European Open: This game of golf can torment your head and torture your soul. For much of this season, Darren Clarke has played so beautifully from tee to green that the greatest wonder of all is that he hasn't won.

Yesterday, in the first round of the Smurfit European Open on the North Course at The K Club, a layout known for its brutish inclinations, his ball-striking was not particularly good and, yet, he played his way into the melting pot. After so many false dawns, he's a contender, again.

Not that Clarke's round of five-under-par 67 - which left him one shot adrift of pacesetters Retief Goosen, Phillip Price and Alastair Forsyth - was easily compiled, and it was made even more difficult by what happened on the 11th hole. It was here, confirming his ball-striking was not what it should be, that his tee-shot firstly hit a tree and then ricocheted off the head of Tracey Leaney, the pregnant wife of his playing partner Stephen, who was standing outside the ropes.

An indication of the impact on Mrs Leaney's head is that the ball was propelled back onto the middle of the fairway, some 35 yards away.

Clarke, apologising repeatedly, was obviously concerned when he discovered just who his prone victim was, while Leaney - runner-up in the US Open last month - tended to his wife before playing his approach shot (into the water) and returning, obviously unclear about whether he should continue playing.

Tracey, who is six months pregnant, suffered a small head wound, which bled, but she remained lucid throughout and was attended to on the course by Dr Roger Hawkes, the European Tour's medical consultant. After attending the on-course medical unit for observation for two hours, she returned to her hotel.

"It's always horrible to hit anyone. And when someone's lying on the ground, you feel terrible. You never know how badly injured they are," said Clarke.

"It was that bad a shot that I managed to hit a tree first before her head . . . and then I felt bad when Stephen's approach shot (to the 11th) trickled into the water, and mine stayed up.

"I shouldn't have hit the ball over there, but unfortunately people do get hit every now and then. It doesn't make you feel any better, but I managed to get back on track."

Remarkably, it's not the first time Clarke has felled another player's wife. In the 1993 British Open at Royal St George's, he recalls a shot hitting Barbara Nicklaus, wife of Jack. "My record's not very good, is it?" inquired Clarke, who added that it took him about three holes to get over it.

Not that his scorecard would indicate that. In fact, it was over this stretch - with him grabbing a hat-trick of birdies from the 12th to the 14th - that Clarke played his way into contention.

"It's good to see that I'm getting benefit of the work I've put in. I've endured a frustrating period where I've played well and scored very poorly, so it is nice to come and strike the ball poorly and post a good score. This game is strange. Sometimes, when you think you've got everything right, one piece goes. I seem to have got my putting right again, but now my ball-striking has disappeared," said Clarke.

On a day of low scoring, Goosen, Price and Forsyth established a course record with rounds of 66, beating the old mark by one. The more remarkable observation, however, was the sheer number of players who beat the par of 72 on a course which has a reputation for being one of the toughest on tour. In all, 46 players broke par and, of those, 19 shot rounds in the 60s.

"I don't think anyone's going to run away with this tournament," observed Goosen.

Clarke and Gary Murphy - who both shot 67s, leaving them in a five-way tie for fourth after the first day's play - head the Irish challenge going into the second round, but it proved to be a disappointing opening day for Padraig Harrington. The promise of early on, when he birdied two of his first three holes, which prompted the on-course bookmakers to slash his odds to 4 to 1 (by day's end he was back out to 16 to 1), didn't carry through, and the world's number eight eventually signed for a one-over-par 73.

"My short game was shocking," confessed Harrington, "and you just can't get away with playing that way on a course like this. I didn't putt well enough. I didn't chip well enough. And I didn't hit my wedges well enough. I was doubting the lines on the greens all the way home. I wasn't striking my putts with any authority.

"But there's no point feeling disappointed, you can't do anything about it. I'll just have to give myself an opportunity over the next three days."

Graeme McDowell, though, shot an opening 69 that left him upbeat.

"I'm a better player than I was a year ago, a more efficient player. I enjoy golf courses that are well framed, and this is one of them. You have to be long and you have to drive the ball really good and I feel comfortable here. There is no better place to play well than at The K Club," he insisted.

The thing is, an unusually high number of players, even those not striking the ball as well as they would like, have managed to score well.

It makes for a wide open tournament - but contenders be warned, this course will bite back. Sooner or later.