Good starts for Harrington and McIlroy

Open and US PGA champion Padraig Harrington got off to a good start at the WGC-CA Championship as he attempted to bounce back from a first-round Match Play exit to Pat Perez two weeks ago and two missed cuts in his first four starts.

The Irishman birdied the first two holes and was two under after four.

Rory McIlroy eagled the first to continue his good form in the US. The Northern Irish 19-year-old had reached the quarter-finals of the WGC-Accenture in his first Stateside tournament as a professional and followed up with a tie for 13th place in last week’s Honda Classic.

McIlroy remained at two under after three holes.

Tiger Woods, playing in his first stroke-play event in nine months, birdied his third hole - the par-five 12th - but then bogeyed the next hole after finding the bunker in front of the green with his tee shot and then two-putting from 11 feet.

The world number one was back on track at his sixth hole of the round when he sent in his tee shot at the par-three, 172-yard 15th to within two feet of the hole, sinking the putt for birdie.

American Sean O’Hair followed up his quarter-final appearance at the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship two weeks ago by rattling in consecutive eagles at the opening par-five hole and the par-four second. He pitched in on the latter from 41 yards to reach four under par after two holes on the famous par-72, 7,266-yard Blue Monster course.

Also going well early on and in O’Hair’s slipstream was South Africa’s Louis Oosthuizen, starting from the 10th tee, who was three under after four having birdied his first three holes.

Oosthuizen added another birdie at his fifth hole, the 14th, and was at four under before a double-bogey six at the ninth undid all his good work.

O’Hair slipped back to three under with a bogey at the sixth before recovering with a birdie at the seventh and he was joined in the lead at four under by Retief Goosen, who rattled in four birdies in his first six holes starting from the 10th.

India’s Jeev Milka Singh completed the back nine in three-under-par 33 and was in even better shape with a birdie at the par-five 10th to make it a three-way lead.

Lee Westwood was three under after his front nine having added a birdie at the eighth, and he was in a large group one shot behind the leaders which also included Henrik Stenson of Sweden and fellow Englishman Oliver Wilson.