Abu Dhabi: India’s Jeev Milkha Singh enjoyed a bogey-free first round at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship on Thursday to finish the day at an impressive four under par, four shots off the lead at Abu Dhabi Golf Club.
Singh, who played alongside An Byeong-hun of South Korea and England’s Paul Waring, had just one birdie on the front nine but picked up the momentum later in the day. He started the back nine with a birdie on the 10th hole and then added two more on 13 and 16 to finish on a high.
“It was good as I played rock solid — really happy starting out with a 68 today,” said a visibly pleased Singh after his outing.
“I did everything well and the only thing I need to do now is a little bit more improvement with the driver. I want to build my confidence with it and, as the confidence keeps coming, the scores will show
Singh was of all praise for the changes at the National Course, saying: “The course is in excellent condition and, if you hit the rough, then you get punished. Today I think the flags were generous and, as the week goes on, it’s going to get tougher and that’s when the changes are going to come into effect.”
Singh has been recommended surgery on his troublesome shoulder, but he is not keen on going under the knife and for the time being was happy using cortisone injections to keep the inflammation in check.
“There is still pain but I got another cortisone injection and it has freed the shoulder a little bit. I’m happy the way it is,” said Singh, who will be heading from here to play tournaments in Qatar, Dubai, Malaysia, Thailand and India as he plays for six weeks in a row.
His countryman and new golfing sensation Anirban Lahiri, on his maiden European Tour season, finished level par after round one.
But the 27-year-old, who was voted the Asian Tour’s 2014 Players’ Player of the Year, feels he could have done better.
“It was a struggle but the conditions were very good for scoring. I didn’t find many fairways and that’s because it’s the first week back after a long break. My game is a little bit rusty and I’m straight away going to hit the range now and try and hit it better tomorrow.”
