Goosen fails to exploit Harrington's poor start

One of Padraig Harrington or Retief Goosen will win the Order of Merit on Sunday but after the first round here it is probable that neither will do it in the grand manner by winning the Volvo Masters as well. Poor starts were the order of the day as Harrington opened with a three-over-par 74 while Goosen had a 73.

The pair languished in the lower reaches of the leaderboard far behind Angel Cabrera, whose 63 was one outside the Valderrama course record. This was an exceptional round from the big-hitting Argentinean – only Bernhard Langer has ever scored lower – and gave him a four-stroke lead over Phillip Price.

Harrington, who trails Goosen by £14,500 on the money list, could not have had a worse start. He pulled his drive but his problems started when he left his second shot just on the fringe to the left of the green. Such is the immaculate condition of the course, fringes here are as good as most people's greens, probably better.

"It was in shadow as well and at first I didn't think I was off the green," Harrington said. The Irishman repaired a pitch mark which was on his line but it was only when he got back to his ball that "the alarm bells started ringing" and he realised he was off the green. Pitch marks may only be repaired when a player is on the green, otherwise there is a two-stroke penalty under rule 13-2. Harrington called the penalty on himself although he did check with a referee.

"I knew the rule so I knew straight away. No one else had seen it," Harrington said. "I tried to forget about it but it is not the way you want to start. I am not good enough to give two shots to the field before we start."

Goosen, however, failed to take advantage and lost a ball on the par-five 11th for a double-bogey seven.

But it is the par-five 17th which has always been controversial since it was redesigned by Seve Ballesteros with a pond in front of the treacherous green. Above the green sits the President's Suite, where its landlord, the Valderrama supremo Jimmy Patino, was entertaining the Andalucian tourist minister to an exquisite lunch. Unfortunately, the golf at the time comprised successive scores of eight, six, eight, seven.

The hole provided every score from Ignacio Garrido's eagle-three to the 10 of Gary Evans. Harrington pulled his five-wood second shot – Cabrera had only a seven-iron after a huge drive of 340 yards – into the pond and then pitched over the green from the drop zone. He gained some compensation for the double-bogey with a birdie at the last after hitting his approach from out of the trees.

"It's no consolation that Retief played poorly," Harrington said. "Us finishing last and second last is no good to me. We talked a little, about motor cars and the weather but it will be less of a distraction not playing with him tomorrow." The players will be paired in score order for today's second round.

Price, the Ryder Cup hero who beat Phil Mickelson, is currently shuttling across the Atlantic and will return to Florida next week for the second stage of the US Qualifying School. He came third in his first stage pre-qualifier after the event was moved to Florida following six days of rain in Texas. "Sometimes I don't know why I am doing it," he said. "But since The Belfry I am definitely playing with more self-confidence."

Valderrama scores

FIRST ROUND (GB and Irl unless stated): 63 A Cabrera (Arg). 67 P Price. 68 S Dyson, B Davis, F Jacobson (Swe), B Dredge, S Tinning (Den). 69 M Lafeber (Ned), J Sandelin (Swe), A Cejka (Ger), S Garcia (Sp). 70 R Green (Aus), C Pettersson (Swe), T Levet (Fr), I Garrido (Sp), C Montgomerie. 71 J Moseley (Aus), M Mackenzie, S Hansen (Den), N Fasth (Swe), B Langer (Ger), J Rose, E Romero (Arg). 72 P O'Malley (Aus), J Spence, A Coltart, D Gilford, G McDowell, C Rocca (Ita), R Karlsson (Swe), A Scott (Aus), P Lawrie, T Immelman (SA). 73 C Rodiles (Sp), B Lane, S Leaney (Aus), I Poulter, I Woosnam, J M Olazabal (Sp), D Clarke, R Goosen (SA). 74 D Gleeson (Aus), G Owen, R Johnson (Swe), P Harrington.