Asian OpenPadraig Harrington admitted a touch of over-confidence proved costly as he opened the defence of his Asian Open title with an even-par round in Shanghai yesterday.
That left him six shots behind clubhouse leader Simon Dyson of England, but the talk of the day was the 67 produced by Greg Norman, who qualifies to play on the Champions Tour next year.
Norman sank five birdies and produced a gutsy effort to save par on the last, which included an unconventional approach from the 16th fairway, to record a bogey-free round of 67 and head into the second round in a four-strong group on five under par.
Joining the Australian one off the pace were KJ Choi, riding the crest of a wave after his third-place finish at the Masters, Thailand's Prayad Marksaeng and Asian Tour veteran Greg Hanrahan.
It was a good day also for Paul McGinley, one shot further back on 68, the same as Australia's Marcus Both.
World number eight Harrington has an enviable record in this part of the world, including victory late last year at the Hong Kong Open, and felt his fifth-place finish in Macau last week had been ideal preparation.
"I do like coming to Asia and I have been reasonably successful here in the past," Harrington had said.
But what transpired was a round which lacked consistency and he dropped from a promising position on three under par after 12 holes.
"I was happy with how I played but there were just a couple of mistakes in the last few holes," Harrington said.
"There are some tough holes but there is not much more to it, maybe some over-confidence but besides that I'm pretty happy with the way I played."
Harrington's mood was helped little by a farcical situation on the last when it appeared no one was watching the leading drawcard complete his opening round at the biggest golfing event ever staged in mainland China.
Having driven into the trees, Harrington punched his second shot into the water that guarded the green.
But with sponsors BMW insisting on invitation only entry to the event, there was hardly a gallery to speak of and none of the sprinkled onlookers caught which water hazard the ball splashed into.
"I saw it going down the cart track, and after that I don't know where it went," said Harrington, who had alerted an official and appealed in vain to the gallery for help.
A television crew did confirm the ball had hit the water, but could not say whether it was in the front or back hazard.
Eventually, Harrington accepted the decision to take a penalty drop from the more "conservative" position.
Harrington was looking forward to an early start at the Tomson Golf Club today and his chance to eat into the winner of the 2000 Asian PGA Order of Merit winner Dyson's lead.
"Tomorrow is another day," he said. "You get no wind in the morning and hopefully I'll do a bit of a score. The course is nice, the scores are there to be done. The scoring reflects nicely that the course is very playable."
While Harrington headed straight for the practice range and chipping green, 49-year-old Norman followed his round with a 45-minute golf clinic for corporate guests and was in buoyant mood.
It is six years since his last tournament win, a decade since he tasted success on the European Tour and his creaky back remains a constant concern, but the Great White Shark has the scent of an unlikely victory.
"Yes, I do think I can win the thing," he declared emphatically.
"Sometimes the travel is not great on my back but I've felt pretty good, which makes me feel relaxed in my mind about being able to play."
(Eng unless stated, Irish in bold; par 72)
66 S Dyson
67 P Marksaeng, G Hanrahan (US), KJ Choi (Kor), G Norman (Aus)
68 P McGinley (Irl), A Cejka (Ger), M Both (Aus), M Eliasson (Swe), D Drysdale (Sco), C Spence (Aus)
69 J Kingston (Rsa), G Rusnak (US), R Ponce (Ecu), A Groom (Aus)
70 B Ruangkit, J Randhawa (Ind), C Kamps (Rsa), C Plaphol (Tha) , C Gane, C Monasterio (Arg), G Paddison (Nz), G Emerson, E Mizuguchi (Jpn), LW Zhang (Chn), J Cheetham, P Meesawat (Tha), E Loar (USA)
71 M Cort, E Little (Sco), D Terblanche (Rsa), U Park (Aus), L Shang (Tpe), B Saltus (US), D Chia, B Teilleria (Fra), G Bourdy (Fra), MA Jimenez (Spn), C Williams (Wal), B Akstrup (Den), K Brink (Swe), S Struver (Ger), C Reimbold (Ger), A Raitt, J Milkha Singh (Ind), F Widmark (Swe)
72 S Walker, G Hutcheon (Sco), D Dixon, E Lee (Aus), H Kahlon (Ind), M Nilsson (Swe), T Wiratchant (Tha), H Buhrmann (Rsa), S P Webster, A Singh (Ind), JK Mo (Kor), R Gangjee (Ind), F Henge (Swe), J Kok (Rsa), P Harrington (Irl), JF Lucquin (Fra), M Lundberg (Swe)
73 S Barr (Aus), I Garbutt, C Wi (Kor), P Eales, A Pitts (USA), M Cunning (US), J Johnson (US), M Sung (Tpe), K H Han (Mya), D Gleeson (Aus), WH Wu (Tpe), T Oh (Kor), J Dawes (Aus), D Fung (Hkg), T Milford, J Sandelin (Swe)
74 M Farry (Fra), P Spargo (Rsa), B Barham, YC Chen (Tpe), R Moir (Aus), J Knutzon (US), H Walters (Rsa), E Michaels (Tha), S Ishigaki (Jpn), CB Lam (Sin), M Mamat (Sin), P Purhonen (Fij), E Rush, A Fraser (Aus), GS Choi (Kor), N Sato (Jpn), B Kennedy (Aus), S O'Hara (Sco), A Johl (Ind), G Rosales (Phi)
75 T Pilkadaris (Aus), TC Wang (Tpe), D Gaunt (Aus), S Yates (Sco), S A Lindskog (Swe), H Nystrom (Swe), Z Scotland, HR Gu (Tpe), K Felton (Aus), T Whitehouse, TT Chen (Tpe), ZG Xia (Tpe), P Del Olmo (Mex), M Kirk (US), WT Lu, A Balicki (Fra), B Banks, M Pendaries (Fra), G Rojas (Arg)
76 J Berendt (Arg), A Kang (Kor), GJ Liu (Tpe), WT Lin (Twa), A Tani (Jpn), J Chung (Kor), P Giles (Aus), P Dwyer, A Ljunggren (Swe), WC Liang (Chn), J Axgren (Swe)
77 A McLean, O Nordberg (Swe), C Devers (USA), R Rashell (US), R Gibson (Can)
78 HT Zheng (Chn), S Davis, N Van Rensburg (Rsa), SM Lee (Kp), V Phillips, TC Chen (Tpe), US Mundy (Ind)
79 ZJ Xiao (Tpe), M Persson Atlevi (Swe), GM Liao (Chn), ZF Qiu (Tpe), WK Lin (Kor)
80 G Norquist (USA)
81 C Li (Chn), JC Xiao (Tpe), YG Zhong (Tpe), A Presnell (Aus), YH Huang (Tpe)
82 WG Zheng (Hkg)
83 HF Cao (Chn)
84 YL Lai (Tpe)
85 J Torines (Swe).
