Pádraig Harrington made his PGA Tour Champions return after a short break and shot a seven-under 65 to take sole possession of third place at the Ally Challenge at Warwick Hills.
The four-time Senior Major Champion made eight birdies in total, with a dropped shot on 17 the only blemish on his card, and he trails Vaughan Taylor by two and John Rollins by one.
“Yeah, you know, it’s not that I can’t play well,” Harrington said afterwards, referring to earlier comments that suggested it wasn’t a course he’d had good history with. “I obviously, I played reasonably well and I holed a few putts, so I ran with it. I said I find it hard to hit the fairways.
“But I think it’s interesting, it’s firmed up a lot so I can be a bit more conservative off the tee and it’s working nicely. I hit a lot of 3-woods, a few 5-woods off the tee. You hit the fairway, it goes out there forever.
“So I think I really didn’t get myself in many places like 18, where I think 18 and maybe a little bit on 10 where I’m in the rough and I’m blocked out. That’s the problem here, when you hit it in the rough, it’s generally a tree between you and the green and with things being as firm as they are, it’s difficult to control it. I kept it in play very nicely today.”
Harrington wasn’t the only Irishman in the field. Chris Devlin, continuing from his impressive performance at the Senior U.S. Open, shot a three-under 69 to end the day tied for 21st.
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