Golf: Harrington burst halted by rain

A hat-trick of early birdies took Padraig Harrington into the joint lead before the €6.5m Players Championship was halted by torrential rain in Florida today.

Harrington followed a four at the long second with birdies at the next two to be alongside 52-year-old Tom Kite.

But after one more hole the stiff wind brought with it the expected storm and within minutes of play being suspended just before 10.20am greens were already flooded.

Harrington, second on last season’s European Order of Merit after winning the Volvo Masters in November, took a lengthy break from the game over the winter with the idea of being fresh when the bigger tournaments came around.

This was the first of them. The event is known as golf’s unofficial fifth major and carries a first prize of nearly €1.3m - the largest on the whole US Tour.

Colin Montgomerie was one under par after 11 when the hold-up came, one better than Paul McGinley, but Lee Westwood, Paul Lawrie, Jose Maria Olazabal were two over and world number three Ernie Els three over. Tiger Woods had yet to tee off.

Montgomerie began the event with some advice from American Chris DiMarco on the problem of heckling.

‘‘I think he could be a little more fun about it,’’ said DiMarco when asked about the struggles Montgomerie has had with fans in the United States, most recently at the Accenture match play in San Diego last month.

‘‘It’s like the nickname you get in high school,’’ added DiMarco.

‘‘If you let people know that you don’t like it then it’s just the more reason they are going to call you it.

‘‘If you dismiss it, it kind of goes away. I was like that a lot - I used to let those things really affect me and I learned that if you just let them go they just kind of dwindle away.

‘‘Obviously, Colin is a phenomenal player and I don’t think there’s anybody in the United States, whether they are heckling him or not, that doesn’t agree with that.

‘‘He deserves a little bit more respect, but I think he maybe doesn’t handle it the right way.

‘‘I think he was a little bit more funny about it people would like him for it. That’s what people are trying to get out of him.’’

Montgomerie, given polite applause by the mere 20 spectators on the first tee for his 7.10am start, parred the first six holes, but then hit a wedge to three feet.

When the birdie putt dropped one American shouted, but it was the sort of thing Montgomerie wanted to hear.

‘‘Yeah - all right,’’ said the man, part of a gallery which was still only about 50-strong and outnumbered by marshals and scorers.

A bad four iron at the 219-yard next led to a bogey, however, and a 20-foot putt hung on the lip at the long ninth.

There seemed to be an attempt by the starter to make him feel welcome.

He was introduced as ‘‘winner of 26 international titles’’, whereas playing partners Chris Smith and Glen Hnatiuk were given name and home only.

On a bad day Montgomerie might have objected to being called ‘‘from England’’ rather than Scotland, but he made no objection this time.

Olazabal birdied the second, but then had bogeys at the fifth, sixth, ninth and 10th.

Westwood made mistakes at the fifth and eighth, while 1999 Open champion Lawrie was a real mixed bag.

He had birdies at the first, third and sixth, but bogeys at the second, fourth and fifth and then a double bogey on the seventh.