He eagled the 540-yard seventh and then hit his tee shot to five feet on the ninth to turn in 32 and when he started the inward half with two more birdies he was two clear of the field.

When he bogeyed the 16th he dropped alongside Scotland’s Stephen Gallacher, who had a hat-trick of birdies from the third, but two closing birdies enabled him to reach eight under and so match the course record of Eduardo Romero and Colin Montgomerie set in 1991.

Meanwhile, South African Retief Goosen took another step towards the Order of Merit title with a 66.

Only Darren Clarke can stop Goosen succeeding Lee Westwood, but the race will be over if the US Open champion continues as he started.

He kept a bogey off his card, and a pitch to three feet on the 349-yard last took him into a share of third place with Welshman Phil Price.

Despite winning more than £1m, Harrington will not look back with total glee on the year unless he can capture at least one title.

He was disgusted with himself for losing the World Match Play final to Ian Woosnam from three up with 12 to play but he blames that on forgetting to eat.

Harrington was making sure today he remembered to eat his supply of bananas and energy bars at regular intervals.

‘‘One of my old habits is that I lose concentration when I don’t eat properly, and that’s what happened against Woosie,’’ said Harrington.

‘‘I eat bananas or energy bars every three holes. But because I had lunch between the rounds at Wentworth and we were a two-ball playing quickly I didn’t do it.’’

Harrington said: ‘‘I’m delighted, especially with the two birdies to finish with. That

always makes lunch taste better.

‘‘I played very aggressively, but I put a couple of shots down to poor concentration again. Not through lack of food this time, though, but down to tiredness. I feel shattered.’’

Gallacher finished with an eighth birdie of the day for a 64 and Spaniard Carlos Rodiles birdied three of the last four to move into third place on six under.

Meanwhile, Goosen said: ‘‘I’m not very happy with the way I’m hitting the ball at the moment and I tried something different on every shot, so I’m very pleased with the score.

‘‘I think playing in the wind threw my rhythm off, but I tried to think positively and I was able to take advantage of the par fives and then hit a good pitch at the last.’’

Latest leaderboard:

8 under - Padraig Harrington (after 18 holes)

7 under - Stephen Gallacher (18)

6 under - Carlos Rodiles (Spa) (18)

5 under - Phillip Price (18), Retief Goosen (Rsa) (18), Barry Lane (18),

Andrew Marshall (18)

4 under - Greg Owen (18), Mark Roe (18), Johan Rystrom (Swe) (18),

Des Smyth (9)

Other:

2 under - Darren Clarke (9)