GOLF WGC BRIDGESTONE INVITATIONAL:COMETH THE hour, cometh the man. The real Pádraig Harrington is finally back.

Just when it looked as though he was about to slink off to the range to work himself out of a slump that has seen him miss eight cuts from 16 strokeplay starts this season and slip from third to 17th in the world, the Dubliner raced two strokes clear of the field when he opened with a sensational, six-under par 64 in the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational at Firestone Country Club.

Never better than 12th here — a result he recorded on his debut in 1999 — Ireland’s triple major winner finally showed his true colours when he blasted six birdies in an immaculate performance that will be a massive boost to his confidence ahead of his US PGA Championship defence at Hazeltine National next week.

It was Harrington’s lowest ever round at this venue — a stroke better than the five-under-par 65 he recorded in the second round in 2002, when he finished tied for 27th.

More significantly, it was his best round of the year by two clear strokes and left him two clear of Thailand’s Prayad Markasaeng, South Africa’s Tim Clark and American Scott Verplank.

Playing partner Verplankl was high in his praise for Harrington. “This (Harrington’s) was the best round of golf I gave seen at this venue,” said the American, who carded four-under-par 68.

Harrington said: “It’s my best score of the year. The first six months had a purpose. I was working on things and I suppose I said it was time to go and play some golf. The last couple of weeks at home I was more focussed on my overall game, whereas for the first six months of the year I was focussed on my swing.

“What has really showed up to me this year is that at times I have made changes in the past but my short game has really been tidy, so you couldn’t really see that I was making changes. This year my short game has been poor and every errant shot I hit on the golf course was magnified. I wasn’t getting up and down and I didn’t have any part of my game working well. When you are making a change you have to make sure that some part of your game is good.”

True, he hit jut seven of 14 fairways but his short game was back to its magical best, especially the putter. He holed three putts from over 20 feet on three of his last four holes.

Starting on the back nine on the famed South Course, Harrington began with a birdie at the 10th, firing a wedge to eight feet for a perfect start and then showed that the hard work he has done on his short game recently has not been for naught.

Having saved par from around six feet at the 11th and 13th to remain on one under par, he moved up a gear around the turn.

A birdie at the par-five 16th, where he laid up 93 yards from the water protected green and holed a slick 10 footer down the hill, was quickly followed by two more in quick succession and a great par save.

At the first, he wedged to 12 feet off a perfect drive and then two- putted from 25 feet at the 526-yard second to draw level with clubhouse leaders Marksaeng and Clark, who had opened with four under par 66’s.

Then at the tough, 469 yard sixth, he flashed a greenside bunker shot 21 feet past the hole but rammed home the par saver to remain at the top of the leaderboard.

Having survived a scare there, Harrington hit a 227-yard hybrid to 26 feet and drained the putt to move clear at the top. But there was still more magic to come.

At the eighth his 143 yard approach finished 23 feet away but he waved his putter like a wand once more and drained that one too to move to six under par and two shots clear of a pair of short hitters — five feet four inch Marksaeng and Clark, who is just five feet seven.

While all this was going on, Tiger Woods opened his bid of a seventh win in this event with an two-under-par 68 while world number two Phil Mickelson produced three back nine birdies to card a level par 70 on his return to the tour after a six week absence to help his wife Amy and mother Mary in their battles with breast cancer.

The 38 year old Californian was rusty on his front nine, where he ran up a double bogey six at the 11th, taking four to get down from no more than 20 feet from the pin.

He was three over par through the turn, but somehow manage to bounce back with three birdies on his homeward nine and remain on the fringes of contention.

Reflecting on his lay off, Mickelson said: “I missed playing golf, and I missed competing. I missed both of those aspects, and in the off-season I enjoyed taking that time off, I enjoyed being away from the game. This was different.

“I think that I’ve just been playing golf as a kid ever since I was a little kid. I’ve just loved playing golf. I’ve always loved competing, whether it was for a soda, a golf ball, tees, or on the PGA TOUR for huge purses.

“I missed the competition. I also just miss being on the golf course. It’s where I’ve grown up, and I just love this game of golf.”

Just 79 players will tee it up in today’s second round following the withdrawal with a rib injury of England’s Paul Casey, the world number three, after just six holes.

“I think I strained an intracostal,” said Casey, who was level par at the time.

“I actually did it a couple of weeks ago, a week before the British Open, hitting drivers with my coach.”

Now a serious doubt for next week’s US PGA, Casey added: “I’ve got to be careful because there’s a lot of important golf left — FedExCup, Race to Dubai, a lot of big stuff.”

Darren Clarke, the 2003 champion, opened with a respectable, one over par 71.