Poulter sets pace with 66 before rain

and lightning stop Singapore play

FROM THE DAILY TELEGRAPH WEBSITE
Ian Poulter was the clubhouse leader at the $5million Singapore Open after firing a five-under-par 66, one ahead of Ernie Els of South Africa and Taiwanese qualifier Chan Yih-shin, before heavy rain and lightning forced the suspension of play halfway through the opening round.
Englishman Poulter, pictured, made six birdies for a five-under par round over the par-71 lay-out at Sentosa Golf Club.
“It was nice,” Poulter said after his round. “There were no mistakes on the back nine and on my front nine, after I bogeyed the first, I started to hit some good shots.”
World No 2 Phil Mickelson, who mixed an eagle and three birdies with three bogeys for a 69, was in a group of seven players at 2-under.
“I putted well today, and as the week goes on I think I will get better and better as I get accustomed to the speed of the greens,” Mickelson said.
Poulter is looking to move up the rankings of the European Tour’s Race to Dubai, where he’s currently in 29th place.

The Singapore Open is co-sanctioned by the European and Asian tours.
More than half of the field had not completed the first round when play was suspended for more than two hours in the afternoon due to thunderstorms.
Ireland’s Ryder Cup star Padraig Harrington and Australian Geoff Ogilvy were among the players who will have an early breakfast and complete their first rounds on Friday morning.

PLAYERS WHO COMPLETED FIRST ROUND

Par 71. Players who had still to finish rounds when play was suspended for the day will do so at 7.40am local time on Friday.
66 Ian Poulter
67 Yin-shin Chan (Tpe), Ernie Els (Rsa)
68 Anders Hansen (Den), Kodai Ichihara (Jpn), Thomas Levet (Fra)
69 Phil Mickelson (USA), Soren Kjeldsen (Den), Niclas Fasth (Swe), Wen-Tang Lin (Tai), Chih-bing Lam (Sin), Jyoti Randhawa (Ind)
70 Wei Chih Lu (Tha), Alexander Noren (Swe), Rick Kulacz (Aus), David Howell, Ted Oh (Kor), Kenichi Kuboya (Jpn)
71 Danny Lee (Nzl), Nicholas Redfern, Graeme McDowell, Scott Barr (Aus), Jean-Francois Lucquin (Fra), Peter Lawrie
72 Seung-yul Noh (Kor), Scott Drummond, Mardan Mamat (Sin), Marcus Both (Aus), Justin Rose, Rafael Cabrera Bello (Spa), Danny Chia (Mal), Shigeki Maruyama (Jpn), Digvijay Singh (Ind), Adam Blyth (Aus)
73 Terry Pilkadaris (Aus), Johan Edfors (Swe), Thongchai Jaidee (Tha), Marc Warren, Prayad Marksaeng (Tha), Sang-moon Bae (Kor), David Bransdon (Aus), Gregory Bourdy (Fra), Gavin Flint (Aus), Paul McGinley
74 Mikael Lundberg (Swe), Mikko Ilonen (Fin), Steven Tiley, Raphael Jacquelin (Fra), Martin Rominger (Swi), Graeme Storm, Juvic Pagunsan (Phi), Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spa), K J Choi (Kor), Keith Horne (Rsa), Antonio Lascuna (Phi)
75 Frankie Minoza (Phi), Jeppe Huldahl (Den), Tetsuya Haraguchi (Jpn), Mitchell Brown (Aus), Maarten Lafeber (Ned), Jonathan Leong (Sin), Peter Hedblom (Swe), Jason Knutzon (USA), Hendrik Buhrmann (Rsa), James Kamte (Rsa), Gregory Havret (Fra)
76 Bryan Saltus (USA), Michael Campbell (Nzl), Simon Griffiths, Shiv Shankar Prasad Chowrasia (Ind), Chinnarat Phadungsil (Tha), Pablo Larrazabal (Spa)
77 David Gleeson (Aus), Kenji Cheung (Sin), Koh Deng Shan (Sin)
78 Sung Lee (Pkr), Mark Brown (Nzl)
79 Borworn Chaisri (Tha)