Harrington stays in hunt after back nine comeback
Pádraig Harrington staged a brave comeback to keep in touch with leader Vijay Singh on the opening day of the 70th Masters at Augusta last night.
He started five, seven – bogey, double bogey – but covered the back nine in 33 for one over. He then made twos at the 12th and 16th and picked up another shot on the 17th to finish with a one over par 73.
“Overall I am quite happy that I came back strong,” said Harrington. “I knew I had been playing well, so I had to stay patient and wait for things to happen.”
Elsewhere, Singh and Tom Lehman were in the spotlight for very different reasons. One because he shot a five-under-par 67. The other because he had been shot at.
Singh’s round gave him a one-stroke lead over American Rocco Mediate in the first major of the year. Phil Mickelson returned a 70, defending champion Tiger Woods 72 and leading European in between the two superstars was David Howell, who finished 11th on his debut last year.
American Ryder Cup captain Lehman, meanwhile, managed only a 76 on the new monster lay-out – and then relived one of the scariest moments of his life.
Late on Tuesday night the former Open champion’s car was shot at as he was driving to Augusta Airport to pick up members of his family.
A bullet hole was found in one of the rear doors and after another incident in the town a 26-year-old man was arrested and jailed.
“It was a very surreal experience,” said Lehman after a round which left him nine behind world number two Singh.
“If it had been coming away from the airport my three-year-old would have been sitting where the bullet hit.
“Every day you read in the newspapers about crazy stuff and I think he was full of Jack Daniels. I was doing about 50 and he came past me at about 65 with the window down.
“I noticed that because it was cold. Then there was a huge, loud explosion. I flinched, then checked the windscreens and the wheels and when I got out I saw the bullet hole.
“I am just glad they caught the guy. It was a very random thing and very random things happen in this world. But all’s well that ends well.
“He shot at two teenagers as well and they followed him and got the licence plate.”
Back on the golf course – at 7,445 yards now the second longest in major history – 2000 winner Singh came home in 32 with birdies at the 11th, 13th, 14th and 15th.
“I had a lot of chances and putted very well,” said the Fijian. “The ball is going a long way. I would better not say that. They might move it back 50 yards next year.
“I saw a lot of bad things in my swing at the TPC (two weeks ago). I found out exactly what I was doing wrong and worked really hard trying to fix it.”
Darren Clarke sank a bunker shot estimated at 100 feet for an eagle three on the long second, but was in the water at the short 12th for a double bogey five. The other 16 holes were all pars, so it added up to 72, the same as Sergio Garcia, Miguel Angel Jimenez and Carl Pettersson.
Paul McGinley had a tough time from the moment he double-bogeyed the first, going for a two-foot gap in the trees, but hitting a trunk and shooting across the ninth fairway.
“I thought it was worth the gamble, but my short game was appalling and birdie chances are a lot more limited than when I was last here.” He was 18th in his one previous Masters in 2002.
British amateur championship winner Brian McElhinney, from County Donegal, was another to post an 80.
Woods, almost inevitably, produced the biggest roar of what until then had been a fairly subdued crowd when he holed his eight-iron second shot to the 440-yard 14th for an eagle two.
But the world number one, seeking his fifth victory in the event, followed it with a double bogey seven, going into the lake after his lay-out finished in a divot hole.
A birdie on the last made dinner taste better, Woods knowing that he has never broken 70 in the opening round and done all right thereafter to put it mildly.
Luke Donald, third last year on his debut, had to be content with a 74, saying: “I played poorly on the back nine, hitting only a couple of fairways and if you do that you are always going to be struggling.”
Colin Montgomerie had a seven on the second after taking a penalty drop from a bush and finished with 74.
Lee Westwood double-bogeyed the 10th and 14th in his 75, while Ian Woosnam, Nick Faldo and Sandy Lyle shot 77, 79 and 80 respectively.
Faldo, now 48 and with his son Matthew as his caddie, said: “It’s too difficult for me. I am not playing well enough, simple as that.
“You need to be playing more and have a lot more self-confidence. I haven’t got the guns.”
Woosnam, Europe’s Ryder Cup captain and paired with Lehman, echoed that, saying: “The course is not quite the same as ’91 (his winning year) and my body’s not either. A 77 is not the end of the world, but it’s a tough old slog out there.”
Jose Maria Olazabal, twice a winner and runner-up to Mickelson at the weekend, eagled the 13th, but finished with a 76.
:
67 Vijay Singh (Fij)
68 Rocco Mediate
69 Arron Oberholser
70 Tim Clark (Rsa), Retief Goosen (Rsa), Geoff Ogilvy (Aus), Phil Mickelson
71 Ben Crenshaw, Rich Beem, David Howell (Gbr), Mike Weir (Can), Fred Couples, Nick O’Hern (Aus), Ben Curtis, Billy Mayfair, Stuart Appleby (Aus), Chad Campbell, Ernie Els (Rsa)
72 Rod Pampling (Aus), Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spa), David Toms, Tiger Woods, Brandt Jobe, Ted Purdy, Carl Pettersson (Swe), Darren Clarke (Irl), Stewart Cink, Sergio Garcia (Spa), Adam Scott (Aus)
73 Lucas Glover, Robert Allenby (Aus), Jim Furyk, Jason Bohn, Thomas Bjorn (Den), Pádraig Harrington (Irl), Angel Cabrera (Arg)
74 Olin Browne, Ben Crane, Todd Hamilton, Luke Donald (Gbr), Stephen Ames (Can), Zach Johnson, Colin Montgomerie (Gbr), Joe Ogilvie, Scott Verplank, John Daly, Davis Love
75 Larry Mize, Trevor Immelman (Rsa), Vaughn Taylor, Michael Campbell (Nzl), Justin Leonard, Lee Westwood (Gbr), Shingo Katayama (Jpn)
76 Rory Sabbatini (Rsa), Tom Lehman, Jose Maria Olazabal (Spa), Tim Herron, Sean O’Hair, Bart Bryant, Peter Lonard (Aus), Fred Funk, KJ Choi (Kor), Chris DiMarco
77 Ian Woosnam (Gbr), Henrik Stenson (Swe), Craig Stadler
78 Paul McGinley (Irl), Fuzzy Zoeller, Thongchai Jaidee (Tha), Thomas Levet (Fra)
79 Nick Faldo (Gbr), Raymond Floyd, Gary Player (Rsa), Tom Watson, Shigeki Maruyama (Jpn), Bernhard Langer (Ger), (x) Kevin Marsh
80 Charles Howell, (x) Brian McElhinney (Irl), Mark Calcavecchia, (x) Edoardo Molinari (Ita), Mark Hensby (Aus), Sandy Lyle (Gbr)
82 (x) Dillon Dougherty, Shaun Micheel, Mark O’Meara
83 (x) Clay Ogden
84 David Duval
89 Charles Coody.
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