Singh makes swift start

The golfers ranked second and third in the world were lying second and first respectively after Vijay Singh made the perfect start to his second round in the Volvo PGA championship at Wentworth.

Darren Clarke, partnering Singh, almost holed-in-one at the second and, having saved par from 12 feet at the first, he improved to five under par and joint seventh place.

Singh, closing in on Tiger Woods at the top of the rankings, resumed on six under par, two behind Ernie Els, but that gap became one when he holed from 10 feet at the 473-yard opening hole for the first birdie of the day there.

Els was among the later starters after his eight under par 64, but several of the big names were quickly back into action.

That was a remarkable effort from the Ulsterman, who after a poor start to the £2.5m (€3.7m) championship finished his first day on 68 with six birdies in the last seven holes.

Spain’s Miguel Angel Jimenez, second to Els on the Order of Merit, was also second to him in the tournament overnight.

Already a winner of three titles this season, Jimenez came up short of the first green and bogeyed, but hit back with a 12-foot birdie putt on the next.

Colin Montgomerie found himself only just inside the likely cut-off mark when he bogeyed the second to slip to one under.

Montgomerie, needing to finish no lower than fifth to have a chance of earning a place in next month’s US Open, was caught out by the swirling wind and after coming up short of the green he chipped eight feet past and missed.

The Scot crashed out early from the Deutsche Bank-SAP Open in Germany last week – his 128th place was his worst on the European tour since his debut in 1987 – and is still struggling to focus fully on his golf following his marriage break-up.

Jimenez was the first to catch Els, a birdie on the 497-yard fourth doing that, but it was Clarke continuing to make the biggest move.

When he eagled the fourth Clarke was alongside Singh on seven under and just one behind. After 11 holes of his first round he was 10 adrift.

Justin Rose, hitting back from missing the cut last week, was up to seven under as well when he birdied the second and third.

Rose, who as a youngster used to travel from his home in England to watch the event, made it a hat-trick of birdies at the fourth and with that joined Els and Jimenez out in front at eight under.

Clarke and Singh were one behind along with Wales’ Stephen Dodd and Swede Christopher Hanell, both of whom had yet to tee off again.