Hooray for Harrington!

Padraig starts Masters

treble bid with a 69

FROM THE AOL GOLF NEWS SERVICE
A smiling Padraig Harrington, doing a brilliant job of handling all the pressure on him, began his bid for a third successive major title with a three-under-par 69 in The Masters at Augusta National.
It was a better score than he had produced in the opening round either at The Open or the US PGA last year and it left the Irishman only three behind clubhouse leader Jim Furyk.
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The Masters' official website
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But a bogey 6 on the long 15th - a hole which has got the better of him several times in the past - was a blow Harrington could have done without.
And that was made even more the case, given that in the group behind him former US Open champion Furyk had four birdies in a row from the 14th to edge one ahead of Japan's Shingo Katayama and fellow Americans Chad Campbell, Hunter Mahan and 50-year-old Larry Mize.
Good news for Harrington, who matched his best start to the tournament, was that Phil Mickelson managed only a 73 and late starter Tiger Woods was one over par after seven holes.
The Dubliner was leading the European contingent along with England's Ross Fisher, who reached five under before bogeying the last two for a 69 on his debut in the tournament.
Rory McIlroy, in the last group of the day just behind Woods, started with six straight pars, but had had to work hard for the first of them after going from bunker to bunker.
FIRST ROUND SCOREBOARD
Par 72
66 Jim Furyk.
67 Larry Mize, Shingo Katayama (Jpn)
68 Aaron Baddeley (Aus), John Merrick, Mike Weir (Can), Todd Hamilton, Angel Cabrera (Arg), Tim Clark (Rsa)
69 Graeme McDowell (NIrl), Ross Fisher (Eng), Kevin Sutherland, Padraig Harrington (Irl)
70 Bernhard Langer (Ger), Nick Watney, Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spa), Prayad Marksaeng (Tha), Greg Norman (Aus), Lee Westwood (Eng)
71 Vijay Singh (Fij), Steve Flesch, Ian Poulter (Eng), Ken Duke, Geoff Ogilvy (Aus), Henrik Stenson (Swe)
72 Dustin Johnson, Dudley Hart, Soren Hansen (Den), Bubba Watson, Sandy Lyle (Sco), Stuart Appleby (Aus)
73 Rory Sabbatini (Rsa), Oliver Wilson (Eng), Sergio Garcia (Spa), Ben Curtis, Louis Oosthuizen (Rsa), Phil Mickelson, Ryuji Imada (Jpn), Luke Donald (Eng), Camilo Villegas (Col), Briny Baird, Stephen Ames (Can)
74 Mathew Goggin (Aus), Justin Rose (Eng), Tom Watson, Ian Woosnam (Wal)
75 Justin Leonard, Retief Goosen (Rsa), Ernie Els (Rsa), Reinier Saxton (Ned), Carl Pettersson (Swe), Chez Reavie
77 Craig Stadler, Billy Mayfair
78 Drew Kittleson, Gary Player (Rsa)
79 Ray Floyd, Fuzzy Zoeller, Steve Wilson
80 Michael Campbell (Nzl)