Golf:Scotland's Peter Whiteford shot a six-under-par 66 to share the first-round lead with Spaniard Alejandro Canizares at the Avantha Masters in New Delhi. The 31-year-old from Kirkcaldy was only one under at the turn, but started the back nine with four successive birdies and made another from 10 feet on the 358-yard 17th.
Canizares, whose father Jose Maria kept the Ryder Cup in European hands at The Belfry in 1989, also made a late run, collecting five of his seven birdies on the outward half after turning in 34. They lead by a stroke from Italian Federico Colombo, but former Open champion John Daly — fourth in Qatar two weeks ago — finished the day second-last following a seven-over-par 79.
That contained two penalty drops away from the trees in a triple-bogey eight at the 14th and then a ball in the water en route to a closing bogey six.
Whiteford finished 63rd on last season’s European Tour money list, with five top-10 finishes, including third place at the Alfred Dunhill Championship in South Africa. He arrived in India after missed cuts in Qatar and Dubai, but made his only mistake on the 486-yard fifth, rated the toughest hole on the DLF course which last year saw local man SSP Chowrasia win with a 15-under total.
Canizares won the 2006 Russian Open in only his third Tour start as a professional and was twice involved in play-offs two seasons ago, losing first to Peter Hanson in Majorca and then to Miguel Angel Jimenez at the French Open.
Welshman Jamie Donaldson, seeking his first victory in the circuit in approaching 250 starts, is tied for fourth on four under with Indian Himmat Rai, French pair Gregory Havret and Jean-Baptiste Gonnet and Thai duo Thongchai Jaidee and Kiradech Aphibarnrat.
Paul McGinley is best placed of the two Irish challengers in the field on two under, with Antrim’s Gareth Maybin a further two shots further back.
Collated scores
(Gbr & Irl unless stated, Irish in bold, par 72):
66Peter Whiteford, Alejandro Canizares (Spa)
67Federico Colombo (Ita)
68Jean-Baptiste Gonnet (Fra), Kiradech Aphibarnrat (Tha), Jamie Donaldson, Himmat Singh Rai (Ind), Gregory Havret (Fra), Thongchai Jaidee (Tha)
69Jeev Milkha Singh (Ind), Marcel Siem (Ger), Vivek Bhandari (Ind), Oscar Floren (Swe), Scott Jamieson, Peter Uihlein (USA), Andrea Pavan (Ita), Anirban Lahiri (Ind), Marcus Fraser (Aus)
70George Murray, Soren Hansen (Den), Joost Luiten (Ned), Berry Henson (USA), Rhys Davies, Mithun Perera (Aus), Mardan Mamat (Sin), Scott Barr (Aus), Marcus Both (Aus), Jbe Kruger (Rsa), Ignacio Garrido (Spa), Chapchai Nirat (Tha), Paul McGinley,Shamim Khan (Ind)
71Jamie Moul, Shiv Kapur (Ind), Richard McEvoy, David Horsey, Kieran Pratt (Aus), Mukesh Kumar (Ind), Thaworn Wiratchant (Tha), Shiv Shankar Prasad Chowrasia (Ind), Chinnarat Phadungsil (Tha), Mohd. Siddikur (Ban), Romain Wattel (Fra), Thorbjorn Olesen (Den), Bernd Wiesberger (Aut), Richard Sterne (Rsa)
72Wei Chih Lu (Tha), Robert Coles, Jorge Campillo (Spa), Daisuke Maruyama (Jpn), Oliver Fisher, Prom Meesawat (Tha), Marc Warren, Vijay Kumar (Ind), Prayad Marksaeng (Tha), Wen-chong Liang (Chn), Benjamin Hebert (Fra), Richie Ramsay, Gareth Maybin, David Howell, Andrew Dodt (Aus), Julien Quesne (Fra), David Drysdale, Honney Baisoya (Ind), Gaurav pratap Singh (Ind), Lorenzo Gagli (Ita)
73Robert Jan Derksen (Ned), Seuk-hyun Baek (Kor), Zaw Moe (Kor), Ricardo Santos (Por), Abhinav Lohan (Ind), Felipe Aguilar (Chi), Daniel Denison, Joel Sjoholm (Swe), Sanjay Kumar (Ind), Tommy Fleetwood, Vinod Kumar (Ind), Joonas Granberg (Fin), Shankar Das (Ind), David Gleeson (Aus), Manav Jaini (Ind), Jason Knutzon (USA), Ricardo Gonzalez (Arg), Richard Finch, Fabrizio Zanotti (Par), Angelo Que (Phi), Daisuke Kataoka (Jpn)
74Martin Wiegele (Aut), Darren Beck (Aus), Matthew Baldwin, Mars Pucay (Phi), Ross Bain, Om prakash Chouhan (Ind), Jose Manuel Lara (Spa), Scott Hend (Aus), Tano Goya (Arg), Sam Little
75Raju Ali mollah (Ind), Christian Cevaer (Fra), Rahil Gangjee (Ind), Feroz Ali mollah (Ind), Adilson Da Silva (Bra), Peter Gustafsson (Swe), Vikrant Chopra (Ind), Rikard Karlberg (Swe), Chawalit Plaphol (Tha), Sujjan Singh (Ind), Tetsuji Hiratsuka (Jpn), Gaganjeet Bhullar (Ind), P harendra Gupta (Ind), Digvijay Singh (Ind)
76Carlos Del Moral (Spa), Md zamal Hossain mollah (Ban), Mandeo Singh pathania (Afg), Chiragh Kumar (Ind), Todd Hamilton (USA), Anthony Kang (USA), Ashok Kumar (Ind), Aruna Rohana (Sri)
77Pariya Junhasavasdikul (Tha), Floris De Vries (Ned), Rick Kulacz (Aus), Edouard Dubois (Fra), Rashid Khan (Ind), Namchok Tantipokakul (Tha)
78Gaurav Ghei (Ind)
79Yih-Shin Chan (Tpe), John Daly (USA), Sung Lee (Kor), Graeme Storm
80Peter Karmis (Rsa)
RTD:Panuphol Pittayarat (Tha)
