As each player in the 156-man field set off in the first round of the Irish Open at Adare Manor yesterday, he might have been forgiven for thinking that a good score was there for the taking. It would not have taken long for a cold dose of reality to set in, however, and one man who was not impressed was Darren Clarke.

On a day when the sun shone and the wind barely got above a gentle breeze, player after player fell foul of a course that hid its nasty side beneath a cover of beauty. At 7,453 yards the course was not playing short, and with narrow fairways, thick cloying rough and tough pin positions the players had little respite.

“The course was ridiculously difficult, particularly some of the pin positions,” Clarke, who had a level-par round of 72, said. “It is disappointing when you see a fantastic Robert Trent Jones Snr design (with) new tees and all of a sudden we are hitting 3-irons to flags that are completely inaccessible.

“It's disappointing for such a good golf course to play in that fashion. It takes all the fun away and the ability to shoot a good score. People come to watch us make birdies, but with the golf course as difficult as it is, that's just not happening. The greens got rock hard (in the afternoon) and they are designed to be hit by much shorter clubs than we were having to hit.” In all, only 29 players bettered par and only two - Jeev Milkha Singh and SSP Chowrasia, both of India - managed to keep a bogey off their cards. Singh finished the day tied for the lead with Richard Green, of Australia, after a six-under-par round of 66 that included four birdies and an eagle, with Chowrasia three shots back.

Two shots off the lead, and in a four-way tie for third, were Bradley Dredge, who lost in a play-off here last year to Padraig Harrington, Marcel Siem, Johan Edfors and Michael Lorenzo-Vera. In the circumstances, such scoring was exceptional, particularly considering that there were countless scores in the 80s, including one of 85 from Eamonn Brady, the nephew of Liam, the former Arsenal footballer.

Among the highlights for Singh was a 40-foot putt for par at the 9th, his last, after he had found bushes at the back of the green with his third shot and had to hack his ball out as best he could. At that stage, he had settled in his mind for a bogey and ended up leaving the green wreathed in smiles.

No wonder.

Harrington, meanwhile, was disappointed with a round of 72 but confident that he can still mount a challenge. “I suppose 72 doesn't look that good when you see six under par, but by the end of the week (that score) won't have played me out of it,” he said.

“With narrow fairways and heavy rough, it's not what I'd be used to playing in the States (except, perhaps, the US Open), where the fairways would sometimes be three times as wide.”