HARD WORK FOR HARRINGTON BUT HE LEADS
THE PGA GRAND SLAM OF GOLF

FROM THE EUROPEAN TOUR WEBSITE

The European Tour's two Major Champions led the way in the PGA Grand Slam of Golf with Padraig Harrington one ahead of Angel Cabrera after the first round at Mid-Ocean Club on the island of Bermuda.
The PGA Grand Slam of Golf, this year celebrating its 25th anniversary, is being played on Bermuda for the first time with the Open Champion edging the US Open Champion by a stroke on the first day.
Harrington posted a three-under-par 67 to Cabrera's 68. Masters Champion Zach Johnson and former US Open winner Jim Furyk both shot a 71.
Harrington barely noticed the spectacular scenery and turquoise coastline as be ground out a first round lead.
"I was struggling with my game, so my head was very much down," Harrington said. "I saw a little bit of the nice coastline and scenery, but it was very much a workmanlike day. On almost every shot I was a bit worried. It was a tough day out there for me, and luckily, the putts were dropping and it kept me right in there."
Cabrera nearly caught him until his 15 foot eagle putt came up short on the 18th hole.
The Grand Slam of Golf, reserved for the year's Major Champions, moved from Poipu Bay in Hawaii after 13 years for the Mid-Ocean Club in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.
Harrington battled all day, hitting left into the water on par-3 third and scrambling for bogey, then nearly hitting his tee shot on the fifth hole into the water. He hit his approach into 18 feet for birdie and the recovery began.
The Irishman holed an eight foot putt for birdie on the sixth, made a 20 foot putt on the eighth, and looked as though he might run away from the field with consecutive birdies early on the back nine, including his 5 iron to 18 feet on the 12th.
"I didn't play very well," Harrington said. "I just managed to hole the right putts and made the right decisions."
Harrington started coming back to the field with a poor chip from just left of the 13th green that ran 15 feet by the cup, which he missed for bogey. And on the 504-yard 15th, which played as a par 4, he pulled his approach into the gallery, then hit his pitch over the green into a bunker. He did well to escape with bogey.
The long-hitting Cabrera made short work of the par-5s, as expected, and had only one bogey on his card. That also came on the 13th, with his ball a few yards in front of Harrington, a chip that wasn't much better.
"I hit the ball pretty solid," he said through his caddie, Eddie Gardino. "I've played a lot of golf lately. I'm not 100 per cent, but I will be up to 100 percent."
Asked when that would happen, Cabrera needed no translator.
"Tomorrow," he said.