IF Padraig Harrington had waddled off Dundonald’s 18th green and walked across the water to Arran, you probably would have just shrugged your shoulders and said, ‘aye, that figures.’

The 45-year-old seems to be pulling off miracles in nonchalant abandon these days, after all.

Harrington’s five-under-par 67 in the first round of the Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Open, which left him just two shots behind the early pacesetter Mikko Ilonen, was certainly an eye-catching spectacle and one which even left the man himself scratching his head in satisfied bemusement.

Not so long ago, the two-time Open champion was fearing that his golfing career may be over after a player he was giving a lesson to accidentally clattered him on the elbow.

“I didn’t think I would be playing golf so soon after that,” he admitted. His powers of recovery from that savage dunt were pretty impressive and his salvage operation from a wayward drive on the 16th here at Dundonald wasn’t bad either.

All seemed to be lost as everybody rummaged and guddled around in the thick, sodden rough but having managed to locate his ball – he still needed to take a penalty drop due to the appalling lie – Harrington gouged it out some 30 yards short of the green and holed a raking putt for an unlikely par.

As an uplifting encore, the Dubliner then chipped in on the 17th for his birdie after flying the green with his approach.

“It was miraculous,” reflected Harrington of that great escape on 16. “We were lucky to find it. We were looking in a 40 square yard area and it was getting to the point of desperation.

"I gladly would have taken my bogey five and ran off to the next tee but to make a four was a minor miracle.”

At this rate, folk will be rushing to the bookies to shove some money on him winning next week’s Open at the Royal Birkdale venue where he conquered back in 2008. Stranger things have happened.

At the end of a day which saw the current Open champion, Henrik Stenson, start his round with a seven on his first hole en route to a 72, it was the flying Finn Ilonen who had assumed command with a neatly assembled 65.

Having missed his last four cuts, there was hardly much form to cling to but, after starting on the back nine, he charged home in 31 during a profitable surge that included five birdies in six holes.

“It’s the round of my season,” said Ilonen who won the first of his five European Tour titles a decade ago. How Rory McIlroy could do with one of those. His turbulent 74 started with him leaking fours shots on his first holes during a decidedly hum-drum spell in which his wonky wedge play prompted one observer on the other side of the ropes to deliver an insightful analysis of proceedings. "That's s***e," muttered the spectator through clenched teeth. It wasn't quite the erudite musings of Bernard Darwin.

Back at the sharp end of affairs, a posse of players lurk two shots off the lead with Harrington being joined by Rickie Fowler and Ian Poulter, who illuminated his round with a tap-in eagle at the 14th.

Poulter described his game as a "work in progress" but the 41-year-old’s recent upturn in form continues even if he is playing it down. "I will have zero expectations again next week because when you do, you often get a nice surprise," said Poulter, who was second to Harrington the last time Birkdale hosted the Open.

It was pleasant, bright and dry in Ayrshire during the morning but as the day went on the rain appeared, the temperature dropped and the wind picked up.

The Scottish duo of Stephen Gallacher and Richie Ramsay did their bit to rouse the home support, though, with 68s which tucked them in among the early leaders.

Ramsay, fresh from his second place finish in the Irish Open last weekend, kept building on that sturdy showing while Gallacher’s round came alive with a telling thrust on the back nine as he reeled off a trio of birdies at 12, 13 and 14.

“That was a nice wee run because for five holes before that, I was struggling a bit and was just hanging on,” said the 42-year-old former Ryder Cup player who is a veteran of over 20 Scottish Opens down the seasons.

“It was one of those days where it could have got away from me. I had about five or six holes in a row where I hit it in the rough and didn’t have a lie and just had to get it out.

"I didn’t drive it very well today but I kept my head and my short game was sharp. That kept me in it.”

As Harrington proved, it was a day for those powers of recovery.