Pádraig Harrington turned a good round into a bad one as a poor finish cost him at the Mexico Open at Vidanta.
Sitting on two-under-par with four holes to play of his opening round, Harrington dropped a shot at the par-4 8th before double bogeying his final hole, the par-3 9th after dragging his tee shot into the water left of the green.
In the end, he had to settle for a one-over 72 which leaves him battling to make the cut and nine shots adrift of Erik Van Rooyen.
South African Rooyen made two eagles in an opening round of 63 a he looks for his second win in Mexico in four months.
Van Rooyen hit 3-iron to 6 feet for eagle on the par-5 sixth hole, and then pitched in on the par-5 12th for a second eagle.
“Greedily, I feel like I left a few out there,” van Rooyen said “Then again, a shot like 6, the 3-iron I had into that par 5 turned out great. I’m not planning to hit it to 6 feet to that flag. A give-and-take in golf, and really happy with the round.
“If I think about Chapultepec a few years ago, the WGC we had there was Kikuyu grass, bent grass greens, that’s what I grew up on. A little bit different here,” van Rooyen said. “I don’t know what it is — got to be the food, the people, the whole shebang.”
Van Rooyen leads by one from Finland’s Sami Valimaki while David Lipsky, Henrik Norlander, and Mr 57, Cristobal Del Solar are a shot further back.
Thorbjorn Olesen and Matt Wallace are three shots back on another leaderboard that has a European feel.
Scoring HERE
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