Harrington and Rose in the hunt

Padraig Harrington praised the current strength of European golf as Justin Rose joined him in a four-way share of the first-round lead at the Travelers Championship in Connecticut.

Northern Ireland's Graeme McDowell became the third European in a row after English duo Rose and Lee Westwood to complete successive victories in the United States as he won the US Open at Pebble Beach last week.

And after carding an opening six-under-par 64 at TPC River Highlands near Hartford, Harrington said: "It obviously does bode well. The Ryder Cup tends to be hard to win as a favourite team at times, so I'm sure there will be no doubt that the US will maybe try and make out that the Europeans are favoured and try and play that card."

He added: "Certainly the Europeans used it for a long number of years.

"The Europeans are strong. I just dropped out of the automatic qualification, so I have to work hard to get on the team, which means there's plenty of competition, there's plenty of guys there.

"It's not an easy team to qualify for, which is always a good sign that you've got a strong team."

Rose also made an impressive start in his first tournament since winning the Memorial at the beginning of the month.

There have also been victories for England's Ian Poulter and Northern Irishman Rory McIlroy in the US this year.

Seven birdies and just one bogey on the 6844-yard, par-70 course, ranked 36th in difficulty out of the 51 in use on the PGA Tour last year, put Harrington, starting from the 10 tee, into a three-way, one-stroke lead with Australian Mathew Goggin and South Korea's Charlie Wi.

Rose, playing from the first tee, joined the morning trio with five birdies in a row after his lone bogey at the 12th.