Poulter leads delayed Singapore Open
Singapore (Sports Network) - Ian Poulter carded a five-under 66 Thursday to take a one-stroke lead with the first round of the Singapore Open suspended for the day due to darkness.
Shortly after Poulter ended his round, a line of storms rolled over the Serapong Course at Sentosa Golf Club and play was suspended for nearly three hours.
After the delay, the morning wave of players was able to finish their rounds, but the afternoon wave saw players complete no more than 13 holes.
The first round will resume Friday morning at 7:40 a.m. local time.
Two-time runner-up Ernie Els opened with a four-under 67 and shared second place with Yin-Shin Chan. Anders Hansen, Thomas Levet and Kodai Ichihara are tied for fourth place at minus-three.
World No. 2 Phil Mickelson is one stroke back at two-under 69. Mickelson played two groups ahead of Poulter. He stumbled to a bogey on the 11th, but holed out for eagle on the par-four 12th.
Mickelson turned at minus-two after a birdie on the 18th. On the front nine, he posted two birdies and two bogeys.
Poulter carded birdies on the 13th and 18th to turn in minus-two. He gave one stroke back with a bogey on the first.
The Englishman started his run up the leaderboard with a four-foot birdie putt on the par-five fourth. Two holes later, Poulter converted a birdie effort from just inside nine feet to get to three-under.
Poulter sank a six-footer for birdie on seven to grab a share of the lead, then drained his third straight birdie effort on the eighth as he rolled in a putt from off the green.
"I have had six weeks off and it was nice to ease into a round of golf," said Poulter.
"I didn't know what to expect this week. It is nice to be able to come out fresh. I bogeyed the first and then managed to start hitting some shots to give myself some chances with a few holes to play." Els also started on the 10th. After a birdie on 13, he collected back-to-back birdies from the 17th to turn in three-under. Els notched just one more birdie on the fourth, to go with eight pars on the front nine.
"It is a good start to the tournament," admitted Els. "I felt like I was really in control of my swing today. I hit the ball really nicely. Obviously I would have liked to make some more putts.
I left a lot of putts out there I feel. That's just the way it has been." Chan had a bogey-free round with two birdies on each nine.
Mickelson was joined at minus-two by Niclas Fasth, Soren Kjeldsen, Jyoti Randhawa, Chih-Bing Lam and Wen-Tang Lin. Wen-chong Liang (10 holes) and Ross McGowan (seven holes) also stand at minus-two.
Among those who were in the middle of their round when play was halted were Geoff Ogilvy, Padraig Harrington, Rod Pampling, K.J. Choi and Darren Clarke.
10/29 08:03:40 ET
