Last month it was Sergio Garcia at Hoylake. Last Sunday it was Luke Donald in Chicago. Now it is Paul McGinley at Firestone in Akron. Playing with Tiger Woods has not been working out well for three of Europe's finest lately.

Garcia and Donald saw hopes of winning their first major title go up in smoke by scoring 73 and 74 respectively. Yesterday McGinley began the Bridgestone world championship with a seven over par 77 - and like Donald did not have a single birdie.

It left the Dubliner, ninth in the Ryder Cup standings with only next week's event in Munich to come, 10 behind the world number one and 14 adrift of overnight leader Adam Scott.

There were only two of the 78 players who scored worse than McGinley and one of them was Lee Westwood with a 79. Westwood lies 23rd on the cup table and only a top-six finish this weekend will keep his hopes of finishing in the top 10 alive.

While he headed straight to the driving range to work on his game - at least with no halfway cut he has three more rounds to turn it round - McGinley said: "It was pure agony on the greens.

"I shaved the hole 12 times. Nothing dropped." He was hoping for much better when he teed off with Woods again today.

The bad news for McGinley was that 10th-placed Jose Maria Olazabal shot 68, but the good was that it takes two players to knock him out of the top 10 and nobody else in the running was figuring prominently.

At eighth in the race Padraig Harrington is suddenly studying the list more closely than he hoped would be the case by now and a 73 was not the start he was looking for either.

"I believed I had done enough after the French Open (he was second to John Bickerton in June), but that's probably not the case now and that will keep my interest going this week, for sure," said Harrington.

Donald and David Howell are two of those not worried about qualifying for their second caps now and they were the best two Europeans in the opening round at Firestone with three under par 67s for a share of fourth place, with among others, Woods.

Howell was competing only four days after a shoulder problem led to him slumping to a closing 82 in the final major of the season.

"I didn't expect much - I'm not going to be perfect all week," said the European Order of Merit leader. "I just wanted to get round and feel better about my shoulder. "Expectations go out of the window, but my short game was good and I made the most of the round. I'm delighted with that."

Donald had been joint leader with Woods with a round to go at the PGA, but came out yesterday with three successive birdies and then had another at his seventh hole. What would he have given for that last weekend?

The 28-year-old led on his own at that point, but bogeyed the 18th, his ninth, after pulling his drive and parred his way in.

Donald, playing with Michael Campbell and Zach Johnson this time, said: "Obviously, I got off to a great start. It seemed very relaxed after last week - not many people watching, a pretty stress-free round.

"It could have been a couple better, but the front nine was very similar to Sunday. I hit good shots, but got nothing out of it."

Like Westwood Ian Poulter needs a top six finish this weekend just to keep alive his hopes of climbing into the top 10. A 71 left him 34th.

Paul Casey, seventh in the Ryder Cup battle, had a 69, but John Bickerton and Stephen Dodd - 13th and 22nd respectively - could do no better than 74s.