GOLF:Ordinarily, shooting a two-under-par 69 around The European Club to earn a share of the lead in the Irish PGA Championship would be sufficient to commandeer headlines, but for Padraig Harrington the score was not the main topic of conversation following his opening 18 holes in the tournament, writes John O'Sullivanat The European Club.
Instead the world number 10 was asked to explain why he took to the turf while waiting to hit his second shot to the ninth hole. The sight of athletes stretching seldom warrants a second glance but when a golfer is supine on a fairway, the incongruity of the action captivates the gallery.
Harrington has been nursing a well documented knee injury of late, and there were all sorts of conspiracy theories for the impromptu stretching, which took in back, shoulder and neck. But the post-round explanation was quite mundane, the player himself clearly keen to calm the mini-furore.
"My right hip just locked up," he smiled. "It's never happened to me before - well, maybe running off a football pitch, but . . . These things happen to us all.
"I just couldn't stand on it after my tee shot. When I got over the ball I realised I couldn't actually support my backswing. It didn't actually affect my shot at all. I was waiting for it to affect it.
"While it was troublesome, it didn't actually affect any shots out there. It was just distracting. I tried to stretch it out - the way you might see footballers getting loose. It just needs to be battled around a bit. I think they call it 'distraction', when they actually take it out and put it back in.
"I couldn't do it myself. I need somebody else to pull the joint out and put it back in. It's like traction but it's actually dis-traction.
"On tour I have a muscle test every morning and get all my muscle groups checked out. Every morning I play a tournament I have my guy there.
"One thing might show up a particular week and it might show up every morning. But more often than not, especially if I haven't overdone the practice, nothing would show up.
"This was one of those days where I could have done with a little adjustment."
He insisted the problem was righted by dint of simply walking but did confirm that in the absence of his usual physiotherapist, Dale Richardson (at the Scottish Open in Loch Lomond), he would try for "an appointment with the great AK" - that's the Tallaght-based sports-injury guru Alan Kelly.
He also reiterated the knee was "100 per cent" and the hip-flexor problem would in no way compromise his vigorous pursuit of the Irish PGA title.
He birdied the first, hitting a nine iron to four feet, but bogeys on the seventh and ninth saw him turn in one over.
He summarily dismissed the fitness concerns of the ninth hole with birdies on 10, 12 and 13, and though he bogeyed the 15th after hitting his three wood 282 yards into a fairway bunker, he holed from 15 feet on 17 for a fifth birdie, eventually signing for a 69.
He was joined on the mark by tour professional Michael Hoey (five birdies, three bogeys) and the Headfort professional Brendan McGovern, showing a welcome return to form.
"I haven't shown any form this year so I am quite happy with what I've done," said McGovern. "My weakness the last couple of years has been my tee shots and they weren't too bad today.
"I only used the driver four or five times. It is hard to look past Padraig (Harrington) winning. He's world number 10 and that says it all. We have some good young players around the region and I would like to think that they could do okay.
Among a cluster of players on one under par was David Higgins, who got into his Arklow hotel room at 1.15am yesterday after coming through final qualifying for the Open at Carnoustie.
That was a superb achievement, and his golf yesterday wasn't too shabby, the Kerryman enjoying Harrington's company and that of defending champion David Mortimer (76). Conditions were positively benign, a freshening lunch-time breeze making it slightly more demanding for the later starters.
The course represented a fair test, even with several tees pushed forward. And with stronger winds forecast it won't be just players flexing muscles for the rest of the tournament.
