Kuala Lumpur:
SSP Chowrasia was at 28th place and the best among a dozen Indian golfers who teed off at the Maybank Malayisan Open on Thursday.
The opening day was hit by inclement weather for an hour in the afternoon and 42 players were yet to finish their first round.
Chowrasia, who had three birdies on the front nine, had a double bogey, a bogey and a birdie on back nine, as he finished with a one-under 71 that placed him 28th on the leaderboard.
Lee Westwood, who had a top-10 finish at Augusta last week added to his reputation as an Asian specialist when he fired a classy seven-under-par 65 for the first round clubhouse lead.
Rashid Khan, playing his first big event since the SAIL-SBI Open, did not show much nerves as he traded four birdies for four bogeys and finished with a round 72, the same as Anirban Lahiri, one of the two Indian heroes of the EurAsia Cup last month.
Both were tied 40th, while other Indians had a modest opening day. Rahil Gangjee (74) was tied 78th, while Arjun Atwal suffered a triple bogey on the par-3 11th during his 75 and Gaganjeet Bhullar had a slow start with a similar 75. Shiv Kapur and Jyoti Randhawa carded 76 and Jeev Milkha Singh coming back after a long lay-off shot 77 as did young Himmat Rai.
Chiragh Kumar was even after 12 while Digvijay was two over after 15. They will return on Friday to complete their rounds.
Westwood, whose 40 career wins includes 12 in Asia plus the 1997 Malaysian Open, brilliantly birdied his last three holes at the Kuala Lumpur Golf and Country Club to maintain his fine form after finishing seventh at the Masters Tournament last week.
Westwood leads by one stroke from 2012 Ryder Cup teammate Nicolas Colsaerts of Belgium while Michael Hoey of Northern Ireland and Ricardo Santos of Portugal were a further two shots back at the USD 2.75 million event.
South Africa's Jbe Kruger, a winner on the Asian Tour, was a further three shots back following a 68 while EurAsia Cup hero Prayad Marksaeng of Thailand battled to a 69 for tied ninth place. Title holder Kiradech Aphibarnrat of Thailand fought to a 71 to be six behind the leader.
Westwood, a former world number one, opened his campaign with a bogey on the par five 10th hole but recovered with a late flourish. He birdied the seventh hole from eight feet and rammed home a huge 25-footer on eight. The Englishman completed a hat-trick of birdies with a 15-foot curler on the ninth hole.
"I didn't make the best of starts but fortunately that didn't set the tone for the day. I hit it really well and hit it close a lot. I had to be patient because I was hitting good putts and they weren't going in," said Westwood.
The world number 37 was delighted to continue his momentum from the year's opening Major. "I played well last week and I'm happy to carry that on today. Obviously Augusta is slightly harder but if you're shooting low-ish scores at Augusta, you should expect to come here and shoot low scores, which I did today."
Prayad, an eight-time Asian Tour winner and a member of Team Asia which forced a draw with Europe in the inaugural EurAsia Cup in Malaysia last month, bounced back from a triple bogey seven to shoot a 69 playing alongside Westwood.
Kiradech was thankful for the weather disruption as he was two-over through 10 holes when play was halted. After tweaking his swing tempo with new coach Pompetch Saraputti during the break, the 24-year-old hit three birdies in his last seven holes.
