Francesco Molinari sets course record with a 63

Only Harrington misses out on a

day of low scoring at Baltray

By THE AOL GOLF NEWS SERVICE
Italian Francesco Molinari broke the course record on a day of spectacular scoring in The 3 Irish Open at County Louth today - but Padraig Harrington failed once again to ignite his season.
While the Open and US PGA champion, without a top 10 finish since January, managed only a one over par 73 after losing a ball on the final hole Molinari grabbed an eagle and eight birdies in a nine under par 63.
Brilliant though that was - it matched the lowest round of the 26-year-old's European Tour career - it was good enough for only a one-stroke lead.
Only 40 minutes earlier Swede Johan Edfors had equalled the old record for the Baltray links after collecting no fewer than 10 birdies.
"I enjoy links golf and I enjoyed it a lot," smiled Molinari, whose older brother Edoardo was US Amateur champion in 2005.
It helps, of course, when you make a make a 20-footer for birdie on the first and then a 30-footer for eagle at the third, but nobody could accuse the Turin golfer of not capitalising on those early bonuses.
"I played a lot of links golf as an amateur and it's just a matter of getting used to it again," he added.
Not that the course played hard and fast. Rain softened it up and everybody was able to attack the flags more as a result - some more successfully than others inevitably.
Harrington's closing bogey 6 was not his only one of the day. He also had one on the 531yd sixth. But the Dubliner, commuting from home by helicopter, did his best to look on the bright side.
"I felt good about a lot of things strangely enough," he commented. "I will focus on that and in three months I could be on top of the world. I was always hanging on in there, but that's how the game is. Some days it just does not go for you and some days everything goes for you. I've just got to stay patient."
Paul Lawrie, putting the Meldrum House ban controversy behind him, made a very good start with a six-under-par 66. That put him in joint third position at the end of a first day of low scoring, which suggests, if the wind doesn't get up, it will require a sub-par total, i.e. less than 144, to qualifying for the weekend rounds.
Marc Warren and Alastair Forsyth are both a shot behind on 67.
FIRST-ROUND SCOREBOARD
Par 72
63 Francesco Molinari (Ita)
64 Johan Edfors (Swe)
66 Robert Rock, Roope Kakko (Fin), Shiv Kapur (Ind), Oliver Wilson, Paul Lawrie, Nick Dougherty, Jamie Donaldson
67 Soren Kjeldsen (Den), Robert Dinwiddie, Jose Manuel Lara (Spa), Lee Slattery, Marc Warren, Shane Lowry, Alastair Forsyth, Julien Clement (Swi), Rafael Cabrera Bello (Spa), Thomas Levet (Fra)
68 Mikael Lundberg (Swe), Gary Orr, Martin Erlandsson (Swe), Anders Hansen (Den), Louis Oosthuizen (Rsa), Peter Hedblom (Swe), Pablo Larrazabal (Spa), John Daly (USA), Stephen Gallacher, Lee Westwood
69 Robert Jan Derksen (Ned), Damien McGrane, Rafael Echenique (Arg), Thongchai Jaidee (Tha), Peter Hanson (Swe), Wil Besseling (Ned), Anthony Kang (USA), Rory McIlroy, Marcus Fraser (Aus), Michael Lorenzo-Vera (Fra), Chris Wood, Francois Delamontagne (Fra), Marcel Siem (Ger), Maarten Lafeber (Ned), Andrew McLardy (Rsa), Gary Lockerbie, David Drysdale, Emanuele Canonica (Ita)
70 Jeppe Huldahl (Den), Steve Webster, Ross Fisher, Colin Montgomerie, Jarmo Sandelin (Swe), Estanislao Goya (Arg), David Horsey, David Frost (Rsa), Steven O'Hara, Graeme Storm, Gary Murphy, Stephen Dodd, Alexander Noren (Swe), Pablo Martin (Spa), Gregory Havret (Fra)
71 David Carter, James Kingston (Rsa), Soren Hansen (Den), Klas Eriksson (Swe), Kenneth Ferrie, Simon Dyson, Simon Wakefield, Jose-Maria Olazabal (Spa), Thomas Bjorn (Den), Niclas Fasth (Swe), Michael Jonzon (Swe), Oskar Henningsson (Swe), Michael Hoey, Bradley Dredge, Richard Bland, Hennie Otto (Rsa), Magnus A Carlsson (Swe), Eamonn Brady, David Howell, Phillip Price, Mark Brown (Nzl), Darren Clarke, Paul Broadhurst, Raphael Jacquelin (Fra), Richard Green (Aus), Ignacio Garrido (Spa), Paul McGinley
72 Jean-Baptiste Gonnet (Fra), Richie Ramsay, Noel Fox, Charl Schwartzel (Rsa), Mikko Ilonen (Fin), Paul Waring, Peter Lawrie, Mads Vibe-Hastrup (Den), Simon Khan, Anthony Wall, Alessandro Tadini (Ita), David Dixon, Des Smyth, Phillip Archer, Pedro Figueiredo (Por), Chapchai Nirat (Tha), Sam Little, Robert Giles
73 Barrie Trainor, Alvaro Velasco (Spa), Thomas Aiken (Rsa), Patrik Sjoland (Swe), Gareth Maybin, Rhys Davies, David Lynn, Oliver Fisher, Brett Rumford (Aus), Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spa), Richard Finch, John Kelly (USA), Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano (Spa), Padraig Harrington, Barry Lane, Ross McGowan, Richard Sterne (Rsa)
74 Christian Cevaer (Fra), Anton Haig (Rsa), Per-Ulrik Johansson (Swe), Pelle Edberg (Swe), Shiv Shankar Prasad Chowrasia (Ind), Seve Benson, Ricardo Gonzalez (Arg), Alexandre Rocha (Bra), Felipe Aguilar (Chi), Philip Walton, Mark Foster
75 Daniel Vancsik (Arg), Michael Mcgeady, Benn Barham, Alejandro Canizares (Spa), Scott Drummond
76 Jonathan Caldwell, Zane Scotland, Michael Campbell (Nzl), Scott Strange (Aus), Eoin Arthurs, Damian Mooney, Taco Remkes (Ned), Jean-Francois Lucquin (Fra), Simon Thornton, Peter O'Malley (Aus)
77 John Dwyer, Graeme McDowell, John Bickerton, Jyoti Randhawa (Ind)
78 Scott Arnold (Hkg), Gregory Bourdy (Fra