The first day's play in the Cisco World Match Play Championship at Wentworth on Thursday was illuminated by some magnficent golf, but none of the eight players involved shone more brightly than Padraig Harrington.
Harrington, the 28-year-old Dubliner who acquitted himself so well in his Ryder Cup debut last month, surprised even himself how easily he beat Carlos Franco, the Paraguayan who has risen to 21st in the latest world rankings.
Harrington won seven and six, reaching the turn in the afternoon round in 32. When he closed the match out, he was 11 under par for the 30 holes played.
"I thought when I was two up at lunchtime that the match would go all the way," said Harrington, who meets Ernie Els in the last eight on Friday. "I feel today was my final. It's going to be pretty difficult to get myt concentration back up again to face Ernie."
"Carlos played perfect golf for 19 holes, but I was two up and somehow I managed to grind him down. I think he thought he would have do a little bit more, and then he had a couple of three-putts and made a couple of other mistakes."
On the other hand, the tightest match of the day came between Sergio Garcia and Retief Goosen. Having slugged it out in the morning round, Garcia and Goosen were even more brilliant in the afternoon. Between them they played the front nine of the West course in 25 strokes, ten under par -- Garcia's eagle three on the long fourth and eight birdies.
On another day, Garcia's outward 30 would have given him an impregnable lead. As it was, he found himself trailing to his quiet and gritty South African opponent, whose outward 29 equalled the championship record.
Garcia was still only one down at that stage, but he then dropped a shot at the 29th to fall two in arrears. He birdied the next two holes, but so did Goosen and after Garcia's foot slipped as he was hitting his drive on the 33rd, inducing him to leak the ball into the trees, Goosen eventually completed a two and one victory to earn the right to play Nick Price, the former Open champion, in the quarter-finals.
On a day on which the eight players involved played 131 holes in 56 under par, the other two first-round matches were won four and three. Jose Maria Olazabal's defeat by Notah Begay III was mitigated by the fact that he was suffering from flu, wearing a woolly hat and several layers of clothing on a bright and pleasantly warm Wentworth day.
There was real doubt at one time whether Olazabal would make the distance -- it is typical of the stout heart of the Spanish star that he kept going until the end came after 33 holes. Begay plays Colin Montgomerie, who was back on the back on the practice ground on Thursday after further attention to his aching tooth the day before.
The only seed to survive the first round was Craig Parry, the chunky little Australian who they call Popeye because of his enormously powerful forearms. Paul Lawrie knew he would have his work cut out to beat Parry. You need birdies to stand a chance against the straight hitting and reliable putting of the Aussie, and Lawrie simply did not get enough of them.
Parry is due to meet defending champion Mark O'Meara in the quarter-finals, but may not even have to set foot on the course. O'Meara was suffering from a stiff neck on Thursday and was not fit to hit a single ball in practice. O'Meara said he would play if it was humanly possible, but if he felt that doing so would make the injury worse, he would have to pull out.
