GOLF: Padraig Harrington returned to work yesterday. And, for just over four hours, sought to put the illness affecting his father, Paddy, into some sort of neutral zone.

"If I'm going to play, I'm going to play. I don't want my dad's situation to be a motivational factor or a detrimental one. If I've come all this way to play, I had better focus," he remarked after an opening round of five-under-par 67.

In a way, the TPC at Sawgrass provided a sort of sanctuary for Harrington, who has finished runner-up in this championship for the last two years. Over the past few days, the Dubliner has worked with psychologist Bob Rotella to help him focus, to go about getting the job done. "I'd rather not be here, but the fact that I'm here means that I'm going to go out there and try to do my job as professionally as I can," he said.

Of course, there were times that his mind did wander. He wouldn't be human if it weren't so; but, in the main, he performed brilliantly.

"Obviously, I was distracted at times and I did struggle with my concentration. For what reason, I don't know. It could have been for a number of reasons is what I'm saying. But I'm well used to that. I've played golf some days where my focus is off and I'm just trying to get myself home to the clubhouse."

Yesterday, once Harrington walked onto the 10th tee (his opening hole) shortly before 8.20am, it was with high expectations, mainly because he suspected the course was playing as easy as it ever would. "It looks like they used up all the easy pins," Harrington was to remark after posting his 67, which immediately put him into the thick of the hunt. "I can only see tough pins left for 54 holes. When it gets to Sunday afternoon, the course gets so hard and fast that it will be a different story. This course gets substantially tougher when the greens speed up."

The last time Harrington played the back nine of the course he scorched around in a best-of-the-tournament 30 strokes, to finish just a shot adrift of winner Adam Scott. So, if ever a stretch of holes was designed to instil a feelgood factor for Harrington, this 3,505-yard piece of property in north-eastern Florida was it. He didn't disappoint, grabbing four birdies and not dropping a shot to turn in 32.

Over that back nine, his driving was flawless: he never missed a fairway. Harrington picked up his first birdie on the 12th, where he hit a sandwedge to 13 feet, and then grabbed a hat-trick of birdies from the 15th, where he hit a six-iron to eight feet. On the par five 16th, he hit a five-iron on to the green and two-putted from 45 feet; and, then, on the 17th, he struck a lovely eight-iron tee-shot to 12 feet and holed the putt.

The penalty for anyone missing the fairway, though, was emphasised to Harrington on the first hole. Although only three yards into the rough, he could move the ball only 40 yards into a bunker and he failed to get up and down. That was to be his only bogey of the round.

On the 177-yard par three third, his seven-iron almost landed in the hole. He holed the five-footer for birdie. And he claimed his final birdie of the round on the sixth, hitting an eight-iron approach to 12 inches for a tap-in birdie.

He parred his way home, failing to birdie the par five ninth despite a drive of almost 300 yards into the middle of the fairway. When he reached his ball, he discovered a chunk of mud attached to it. "I hate mud balls, I panic," he said.

Indeed, he pushed his approach into heavy rough, could only hack out short of the green, and made a lovely pitch to two feet to save par.

"All in all, I'm pleased with that," observed Harrington, "it's a good return. It keeps you in there . . . on this course, you don't want to be struggling behind.

"I don't feel bad that I could have made more birdies. As long as you're in (the hunt), that's all that counts."