Randhawa at 55th spot in Dubai golf

Dubai: India's Jyoti Randhawa has made it to the 55th spot while Shiv Kapur is on the 116th place after the first round of the Dubai Desert Classic.

Earlier, world No 1 Tiger Woods shot a five-under par 67 to stand at joint sixth, while defending champion Ernie Els carded a 68.

World No 3 Retief Goosen, Australian Richard Green and Jamie Donaldson of Wales are sharing the lead at 8 under par 64. All three lead by a stroke over the English pair of David Lynn and Ross Bain.

Randhawa played some steady golf as he showed recovery from his rib injury sustained last week in Doha, to return with a card of one-under 71 on the opening day of the $2.4 million tournament.

But that was way behind the three leaders including, world No 3 Retief Goosen, who shrugged off any signs of rust from a six-week break to come out of the blocks with an eight under par 64.

He shared the lead with Australian Richard Green and England's Jamie Donaldson. The leading trio was two ahead of the field.

India's other challenger, Shiv Kapur was struck down by the back-nine blues as he dropped five shots on what was the front half of the course. He finished with a five-over 77 and needed to make a fine charge on second day to make the weekend rounds.

Tiger Woods looking to win his first title in Dubai fired a five-under 67 and was tied sixth with five others including Paul Casey and Nick Dougherty.

Randhawa was tied 55th and Kapur was 116th. Randhawa also opened on back nine and had two birdies and one bogey. He found only 66 per cent greens in regulation.

But once on green, he needed just 28 putts with 10 two-putts and eight single putts.

Kapur started on 10th and had two birdies and two bogeys over a stretch that has three par-5 holes. On the front nine of the course, he dropped five shots and ended at 77.