Perthshire, Scotland:
Struggling to retain his European Tour card, Delhi golfer Shiv Kapur finally showed glimpse of his old touch and carded three-under 69 to lie tied sixth after the opening round of the Johnnie Walker Championships here.
Veteran Jyoti Randhawa's one-under 71 had him tied 29th, while SSP Chowrasia, tied 80th after managing 74, faces the the prospect of missing the cut. Shiv, the 2005 Volvo Masters of Asia winner, is two strokes behind tournament leader Paul Lawrie of Scotland. The Delhi pro, ranked 127th in Europe, is fighting to keep his tour card by finishing in top 115 of the Order of Merit.
Shiv had a rather wobbly start with bogeys on the sixth and eighth holes leaving him at two-over before the Indian birdied the ninth to take turn at one-over.
To his credit, Shiv did not drop another stroke in the remainder of his round. On his way back, he birdied the 12th and 15th holes and then signed off with back-to-back birdies.
Randhawa, a 10th tee starter, too found himself on the backfoot with bogeys on the 10th and 13th holes leaving him two-over before he drained his first birdie on the 14th.
Randhawa began his back nine with a birdie hat-trick and picked up one more stroke on the fifth but bogeys on the fourth and seventh holes eventually left him one-under.
For SSP Chowrasia, the 15th hole double bogey came as the dampener after the Kolkata pro had managed to negate three bogeys with as many birdies.