Jeev Milkha Singh returned an even-par 72, while Jyoti Randhawa recovered from a mid-round collapse to settle for a two-over 74 on the opening day of the Mercedes-Benz championship at the Golf Club Gut Larchenhof here on Friday.
The slow start left Jeev tied for the 49th spot, while Randhawa was in joint 65th spot.
At the top, England’s Lee Westwood equalled the lowest score of his career when he fired a brilliant 11-under 61 in the opening round for his four-shot lead over Denmark’s Soren Hansen (65).
Jeev, who has not been able to capture the form that gave him four titles last year, had a string of 13 pars after starting from the first.
He fired his birdie on 14th, but had a disappointing end to his day after dropping a shot on the 18th. The seasoned pro found just five of the 14 fairways and there lay his problem as he needed 28 putts.
Randhawa, on the other hand, had a birdie start, but gave away a double bogey on the second. Another bogey followed on seventh and with two more on 10th and 14th, he was four-over and struggling.
An early starter, Westwood struck 10 birdies and an eagle in his round as the 34-year-old once again found Germany to his liking.  His previous best score of 61 as a professional came in 1998 at the Deutsche-Bank SAP Open.
Atwal disappoints
Arjun Atwal’s quest to regain US PGA Tour card had dealt a blow as he returned a disappointing three-over 75 in the opening round of the Oregon Classic presented on the Nationwide Tour, adds PTI from Oregon (United States).
The poor start left Atwal at the tied 130th spot and the Orlando-based Indian will need a very low second round card to make the halfway cut.
There was an eight-way lead at the top. Jason Day, Roland Thatcher, Todd Fischer, Daniel Summerhays, Matthew Jones, Mike Heinen, Kelly Grunewald and qualifier Alex Prugh matched the Nationwide Tour record for most players to share the first-round lead. The leaders shot 6-under 66.
Atwal opened well with birdies on first two holes, but then fell back. He bogeyed the fourth, double bogeyed the sixth, dropped another shot on the eighth before stumbling to a triple bogey the 11th.
The former Asian Tour number one managed to recover a bit with birdies on the 13th and the 18th but the damage had been done.
Atwal is currently 43rd on the Nationwide Money List and needs to get inside top-25 for a full card to the US Tour.