The cream floated to the top in yesterday's opening shots in the €80,000 Irish PGA Championship at the magnificent European Club with Padráig Harrington, Michael Hoey and Brendan McGovern sharing a two-under-par 69.
The Brittas Bay, Co Wicklow track, proved mighty difficult, despite the benign conditions, for a large percentage of the players with scores soaring as high as 106 but overnight leaders steered a steady course.
First to set the target was Headfort Club professional Brendan McGovern who produced his best round of the season. The former tour player sprinkled four birdies over his card as he slotted home putts of 10 and 12 feet. Like most players, he kept his driver in the bag at many of the holes, taking it out only four or five times.
"I finished with the same ball as I started with and that made me happy,"
quipped Brendan.
World No.10 Harrington gave the gallery a little extra. He lay down on the ninth fairway and wriggled his right leg in the air. He had suffered 'hip lock' but knew exactly how to deal with the problem. "I felt that my leg wouldn't support me but it's not a serious problem. It's a case of putting it out and putting it in again. I didn't do my normal stretching exercises this morning," he explained.
The Irish Open champion had stormed off with birdie three at the first hole but lost the advantage at the fifth. That incident at nine also cost him a stroke as he put his approach from the fairway into a greenside bunker and didn't get up and down. Out in one-over-36, he then rattled off three birdies in the next four holes and, after dropping another shot at the 15th, he recoup the lost ground with birdie three from 15 feet at 17.
Michael Hoey is playing in the championship for the third time and on his previous two visits he finished third. He joined the leaders to make it a three-way tie late in the day. After starting at the 10th tee, he was three-under after six holes but bogeyed the 18th. The Challenge Tour member was back to relegation after bogeys at one and four but finished strongly with a 10-footer for a two on the sixth green and a 15-footer for birdie three at the ninth.
Four-time winner Philip Walton, pro-am winner Michael Collins, David Higgins who qualified for The Open on Tuesday and Noel Fox are all just one shot adrift of the leaders on 70. However, defending champion David Mortimer has ground to make up - he posted a 77. Forty players and ties go through to the final 36 holes after the second round.