Jeev ahead of Atwal, Chopra after first round of The Internationa

Castle Rock, Colorado, Aug 11 (UNI) Not being a regular in the USPGA Tour hardly made a difference as Jeev Milkha Singh (3) stole the limelight from Arjun Atwal (-1) to finish way ahead of his Orlando-based compatriot at the tied 65th spot after the opening round of the 5.5 million dollar The International.

Atwal, who had seen an improvement in his form in the past couple of weeks, struggled at the Castle Pines Golf Club here and finished tied 104th along with Indian-born Swede Daniel Chopra.

Jeev, meanwhile, managed a better performance than the two regulars as he fired two birdies against a solitary bogey in the first round.

The tournament has a modified stableford scoring format and according to it, two points are given for a birdie and a point is deducted for a bogey. The format awards five points for an eagle and eight for an albatross (double-eagle). The competitors stand to lose three points for a double-bogey or worse.

Playing his back nine first, Jeev was without a point at the halfway mark after he went without a birdie or a bogey in his opening nine holes.

After making the turn, Jeev fired a birdie on the first hole followed by another on the fifth but a bogey on the eighth cost him a better finish in the opening round.

However, both Atwal and Chopra failed to match him and fired three birdies each against seven bogeys in their identical rounds.

Atwal, playing his back nine first, dropped two successive shots on the 10th and 11th before recovering with a birdie on the 13th but two more fumbles on the 15th and 16th saw him losing points and end with a deficit of two points at the halfway mark.

Coming back to play his front nine, Atwal gained two consecutive shots on the first and second, which wiped out the deficit and left him with two points, but bogeys on the third, eight and ninth marred his show as he ended the day with a deficit of one point.

At the top, Swede Mathias Gronberg accumulated 13 points after firing five birdies on his final eight holes to take a two-shot lead over Australian Stuart Appleby.

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