Padraig Harrington joint leader in Connecticut

PADRAIG Harrington took a share of the early clubhouse lead in Connecticut as the first wave of players completed their opening rounds at the Travelers Championship.

With Northern Ireland's Graeme McDowell following Justin Rose and Lee Westwood and completing a hat-trick of successive European victories in the United States last week when he won the US Open at Pebble Beach, Irishman Harrington kept the flag flying with an opening six-under-par 64 at TPC River Highlands near Hartford.

Seven birdies and one bogey on the 6,844-yard, par-70 course, ranked 36th in difficulty out of the 51 in use on the PGA Tour last year, put the three-time major winner into a three-way, one-stroke lead with Australian Mathew Goggin and South Korea's Charlie Wi.

American quartet Bubba Watson, Kevin Sutherland, Ben Curtis and US Ryder Cup captain Corey Pavin were all a shot in arrears after each posting 65s with six players in the clubhouse with 66s.

Swedish pair Carl Petterson and Mathias Gronberg shot three-under 67s with Australians Adam Scott, Rod Pampling and Michael Sim as well as Retief Goosen of South Africa posting 68s, four shots off the pace.

Defending champion Kenny Perry, who shot an opening course-record-equalling 61 12 months ago, was in a group finishing at one under, as was Scotland's Martin Laird and Englishman Brian Davis, while Memorial champion Rose got his opening round off to a good start, moving to one under after two holes with a birdie at the par-four second.

One of the reasons Corey Pavin is playing at the Travelers Championship is to keep in contact with potential Ryder Cup team members.

"Obviously Phil (Mickelson] is going to be on the team," Pavin said. "I'm guessing that Jim (Furyk] and A.K. (Anthony Kim] are probably on the team as well. I've liked the way it's shaping up, the way the first 20 guys are. There's people I want to see there. Part of watching the top eight is trying to figure out who's not going to be in the top eight."

One who climbed into the top eight is Tiger Woods, who is now seventh in the Ryder Cup standings after his tie for fourth at the US Open. "I think he's going to make the team on points and I know he wants to," Pavin said. "I want him to be on the team. He's the best player in the world."

As for how Pavin will go about deciding who his four captains picks will be, he said that he'll get "plenty of input" from his four assistant captains and the top eight players on the team.