The Open 2010: Padraig Harrington splashes down and misses the boat

While the Northern Ireland boy wonder Rory McIlroy was burning up the Old Course with such record-breaking devastation that the St Andrews fire brigade must have been on alert, and the bookmakers were slashing the odds on the first Open champion from that country since Fred Daly at Hoylake in 1947, it was a day of tribulation for Padraig Harrington, the only other man from across the Irish Sea to win the Claret Jug. Harrington was champion at Carnoustie in 2007 and again at Royal Birkdale the following year but today, at a time when the course was playing as benevolently as it is likely to get, he failed to take advantage, going out in 37 and coming back in level par to finish with 73, one-over, a full 10 shots behind the leader, McIlroy. From the 1st it was going to be one of those days. Harrington's approach, to a pin only 12 paces on to the green, was caught heavy, the ball bouncing once and disappearing into the Swilken Burn that fronts it. A double‑bogey six was the result, with three more bogeys – on the 397‑yard 3rd, where he drove into a divot, and two of the final three, including the Road Hole, to go with the four birdies he collected. "I did all the superfluous things very well and the important things badly," was Harrington's take on the round. "Obviously the poor chip shot on the 1st didn't really help me and after that there was no momentum. I was always trying to get back into it." McIlroy's countryman, Darren Clarke, would not have been teeing it up at St Andrews had he not finished runner‑up to Edoardo Molinari in last week's Scottish Open at Loch Lomond, thereby claiming the one remaining place up for grabs. But he made a solid start, returning a two‑under 70. Bogeys at the 2nd, 7th and the 17th offset the five birdies he collected. Two strokes better was Shane Lowry, from the Republic of Ireland, another qualifier, this time through winning the European International final qualifier at Sunningdale when he shot rounds of 62 and 67 to beat Colin Montgomerie by a one. Out in 34, two-under, he came back in similar style, with three birdies and a bogey on each nine holes. Colm Moriarty, also from the Republic of Ireland, is another qualifier, this time through the local qualifier at Kingsbarnes, just along the road from the Old Course. Playing with Louis Oosthuizen, the South African whose 65 today left him in second place behind McIlroy, Moriarty shot a level‑par 72, getting to two-under after 10 holes before cancelling the advantage with bogeys at the 14th and 16th. Much had been expected of Graeme McDowell after his spectacular win in the US Open at Pebble Beach last month. If the morning starters had enjoyed the easiest of conditions, though, he encountered some of the more squally weather that came in during the early evening and he was battling to stay in touch, bogeying the 1st and 7th but making birdies at the 3rd, 14th and 18th to finish one-under. Also level par, after a front nine that contained a bogey at the par‑four 2nd and birdie at the par‑five 5th, was Gareth Maybin, another Northern Irish qualifier, and he finished on level par late in the evening.