Overcoming a bad bout of the ‘flu, India’s Jeev Milkha Singh got off to a good start alongside Jyoti Randhawa as Finland’s Mikko Ilonen and Australia’s Tony Carolan fired identical five-under-par 67s to emerge joint first-round leaders in the Ballantine’s Championship at the Pinx Golf Club here on Thursday.

Jeev and Randhawa carded four-under 68s each and were tied third. Jeev overcame the trauma and pain of a freak buggy accident during a pro-am tournament in Kuala Lumpur last week.

“We saw the tree and I told my caddie to brake but instead of braking, he pressed the accelerator and we hit it head on. I went flying through the windscreen, hit my head and was lucky the windscreen was plastic and not glass. Otherwise, I don’t know what would have happened,” recalled Jeev.

Starting at the 10th tee, Jeev came out of the blocks with three birdies in his first four holes before closing at the turn with a double bogey. The 36-year-old, however, bounced back with three successive birdies after the turn to complete a remarkable day.

Jyoti hit a double bogey on the second but fired six birdies -- 4th, 8th, 10th, 11th, 16th, 18th -- to also finish the day at 68.

Among other Indians, Gaurav Ghei carded an even-par 72 (two birdies, two bogeys) to be joint 63rd while Shiv Kapur, with two-over 74 (two birdies, four bogeys), was at joint 98th place.

The tournament’s marquee name, Padraig Harrington, had a slow start, mixing three birdies with two bogeys to finish on one-under 71.

Little-known Carolan, meanwhile, sacked his caddie en route to claiming a share of the lead.
"He was jiggling clubs while I was putting," said Carolan.

"He kept moving too and he also had soft spikes on so he wasn't allowed on the greens.
"He was terrible. I just told him to go (after four holes). I'm paying him $160 a day and he couldn't walk on the greens."