposing its vulnerability with a first-round 64, six-under, that left him alone atop the leaderboard.

Oh, how this famous old links suffered without wind to act as protector. Having been used as a dartboard from early morning, the sucker punch came late in the evening when Jimenez rolled in a 60-footer for birdie on the last to edge him a shot clear of Tom Watson and Ben Curtis, two Americans who know what it takes to win the Claret Jug, and, remarkably, Japan’s Kenichi Kuboya.

That no fewer than 49 players bettered par told its own story. Pádraig Harrington was one of them; Tiger Woods wasn’t.

Harrington, who had come into the defence of the championship with the bad karma of five missed cuts on tour to contaminate his mind, played conservatively to etch out a 69 that, at least, held the promise of better things to come.

He found more fairways off the tee than he has done in an aeon, hit only a couple of loose approach shots with his irons – albeit most were aimed for the centre of the green rather than at the flag – and his putting, if a little tentative, was solid.

Harrington, in fact, had managed to avoid a bogey until he reached the dangerous par four 16th, where he finished in heavy greenside rough. But he did have an eagle putt on the 17th and a birdie putt on the 18th, neither of which threatened the hole.

“Every round of golf I play is better, it’s just a question of trusting it a bit,” the Dubliner said.

“In terms of winning this tournament, it doesn’t really make any difference whether I holed those putts or not. It will make more of a difference on Sunday afternoon.”

He added: “I definitely feel better about how I am swinging the club and hitting the ball. I do need to trust it a little bit more. If I do, I can see it’s in me. But it is a long week, 72 holes, and I’ll be patient. And if I keep rolling them at the hole, they’ll drop.”

There were snapshots of the old Harrington, the player renowned for scrambling and grinding. He hit 13 greens in regulation and, of the five he missed, he failed to get up and down only once (on the 16th). Of course, he would have preferred not to use the putter quite so often – 31 times – but there was a sense of expectation rather than hope after his round.

The idea is to hang around, and get into the mix come Sunday. “If I play the golf from here on in, I’ll be there or thereabouts with nine holes to play. We all know anything can happen in those situations,” he said.

Graeme McDowell finished the day as the leading Irishman after a 68, while Harrington and Rory McIlroy – both 69s – also managed to finish with sub-par rounds.

On a day when the flags around the grandstands around the links stayed limp, almost as if they had been glued to the poles, the course was there for the taking. Strangely, it proved to be a day when Woods was at odds with his game.

“I made mistakes,” he conceded, and then went immediately to the range after his 71 in an attempt to cure the missed shots to the right that became the bane of his round.

If the world’s number one struggled and showed his fallibility – as did the likes of Geoff Ogilvy (75), US Open champion Lucas Glover (72) and the much vaunted US Ryder Cup player Hunter Mahan (72) – there were problems of a different kind for Anthony Kim, who succumbed to a quadruple bogey nine on the second hole and later had to have on-course physiotherapy on a back strain. Kim did well to eventually sign for a 73.

In general, though, players took advantage of the benign conditions.

Watson’s effort, which had him as clubhouse leader for most of the day, was a throwback to the old days, while Curtis, the 2003 champion and someone who has recorded top-10 finishes for the past two years, responded to a bogey four at the third by completing the rest of the trip home in five under par.

But Jimenez was the player who benefited most. He shot a bogey-free round that featured six birdies, including two rakers – on the 17th, from just off the green, and the 18th, from 60 feet.

Yesterday morning, Jimenez woke up, pulled the curtains in his bedroom and couldn’t believe how calm the Irish Sea was. “The sea was like a milk pond, you couldn’t ask for better,” he said.

Jimenez certainly made the most of it. “I like to play links courses, because you need to use your mind,” he remarked, having just played his best opening round in a major.

No one needed to tell him the chase is on.