It used to be only madmen and Englishman who went out into the midday sun.

Triple Major winning Padraig Harrington spent a good three hours near noon yesterday working under a cloudless sky, and in temperatures nudging 30 degrees Celsius on the National Club practice range in Versailles. Players came and other French Open rivals went but Harrington remained right up to around 3pm.

Harrington went through every club in the bag along with four different drivers whilst after a 45-minute luncheon break, he returned to be the range to be greeted by one of the Wilson Staff tour reps with a selection of five new wedges.

By his side was caddy, Ronan Flood and Dr Paul Hurrion, his biomechanics instructor, who had his camera set-up taking the occasional snapshot of his client.

That's nothing new for the perfectionist that is Harrington though the sight of Harrington with just the shaft of a club, attached to his belt buckle, was new. The Dubliner was using the shaft to help with his alignment.

Harrington is contesting this week's €4m French Open as the first of three leading up to his defence of the British Open starting on July 16th at Turnberry.

Surprisingly, Harrington has only contested the French Open once in his career in 2006 when he finished runner-up.

But what's more of a surprise is Harrington's form over recent weeks. He made every halfway this season leading up to the US Masters but since Augusta Harrington's still play four rounds.

Since two rounds of 76 in the US Open, Harrington has continued to work on his game while last week he spent three days working with coach, Bob Torrance at Largs in Scotland.

Harrington has this week's French Open and next Wednesday's starting defence of his Irish PGA title at the European Club in Brittas Bay to get his game back in shape if he's to match Peter Thomson's 1956 record of winning three straight British Open titles.

“This National Club course plays like a links course so along with the European Club, I am working on shots with the Open in mind,” he said.

Meanwhile Ireland will need to move up several gears at Conwy in North Wales today if they are to keep alive their dream of winning three European Amateur team titles in a row.

Under new captain Kevin Flanagan they had a disappointing first stroke-play round and found themselves floundering last night well outside the top eight places with an aggregate of 372. They are in joint 13th spot some 14 strokes behind the eighth-placed sides Denmark and Germany.

None of Ireland's six players broke the par of 72 — and their two form players Niall Kearney and Alan Dunbar frittered away far too many strokes.

Portstewart's Cutler, the hero of the Irish success in Italy last summer when he went through the week unbeaten had halves of 34 and 38 in his level par 72. His one hiccup came at the 467-yard 12th where he dropped two strokes.