Nobody could accuse Indian golfer Jeev Milkha Singh of having had a dull year so far - and eventful was certainly the way to describe his opening 66 in the Irish Open on Friday.
One of three Asian players invited to the Masters at Augusta last month, something which Colin Montgomerie had harsh words to say about, Singh shares the lead at Adare Manor with Australian left-hander Richard Green.
In the space of 30 minutes the 36-year-old went from having a near-albatross to tangling with a bush with one hand in his pocket and salvaging par with a 40-foot putt.
It was the sort of rescue act that Montgomerie and defending champion Padraig Harrington were unable to produce.
The former, whose 88th position on the world rankings represents his lowest standing in the game since 1990, managed only a 75 after running up a double-bogey seven on the 528-yard seventh.
Harrington, meanwhile, returned a 72 that included a bogey six on the long 18th after he hooked his drive into the River Maigue.
Darren Clarke also shot 72, Paul McGinley 73 and Lee Westwood 75, but their 19-year-old stablemate Rory McIlroy is well in touch following his 70.
Former Volvo Masters champion Singh hit a three-wood to a foot on the seventh for his eagle, but found the bushes behind the green with his pitch to the 631-yard ninth.
"The first thing was to get a ref to make sure I didn't break any rules," he explained.
"You can't touch anything and that's why I put my hand in my pocket and took it out when I had to grip the club.
"My backswing was about a foot and a half and I was more worried about just hitting the ball. It could have gone anywhere."
He was happy enough with getting it on the green and making the 40-footer was just icing on the cake.
Singh, son of an Olympic running star, has already finished second twice on the European Tour this season, losing a play-off to Graeme McDowell in Korea a week after a freak accident when his caddie drove a golf cart into a palm tree.
"I never thought that carts could be that dangerous. I went flying, banging my head against the windscreen and bouncing out."
With regard to Montgomerie's pre-Masters comments that inviting Asians for commercial rather than golfing reasons was "a strange way to make up a field for a major championship", Singh bears no grudge.
"I just thought it was his opinion. I can only say I was thankful."
He finished 25th - and is now five places ahead of the Scot on the world rankings.
Green is playing his first event since missing the cut at Augusta, but has been practising hard at home in Melbourne and it showed with four birdies in his first seven holes and then three more in the last five.
Fourth in last year's Open at Carnoustie after a brilliant closing 64, the 37-year-old commented: "I concentrated on concentrating hard and it worked out pretty well."
Harrington strapped his arm because of some trouble with tennis elbow and said: "I've just been struggling to get on top of it, but it's not affecting my golf whatsoever.
"I made a few mental errors and seemed to drift away a bit. I suppose 72 doesn't look that good when you see six under, but that won't have played me out (of contention) at this stage.
"But it was probably the easiest day you'll ever get on this course in terms of weather and so there was an opportunity out there.
"I just have to play my best golf over the next three days."
Welshman Bradley Dredge, beaten in a play-off a year ago after running up a double-bogey seven on the 18th, birdied it on his return for a 68 and is in joint third spot with German Marcel Siem, Swede Johan Edfors and France's Michael Lorenzo-Vera.
Collated first round scores from the European Tour's Irish Open at Adare Manor Hotel &Golf Resort at Adare Manor, Ireland (Gbr & Irl unless stated, par 72):
66 Jeev Milkha Singh (Ind), Richard Green (Aus)
68 Michael Lorenzo-Vera (Fra), Marcel Siem (Ger), Bradley Dredge, Johan Edfors (Swe)
69 Alvaro Velasco (Spa), Lee S James, Shiv Shankar Prasad Chowrasia (Ind)
70 Rory McIlroy, Soren Kjeldsen (Den), Edoardo Molinari (Ita), Peter O'Malley (Aus), Pablo Larrazabal (Spa), Marcus Fraser (Aus)
71 Gary Orr, Ulrich Van Den Berg (Rsa), Scott Strange (Aus), Stuart Manley, Maarten Lafeber (Ned), Peter Lawrie, Jose Manuel Lara (Spa), Simon Khan, Felipe Aguilar (Chi), Robert Karlsson (Swe), Pedro Linhart (Spa), Carl Suneson (Spa), Richard Finch, Alastair Forsyth
72 Colm Moriarty, Shiv Kapur (Ind), Peter Baker, Louis Oosthuizen (Rsa), Julio Zapata (Arg), John Bickerton, Darren Clarke, Oliver Fisher, Alvaro Quiros (Spa), Anthony Wall, Jamie Donaldson, Alejandro Canizares (Spa), Emanuele Canonica (Ita), Padraig Harrington
73 Mikael Lundberg (Swe), Anton Haig (Rsa), Martin Erlandsson (Swe), Luis Claverie (Spa), Francois Delamontagne (Fra), Matthew Millar (Aus), Paul Broadhurst, Magnus A Carlsson (Swe), Stephen Gallacher, Mark Foster, Paul McGinley, Barry Lane
74 Francesco Molinari (Ita), Ross Fisher, Oliver Wilson, Jean Van de Velde (Fra), Steven Jeppesen (Swe), Rafael Echenique (Arg), David Park, Steven O'Hara, Mads Vibe-Hastrup (Den), David Frost (Rsa), Peter Hanson (Swe), Stephen Dodd, Sam Little, Michael Hoey, Jean-Baptiste Gonnet (Fra), Paolo Terreni (Ita), Graeme McDowell, Alan McLean, Scott Drummond, Mark Brown (USA), Daniel Vancsik (Arg), David Drysdale, Gary Murphy, Ross McGowan
75 Christian Cevaer (Fra), Garry Houston, Leif Westerberg (Swe), James Kingston (Rsa), Peter Whiteford, Colin Montgomerie, David Howell, Pelle Edberg (Swe), Simon Wakefield, Andrew McLardy (Rsa), Sion Bebb, Damian Mooney, Benoit Teilleria (Fra), Lee Westwood, Thomas Aiken (Rsa)
76 Peter Martin (Aus), David Carter, Christian Nilsson (Swe), Damien McGrane, Jan Are Larsen (Nor), Robert Dinwiddie, Jarmo Sandelin (Swe), Paul Waring, Simon Dyson, Pat Murray, Jose-Filipe Lima (Por), Sven Struver (Ger), Paul Lawrie, Jean-Francois Lucquin (Fra), Ariel Canete (Arg), Jyoti Randhawa (Ind)
77 Craig Lee, Zane Scotland, Mikko Ilonen (Fin), Benn Barham, Martin Kaymer (Ger), Peter Hedblom (Swe), Mark Staunton, Robert Rock, Gregory Havret (Fra), Fredrik Andersson Hed (Swe), Ian Garbutt
78 Juan Abbate (Arg), Patrik Sjoland (Swe), Charl Schwartzel (Rsa), Phillip Price, Carlos Rodiles (Spa), Marc Warren, Fabrizio Zanotti (Par), Phillip Archer, Florian Praegant (Aut), James Kamte (Rsa), Robert Giles, Philip Golding
79 Joakim Backstrom (Swe), Brendan McGovern, Sam Walker, David Dixon, Peter O'keeffe
80 Richard Bland, Leslie Walker, Glen Robinson, Kyron Sullivan, Ricardo Gonzalez (Arg), Pablo Martin (Spa), David Higgins, Marco Soffietti (Ita)
81 Iain Pyman, Lee Slattery, David Griffiths, Peter Fowler (Aus), Michael Lavelle, Dave Horsey
83 Gareth Paddison (Nzl)
84 Martin Wiegele (Aut), Tom Whitehouse
85 Eamonn Brady
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