Jeev loses ground after good start

Jeev Milkha Singh almost made a stunning debut at the PGA tour but was upstaged by the fickle mountain weather of Colorado on the opening day of the $4 million The International, which started at the Castle Pines Golf Club.

The Indian ace was the last to tee off from the difficult tenth hole on Thursday and hit two awesome shots to set up a four-feet birdie putt. But he missed that putt and had to wait for nearly three hours to make his par putt.

As soon as Jeev missed his putt, the hooter went off as a thunderstorm approached the course. After a delay of 70 minutes, play was about to start when a tornado warning was issued and players had to come back to the clubhouse again.

When play resumed after a 174-minute suspension, Jeev completely lost his focus and made a double bogey on the par-3 11th and a bogey on the par-4 12th. Another bogey on the 16th saw him in the lowest rungs of the leaderboard at -5 points.

However, the Hero Honda-sponsored player displayed nerves of steel as he came back strongly with birdies on the first and the third holes before poor light stopped play for good. With six holes to play, Jeev accumulated -1 points.

''I am pretty happy with the way I made the comeback. All is not lost yet and I have got 26 holes to play before the first cut is applied. I lost my focus after the delay but I am sure I will make up for the lost ground in the morning,'' said Jeev after the round.

Lee Janzen, the champion in 1995, used the favourable conditions early in the morning to the hilt and was the clubhouse leader with 17 points. The American, who won the 1998 US Open championship, had a bogey-free round and jumped up the leaderboard by making an eagle on the par-5 17th, followed by a birdie on the 18th. Chris Riley followed him at plus-16, while South Africa-born Rory Sabbatini was third at plus-14 points. American Scott McCarron went without a bogey to be fourth at 13 points.

Janzen, coming from four straight missed cuts, was pleased as punch with his score. ''Seventeen points was totally unexpected. I was hoping for a decent start, but this is beyond my expectations. My putting was the key today,'' said the 37-year-old, who made birdies on the second, third, seventh, ninth,14th and 18th and rolled in a 20-footer eagle putt on the 17th.

Riley, who is currently 115th in the money list and desperately needs a good finish to keep his card for next season, bogeyed his opening hole, the 10th of the course. He was plus-3 at the turn with birdies on the 14th and 17th, and caught fire on the back nine with seven birdies, including five in the last five holes.

"That was pretty amazing. I had a sore throat on wednesday and pulled out of the pro-am. I did not have much expectation and just wanted to have fun out there. And all of a sudden, the putts started dropping,'' said the Californian.

Twice champion and world No 2 Phil Mickelson, and defending British Open champion David Duval shot 11 points, while defending champion Ernie Els opened with a plus-9.

The tournament is played on a modified Stableford scoring system. An albatross fetches +8 points to the players, and eagle +5 while a birdie +2 points. However, a bogey is worth -1 point, while a double bogey or worse would mean a loss of three points.

Scores (after 18 holes): 17 _ Lee Janzen; 16 _ Chris Riley; 14 _ Rory Ssabbatini; 13 _ Scott McCarron; 12 _ Brent Geiberger, Tom Pernice jr, Mark O'Meara, Jose Maria Olazabal (esp); 11 _ Matthew Goggin (Aus), Woody Austin, David Duval, Phil Mickelson, Tommy Tolles, Harrison Frazar, Charles Howell III, Shaun Micheel.

UNI