US PGA Championship: Pádraig Harrington's chances of defending the US PGA Championship imploded in the space of a few short minutes when he found the water not once but twice at the short par three seventh. The sorry saga was unfortunately reminiscent of last week's disaster at the Bridgestone that put paid to his challenge when going toe-to-toe with Tiger Woods.

The defending champion played a poor tee shot at the 176 yard eighth and found water right of the green. After moving to the drop zone he pulled his pitch way left of the green. Matters were compounded when he played a very amateur fourth and skulled it through the green and back into the water.

Drop number two and shot number six and the Dubliner still didn't find the green as he left his pitch short. He eventually found the edge of the green and rolled up to five feet in seven and holed a good putt for a card-wrecking eight.

Instead of contending for the final major of the year Harrington played himself right out of contention as he dropped from six-under to one-under and outside the top 10.

It was unfortunately almost a carbon-copy of last week’s drama where Harrington ran up a triple bogey eight at the 16th in the Bridgestone when he was going to-to-toe with Woods. Like today he played a clumsy pitch in Akron and fired the ball through the green and into the hazard.

The sorry state of affairs came out of the blue for Harrington had been motoring along steadily with seven straight pars up to that point. At six-under he was only one shot behind Woods with thoughts of contending for his fourth major. That’s all gone now.

Elsewhere Rory McIlroy may run out of holes but after starting with the double bogey the 20-year-old stormed up the leaderboard and within touching distance Woods’ lead.

The 20-year-old ran up a double at the first before reeling off three birdies on the spin from the third to get back to two-under. From there he added another to turn in 34, four off the lead.

By that point it there was further change at the top too for Woods was struggling after he ran up his first bogey at the fourth then made another bogey at Harrington’s disaster seventh hole to be two-over for the day.

At six-under he was joined in the lead by playing partner YE Yang from Korea, who was level through six.

Graeme McDowell was one-over for the day and the tournament through 13 holes.