Jeev Milkha Singh continued his quest for a maiden title in Japan as he gained shared lead on the opening day of the US$ 1.19 million Casio World Open golf tournament in Japan on Thursday.
Jeev shot a flawless six-under 66 to share the lead with two other Japanese players, Azumo Yano and Tetsuya Haraguchi, at the Kuroshio Country Club.
The trio was one shot clear of Hideki Kase, who shot a five-under 67.
Defending champion Toru Taniguchi (68) shared the fourth place with three others, including Frankie Minoza of the Philippines, Tadahiro Takayama and Yoshikazu Haku.
Jeev, who had a sensational season, has been in terrific form. He has consistently been in contention and been in top-10 ten times in 15 starts. In Japan, he has been out of the top-30 only once.
"I have been striking the ball well and the putting has been fairly okay. I am happy that I have regularly been in contention in Japan, as also elsewhere," said the 34-year-old Indian, who is currently 63rd in the world.
"My goal is to try and win in Japan (he has one more event, next week) and finish in top-50 of the world," Jeev said.
Jeev opened with a birdie and added two more on fourth and fifth holes to go three-under for the front nine. He missed at least one more birdie putt from less than eight feet.
On the back nine, he birdied the tenth and then watched a couple of birdie putts glide past the cup. But he sank them on the last two and finished at 66.
Michelle Wie, making another attempt in a men's event, failed miserably with a nine-over 81 for 101st place in a field of 102 players. She had four bogeys on front nine and five on back, including four in a row from 14th to 17th.
Wie is making her second appearance at the Casio World Open. Last year, she bogeyed her final two second-round holes and missed the cut by a stroke in her first Japanese tour appearance.
The 17-year-old Wie has made only one cut, in May at the Asian Tour's SK Telecom Open in South Korea, in her 11 starts on men's tours.
Yano was two under for front nine with three birdies and one bogey, his only on for the day on second. He added four more on back nine for a 66. Haraguchi had five birdies on the front nine and one more on back nine for his six-under card.