Dougherty and Eriksson take opening honours

Briton Nick Dougherty and Sweden's Klas Eriksson fashioned four-under-par 68s to lead the Irish Open by a stroke after Thursday's first round.

It was a tough day for Simon Khan who incurred the European Tour's record fine for slow play, 8,000 pounds ($14,720), for taking 16 seconds too long to play his tee-shot at the 17th.

The 32-year-old Englishman had already been fined 4,000 pounds at the British Masters the previous week and it was his fifth slow play indiscretion in two years.

He shrugged off his woes by shooting a 70 to earlier lie only one shot off the pace but Dougherty and Eriksson's afternoon rounds left him two shots adrift.

Dougherty, 22, the Singapore Masters winner in January, had an eagle on the eighth and caught Eriksson by birdieing three of the last six holes.

"I've been beating myself up since my win and setting the bar at perfection," said the British youngster, a protege of six-times major champion Nick Faldo. "It's taken me a few months to realise you can't win every week."

With the weather not as bad as feared and tees brought forward at seven holes to shorten the 7,301 yards Colin Montgomerie-designed course by 135 yards, scoring was not as high as predicted.

Four players shot 69s to share third place -- Mattias Elisasson, another Swede, Australian Peter O'Malley, Britain's Stephen Dodd and Irishman Colm Moriarty.

Darren Clarke and Padraig Harrington, who called the course 'penal' and 'severe', the day before, had contrasting rounds.

While Clarke is only two off the lead, Harrington, playing in Khan's group, reckoned rushing before Khan got his slow-play warning had cost him three shots by double-bogeying the 14th and bogeying the 15th to leave him five shots off the pace.

Amateur Rory McIlroy, bounced back from his disappointing 82 and 81 on his European Tour debut last week. The 16-year-old Northern Irishman shot a 71 to share 13th place.

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