Amateur Denison shows his class
The 20-year-old, who is based at Howley Hall Golf Club in Leeds, lies just one stroke off the lead held by Ricardo Gonzalez, of Argentina, and Swede Henrik Stenson after the Yorkshireman shot a five-under-par 67.
Best of the Irish is Paul McGinley, who shot a 69. Darren Clarke had a 71 while Peter Lawrie and Damian McGrane are a shot further back.
Denison, the sole amateur in the event, put his local knowledge to good use having been granted entry as his prize for winning the Qatar Open Golf Championship around the same course last month.
Playing in his first professional tournament, he bogeyed just once, at the last, in a round that included six birdies and no apparent signs of nerves, in spite of a strong and vastly experienced field around him.
Denison’s opening-day score will raise his profile and possibly help him secure the sponsorship he needs to fulfil that ambition.
Singh and Els, whose faces adorn billboards promoting the event across a city that resembles one big building site, found the going difficult.
The Fijian world number two had dismissed fears about his putting before the event, but accepted he needed to change his putter after making only three birdies all day in a one-over-par round of 73.
Singh said: “I just didn’t get it going, although I didn’t actually play that badly. I had chances but I didn’t take them and every time I missed the green I seemed to make bogey.”
South African Els, three places behind Singh in the rankings, had a marginally better day in his first competition of 2006.
A rusty front nine, where he dropped two shots, was followed by three birdies on the way back to leave him one under par, and far from disheartened.
“I played very poorly on the front nine and I was a bit down but I came back,” he said. “I would love to have squeezed some birdies in there on the last couple of holes.”
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