Europeans stay in hunt

Three of Europe's big hopes for ending a 31-major victory drought enjoyed solid opening rounds in the Open Championship at Carnoustie.

Ireland's Padraig Harrington recorded a 69, Luke Donald a 70 and Nick Dougherty a 71 to stay in the hunt to become the first European major champion since Paul Lawrie here eight years ago.

"I'm very pleased with the score, I did a lot of good things all the way through," said Harrington, who was equally pleased to see Ryder Cup and World Cup team-mate Paul McGinley card a 67. "It's hard to lead a tournament like this for three or four days, so I'm in a good position and 69 is a good return. Just have to keep doing more of the same."

World number nine Donald looked on course for something even better when he stood three under with three to play, but the 29-year-old fell foul of the tough closing stretch with bogeys at the 16th and 18th.

"I played fine," Donald said. "There were some good opportunities for birdies early on but the back nine, and in particular the 12th, 15th, 16th, 17th and 18th are very tough holes and I started to hit a few wayward shots coming down the stretch.

"I had to hit a driver, then a three wood on the 18th (a 499-yard par four) and was still 15 yards short.

"But under par in a major is never bad, it's a good steady start. I'm disappointed I didn't hit better shots down the stretch but overall pretty pleased."

Dougherty, who led after the first round of the US Open at Oakmont and went on to finish seventh, has now played an amazing 21 rounds at Carnoustie without shooting over par and joked: "I'm keeping the dream alive.

"Level par is a good start considering I wasn't fully on my game. The finish here can easily take three or four shots off you. I'm very pleased with my position."