The Cannes Open proved a horror story for two Irishman and jubilation for another at a Royal Mougins course on the Cote d'Azur at first bathed in morning sunshine and then hit by a fickle and swirling afternoon wind.

Paul McGinley and Padraig Harrington saw their hopes of victory surely blown away in the afternoon but Waterville's David Higgins thrived in the conditions to play his best golf of the year, proving he has finally shaken off his bizarre riding accident of New Year's Eve.

While McGinley and Harrington crashed to 78s when they had started as joint tournament favourites, seven-over-par, Higgins, often helped by "going to school" on his playing-partners' club-selections, had one of only three good rounds in the veering gusts. A very creditable 69 left Higgins only two shots off the four-way tie for the lead held by Englishman David Lynn, who provided earlymorning drama with a hole-in-one at the fifth, Australian Robert Allenby, India's first European Tour player Jeev Milkha Singh and the man all Cannes followers want to win now, local favourite Frenchman Jeff Remesy.

They are one better than the highly-experienced South African Wayne Westner and another Australian, Peter Lonard, who shot his 68 during the wild and unpredictable afternoon when 40 m.p.h. winds suddenly turned into flat calm around the undulations of Royal Mougins.

Then comes Higgins, benefiting from not only enjoying playing with Des Smyth and the affable Robert Lee but also watching them closely as they went first on some holes.

"It was a very enjoyable round and one of my best," agreed Higgins. "I did play well but sometimes I got a bit lucky because it was very tough to choose the right clubs as the wind kept blowing a gale and then dropping completely. That was because I went after the others and learned from what they were doing.

"But it was great to get a good one under my belt and the injury to my right elbow and left wrist is completely healed, a good job in those conditions."

Higgins's early fours on the two opening par-fives with pitches in close, around four feet, gave him confidence and acted as a buffer to bogeys on the seventh and eighth before three big putts of around 20 feet kept him afloat when he had gone into water to bogey the 11th.

He did well to salvage bogey after taking a penalty drop there and his putting was supreme coming home, picking up a shot on the last after being bunkered with his drive.

McGinley earlier had suffered the same fate and that had led to a double-bogey, rounding off a very forgettable day as he dropped all his seven strokes from the 11th, having kept himself going with a strong short-game over the opening nine.

The Dubliner, however, refused to blame his lay-off because of a torn rib cartilage on his indiscretions, saying: "I chipped and putted my way round the first nine, but it all fell totally apart on the back nine. "I know the wind was a factor but to be honest I got a lot of clubs wrong. Then, so did everybody. I missed so many greens and I've got a lot of work to do on my short-game. The touch isn't there and my feel on the long game's gone as well."

There is thus a mountain to climb for him and Harrington like the nearby Alps. Harrington could not find a birdie in his 78 and dropped shots throughout the round, doing well to cushion his finish by scrambling a six on the last after going into the lake. He said: "I just played terribly and kept getting the clubs wrong going in. Then I chipped and putted terribly when I did get there, not a good combination."

Eamonn Darcy showed he is recovering from his lower-back problems with a solid morning 71 to be only four off the pace and there was a fine 72 from Philip Walton in the afternoon winds, a score matched by Christy O'Connor Jnr, despite watching an approach career straight-left for no apparent reason on the 16th to inhibit his finish. Raymond Burns, Francis Howley and a not-so-lucky playing-partner to Higgins, Des Smyth, had to settle for 74s, while Cameron Clark brought up the rear for Ireland with a 79.

Clark lives only a few miles from co-leader Lynn but the Staffordshire front-runner could have been in a different country as far as results went yesterday. Lynn grabbed an early lead with a stunning shot into the short fifth, holing in one with a seven iron over 155 yards and went on to set the target. On a crazy day, Spain's Miguel Martin repeated the feat a few minutes later.

As if aggrieved, the course bit back as the afternoon winds took their toll.