Padraig Harrington ended his round soon after 7pm and having to play the last few holes in rain, and it was during the rain he managed to pull off the par save of the first day at the Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Open.
Next week’s Royal Birkdale 2008 defending champ was four under for his round standing on the 16th tee and with the Glasgow to Prestwick rail line all the way down the right of the hole.
“We got on the 16th and it started raining, and while modern equipment is built for nice sunny weather and certainly I am on the limit when we get a wet day, when you have a railway line down the right you start to worry a bit”, he said.
The 16th hole at Dundonald Links.
“So, I then pulled my tee shot left and, to be honest, the marshal did not know I had even hit and in the end, we were very lucky to find my first ball.
“We were all looking in a 40-yard square area and it was getting near desperation stakes when someone finally found it but it was sitting so badly I had to take a penalty drop.
“I then found the green and would have run to the next tee with a 5 but to take a 4 was a minor miracle.
“I was really struggling the find my first ball and my provisional was stuck in bunker so I would have been hitting my fifth shot from a long way out, and a 7 would have been a good return.
“But I managed to turn it into a four, so these things happen in golf as when things are going your way, they go your way.
“Thankfully that 4 made my day and a 67 is a nice solid score and keeps me well in it, and anything under par on this golf course is a solid start as it does not look like a week where we are going to go really low on it.
“It is a golf course the better you are playing on it, the more intimidating it is going to get so much so I think that it will be a week where 13, 14 or 15 under is the winning total”.
Indeed, Harrington walked off with a rousing share of second place on five under.
