Padraig Harrington carded a six over par 76 after his first round at the 2009 U.S. Open at Bethpage Back course in Farmingdale, New York and has a little work to do in his second round to make the cut.

Harrington had a poor start to play on the rain soaked first day of play on Thursday, going four over par through six before play was stopped. The Dubliner was relatively upbeat after the round, saying that it was a long tournament with 66 holes to go.

The 37-year-old came out on Friday morning with playing partners Tiger Woods and Angel Cabrera and again had a bad start, bogeying two of his first three holes to go out in 41, or six over par. 

The back nine saw him start with two pars and bogey before back to back birdies on 13 and 14 brought him right back into the middle of the field on five over.

Harrington’s good work was canceled out by a double bogey after some poor putting on 15 to take him back to seven over par.

Despite the up and down scoring, Harrington did not play badly on the back nine, and it was his putter that seemed to cause him the most problems.

However, the last three holes of the Irishman’s round will certainly give him a boost ahead of Saturday’s play. Two good pars on 16 and 17 were followed by a great last hole.

The Dubliner chose driver off the 18th tee and skyed it into a fairway bunker. His second shot was a brilliant effort out of the sand to give him a 10-footer for birdie. He duly holed that to card a six over par 76 that gives him something to work with. Judging by his smile at the end of the round, the triple major winner looked relieved not to be too out of touch after the first 18 holes.

Harrington's playing partners Tiger Woods and Angel Cabrera also had challenging rounds.  Woods went four over in the last four holes to end up with a 74 for the day (+4 for the tournament) and Masters champion Cabrera shot also shot a 74.

Graeme McDowell shot a one under par 69 and is currently in a tie for first place in the clubhouse.