A clearly disappointed Padraig Harrington joined an opening day scoring blitz with a five under par 66 in the 10th anniversary of the Portugal Masters at Vilamoura.
Harrington had raced to six under par after seven holes and capped in reaching the green at the short par four 15th, he was playing as his sixth before dropping shots at his ninth and 11th but then birding his 13th ahead of five closing pars.
If left the Dubliner just three adrift of Scotland’s Marc Warren, who birdied his opening six holes, in a career-equalling low of an eight under par 63.
Five players – American David Lipsky, Finland’s Mikko Korhonen and the England trio of Callum Shinkwin, Matthew Baldwin and Eddie Pepperell – shared second place on seven under par.
Another six are at six under while the Open Championship winning duo, and Hazetline vice-captain colleagues, of Harrington and Paul Lawrie are among 10 players at five under par.
Padraig Harrington shoots a 66 on day one Portgual Masters.
“I got a very quick start to be six-under after eight holes and played okay after that,” said Harrington.
“I missed a couple of putts with a couple of three putts so I felt like I should have done a little bit better after that but six-under after eight, I certainly got a few breaks in that.
“I suppose overall, a 5-under return is probably a fair return for the day.”
While defending Portugal champion Andrew ‘Sulli’ Sullivan had around 75 supporters decked out in ‘Sulli’s Army t-shirts supporting him, there was also once again plenty of Irish accents in the crowd and many of those out supporting the triple Major winning Harrington.
“I was hearing Irish accents all over the course and it’s great the Irish holidaying or living down here do come out and support their countrymen,” he said.
“So on top of their support there was reasonable positives for me on the course.
“It’s just that I’m disappointed, as I said, I missed a few putts.”
And in saying that Harrington spent much of the afternoon on the practice putting green.
Paul Dunne has much to do to make the cut having slumped to three over par after three holes, that included doubling his third but finding some touch with birdies at eight, 13 and 15.
But the Greystones golfer dropped shots at his 16th and 18th holes in a two over par 73 and sharing 107th place with Belfast’s Michael Hoey in the 126-player field.
