Dredge so pleased after conquering his demons

Bradley Dredge yesterday went a long way towards burying his bitter memories of The Irish Open.

Welshman Dredge,

returning for the first

time to Adare Manor

in County Limerick

since losing a play-off

to Padraig Harrington,

produced a first-round

68 to move into joint

third place, two shots

off the lead shared by

Richard Green of

Australia and India's

Jeev Milkha Singh.

He was particularly

pleased to birdie the

notorious 18th hole

where last year in the

play-off he ran up a

double bogey seven to

hand Harrington the

title.

Dredge said: 'I did

think about that as I

was walking up the

fairway. But the wind

was different this year

to last time I played it

and I hit a nice little

second shot in.'

Harrington could only

shoot level par after

finding the water at

the 18th with an errant

tee shot.