Padraig Harrington quickly lost his superb Masters shine in bogeying two of his closing three holes in a round of 75 on the opening day of the RBC Heritage at Hilton Head.

Four days earlier Harrington recorded his second best finish at Augusta National in finishing in a share of eighth place in the year’s first Major.

But in his first event after the Masters the Irishman joined many other players to struggle in cold and difficult conditions in the first round around the alligator infested Harbour Town golf course.

Harrington had commenced his round from the 10th hole but was quickly struggling with an 11th hole bogey.

He then pared the next 1o holes before a second dropped shot of the day at the fourth or the 13th hole of Harrington’s round.

Harrington did manage to birdie the next, the par five fifth before ending par, bogey, par and bogey.

A check of Harrington’s stats reveals he managed to hit just half of the fairways in regulation but then only hit 44% of greens in regulation, and on the greens he recorded 28 putts.

Ryder Cup rival Jim Furyk, who had just 22 putts, was the early clubhouse leader in the $US 5.7m event in posting a three under par 69.

After finishing 11th in his 16th Masters appearance, Furyk again wound down by playing in the now annual Hootie and The Blowfish Pro-Am.

“I’ve done that for the last three years, and went up to play the Hootie and Blowfish event up in Myrtle Beach on Monday,” he said.

“I hope they’re washing my car out there.  I’ve gone and played that.  We got there Sunday night, met some friends, had some food and cocktails, enjoyed ourselves. 

“I went and played Monday, with Darius and some of his friends and some of the people that have helped their charity a lot, and really had a great time.” 

Harrington was sharing 96th position with American Bill Haas winner this year in a three-man play-off for the Northern Trust Open.