Pádraig Harrington

Excellent.

Pádraig Harrington is there playing in his 31st consecutive Irish Open.

Rory McIlroy is the defending champion.

There's a fella called Tom McKibben who's 23, he's from the north.

So certainly something to build on.

Now, Padraig Harrington, incidentally, he actually played beautifully in a bogey-free first 13 holes in the rough conditions yesterday.

But he made late bogeys in a one-over par 71.

Seamus Power shot a 73.

Many people would love to see Shane get over the line and win an Irish Open once again, as he did as an amateur all those years ago.

And then Rory McIlroy back on one under with Padraig Harrington on one over.

So a pretty decent day for the Irish all in all, despite the tough weather conditions.

And when you say tough weather, was it just the wind and the rain? Was that what was the main concern or what was it?

And here on Wednesday, Alan, at the Irish Open, I got a chance to speak to a couple of people that were involved.

Clare Inter-County football star Mark McInerney was caddying in Pádraig Harrington's group.

We'll hear from him later.

Also got a chance to speak with the aforementioned Podge Collins.

Shane Lowry also through nine is also two under par.

So that's the Irish picture with Pádraig Harrington, another past champion, one over par following a 71.

Don't forget as well, we have the Solheim Cup starting tomorrow in the Netherlands with Leona Maguire of Cavan in the European team.

That is the Women's Ryder Cup effectively over three days from Friday to Sunday.

If you used a two-ball putter, it was like, "Oh, man," like, "this guy's using a two-ball.

Like, something must be wrong." Um, and then Patrick Harrington, when he won his majors, was using a, I think for at least two of them, was using a two-ball, um, bla- So it had a, very early on, which we see now as, as a much larger trend, used a, um, a plumber's neck, which is like an Anser-style neck, on a two-ball putter, and won some major championships.

And all of a sudden it's like, "You know, this, uh, maybe that's a good thing to try.

Maybe we should, maybe we should kind of figure this out." And, and they did, and so, and, like, players were like, the stigma behind it changed, and all of a sudden it's like, "Well, if I'm winning more, like, tournaments, why do I care? If I'm putting better, why do I care?" And it's the same again with, like, drivers and, and all of these ideas of forgiveness.

Jorge Campeo of Spain and Brandon Stone of South Africa, both three under par through four holes.

They're one stroke clear of a number of Other players, in terms of Irish players, Seamus Power and Pádraig Harrington have both taken to the course.

They're level power through two and one holes respectively.

And as I mentioned earlier on, you're going to see Rory McIlroy at around 25-2.

Seamus Power tees off at half nine this morning.

Padraig Harrington tees off at 9.40am.

Reigning champion Rory McIlroy gets his title defence underway at 1.35pm and Shane Lowry will tee off later at 10 minutes after that at 1.45pm.

And that is first up for this morning.