Singapore: Jeev Milkha Singh with a round of two-under 68 was the best Indian to have finished the first round of the ISPS Handa Singapore Classic, which had a curtailed opening day.
Thailand's Thaworn Wiratchant stormed ahead with an opening nine-under 61 to take the clubhouse lead after the first round was suspended due to darkness Thursday at the par 70, 6835 Yards Orchid Country Club course.
Gaganjeet Bhullar, who finished tied second last week at Panasonic Open India, carried on the good work and was three-under through 12 holes with three birdies and no bogeys.
Defending champion Himmat Rai and Jyoti Randhawa were two-under through 12 holes, while Sujjan Singh was also two-under but had played only nine.
Anirban Lahiri was one-under after nine and last week's winner at Panasonic Open India, Digvijay Singh, was even after nine holes.
Among the other Indians who finished their first round, Ajeetesh Sandhu was two-over 72, while Gaurav Ghei shot 73 and Manav Jaini had a 74.
Jeev, who was even after eight with two birdies and two bogeys, added two more birdies but did not drop a bogey for a 68 that gave him a share of 24th place.
Korean-American David Lipsky continued his fine run in his rookie season with a polished 63 to take second place while Sam Cyr of the United States returned with a 66 to take a share of third place with Malaysia's Shaaban Hussin at Orchid Country Club.
Chinese Taipei's Lu Wei-chih, who recorded the event's first hole-in-one on the 13th hole, is at four-under through 12 holes with American Jonathan Moore who has nine holes to play at the USD 400,000 full field Asian Tour event.
Thunderstorms in the afternoon forced two lengthy play suspensions that stretched over three hours. As a result, all 78 players from the afternoon session could not complete their rounds and will have to return at 7.30am (local time) to tee up again.
Thaworn, a 12-time Asian Tour winner, would have set a course record if not for the preferred lies ruling which was in force.
The ISPS Handa Singapore Classic will be beamed live to a world-wide audience on the Asian Tour s global television platform as well as on Singapore's MediaCorp Channel 5 during the weekend rounds.
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