Indian sign: Singh on song

THERE may be green, white and gold at the top of the Irish Open presented by Discover Ireland leaderboard heading into today’s second round but it belongs to an Indian, not any one of the four Irish Major champions who drew in the big crowds in Killarney yesterday.

Jeev Milkha Singh, the former Volvo Masters champion and top-50 player who has tumbled out of the world’s top 200 following a series of shoulder and back injuries that eventually cost him four months of last season, jumped out into the lead at Killarney Golf & Fishing Club with an eight-under-par 63 yesterday afternoon.

Not exactly part of the script that ushered in a 2011 Irish Open replete with homegrown Major winners, including the current US Open champion Rory McIlroy and British Open winner Darren Clarke. Yet Singh’s round did not diminish the feelgood factor coursing through the galleries by the side of Lough Leane as 18,303 spectators poured through the gates, representing an improvement on the 17,812 on the corresponding day 12 months ago at the same course.