Philip Reidfinds the defending champion happy with his lot and even relishing the wind and rain that had rivals complaining bitterly

THE WRIST survived all that Royal Birkdale could throw at it, after all. From the time his alarm clock sounded at 4.55am and a glance out his bedroom window revealed murky clouds that would combine with strong winds to wreak havoc on early starters in yesterday's first round, Pádraig Harrington knew the opening round in defence of his Claret Jug would be a battle. Just the way he likes it, in fact.

Critically for him, the wrist injury that had severely disrupted his preparations responded sufficiently to anti-inflammatories and painkillers and also to further treatment from the chiropractor Dale Richardson to enable him to make a good fist of his first round.

All in all, Harrington was happy with his lot. Given he'd been seriously concerned about his ability to tee up at all, a round of 74 - which featured two finishing bogeys that, he claimed, "tainted" things a little - was more than acceptable, especially since he had arrived onto the practice range yesterday shortly before 7am with a little trepidation.

"It's a respectable enough score . . . I have to focus on the positive, that there are 54 more holes, that my wrist should be getting better and better," said Harrington, who didn't need to be instructed by Richardson to stay away from the range afterwards for fear of aggravating the wrist injury.

"At one stage of my career," added Harrington, "you'd probably see me head back out to the range on a day like this. But I've matured a little. I wouldn't go because of the injury but, injury or not, no, I realise that you aren't going to find anything out there (in the conditions)."

Harrington had tested his wrist in a warm-up routine that started on the range shortly before 7am. He worked up through the clubs, from sand wedge to fairway woods and drivers and felt only "three or four" twinges, which were bearable. By the time he teed off at 7.58am, he was sure he could survive the round, even if he found the rough (which, funnily enough, he did at the first four holes).

He explained: "I was getting up this morning not knowing what swinging a club would be like. I was convinced, though, that if there was only a small or reasonable amount of pain, or even enough pain, I couldn't do any more damage and that I was going to try and figure out a way of playing and ignoring it."

Indeed, he was able to use the weather as a positive rather than a negative: "I was apprehensive about hitting out of the rough but when it didn't hurt on the first, I got more relaxed . . . I think the tougher weather helped because, as bad it was, you could only focus on your next shot and on getting your grip dry. There was very little time to be distracted, and that was good for my wrist."

As it transpired, his initial tee-shot - a three-iron - found the right rough, and that was to be a familiar occurrence over the opening few holes. But once he'd played a five-wood second shot on the first and suffered no reaction to the wrist, he was confident he would get through.

As for his chances of completing all four rounds, the Dubliner rated them "95 per cent", a considerable improvement on Wednesday's assessment - 50-50.

Harrington can be a strange fish at times. While the likes of Vijay Singh - playing two groups behind during the worst of the wind and rain - complained bitterly - "it was miserable, miserable, miserable" - the Irishman argued he would like to face a similar exam again.

He explained: "I wouldn't mind having another go, I think I could do better. I don't know if I could handle doing it for another three days . . . . I think we'd all be physically and mentally exhausted if we had to, (because) that round of golf is like playing two or three rounds (in one). But I definitely wouldn't mind another go. If you told me we all had to tee it up again tomorrow in the same conditions, I'd look forward to the test. I enjoyed the battle today."

Part of Harrington's mindset is that he knows he can focus in such conditions, but other players abhor them and can't perform.

"You're probably looking at close to 40 per cent of the field that really aren't prepared to play in weather like that. So, it gives you a big advantage."

Nor did Harrington agree with sentiments expressed by some players that the R&A should have pushed forward some tees, on the sixth and 11th holes for example.

"It doesn't make any difference. The sixth might be a par four on the card but . . . it wasn't even close to reachable when we played it. You've got to take the attitude that the lowest score is all that counts this week, not the guy who's under par or over par.

"They didn't need to push tees forward."