Gaurav Ghei may well have wished the hooter had gone off a few minutes before it actually did to signal suspension of play on the opening day of the $5 million Singapore Open golf tournament Thursday.
The rain had begun to get heavy and there was a threat of lightning, and Ghei, till then two-under and second on the leaderboard, dropped a triple bogey. From two-under, he slipped to two-over and minutes later play was called off with Ghei on the 13th and down to 19th place.
Ghei, currently 25th on the Money List, birdied the 13th, 15th and the 18th and dropped a bogey on 14th and a triple on the par-4 12th.
Local man Singapore's Lam Chih-bing was the early leader at the wet Serapong course at four-under par after 13 holes. He started on the 10th and had four birdies on the back stretch, before parring the first four on his second nine. Five players, including China's Zhang Lian-wei, Australian Darren Beck, second at the Hero Honda Indian Open last month, were all at one-under and three behind Chih-bing.
Among other Indians, Arjun Singh (after 10) and Gaganjeet Bhullar (after 9) were two-over, Jyoti Randhawa (after 12) was four-over, Arjun Atwal (after 14) was six-over and Anirban Lahiri playing with Mickelson was seven-over after 15.
Jeev Milkha Singh, S.S.P. Chowrasia, Shiv Kapur, Digvijay Singh, Rahil Gangjee, Amandeep Johl and Himmat Rai were yet to start their round.
Padraig Harrington, winner of the last two Majors, was even par through 14 holes, while American Phil Mickelson, who slipped to No. 3 in the world after last week's HSBC Champions, was two over after 15 holes.