Gangjee lies fifth, Jeev ninth at Singapore Open

Fresh from his American experience, Rahil Gangjee carded a flawless six-under 65 to position himself in tied fifth place, while Jeev Milkha Singh was tied ninth after the opening round of the USD 6 six million Barclays Singapore Open golf.

Gangjee rolled in six birdies against no bogeys in windy conditions.

Jeev, showing tremendous resilience in playing through a pain barrier and armed with "renewed confidence" in his game, brought home a five-under 66, which could have been slightly better but for the only flaw of the day - a bogey on the 18th.

He was tied for ninth with 12 others, including an amateur.

Gangjee and Jeev's showings were among a string of low scores at the Tanjong Course, where Edoardo Molinari and James Morrison blazed through with a nine-under 62 each. Both had 10 birdies - Molinari had six on the back nine - against one bogey each.

There were four other Indians with sub-par rounds as Anirban Lahiri (69) was 54th and Chiragh Kumar, Himmat Rai and SSP Chowrasia carded 70 each to be tied 81st. Things were not too good for the rest, however, as Shiv Kapur was one-over 72 in 126th and Jyoti Randhawa, Gaganjeet Bhullar, Mukesh Kumar, Rashid Khan and Digvijay Singh shot 73 each to be tied 140th in the 204-player field.

Ashok Kumar shot 74 while Gaurav Ghei (78), Sujjan Singh (78) and Manav Jaini (80) may well have shot themselves out of the tournament.

Gangjee, who spent the entire season traveling and playing on the Nationwide for 25 weeks, said, "The American experience has toughened me. I am looking forward to going back next year and build on all that I learnt this year. The way I played was a result of all the hard knocks one has to face on a tough tour like in the US."