His 69 would have been even better but for the three bogies he made between the 13th and 16th holes. Overall, he had seven birdies and four bogies.

One stroke behind him in the pack of four are Indrajit Bhalotia, Uttam Singh Mundy, Amandeep Johl and Chini Ali.

Five others, including Amritinder Singh, who shot a hole-in-one, came under par.

India's two exports on the European PGA Tour, Jeev Milkha Singh and Daniel Chopra -- though he has Swedish citizenship -- had mixed luck. Jeev shot a par round while Chopra, winner here in 1994, went three over.

Gaurav Ghei, Basad Ali and Vivek Bhandari were among those went one over as the players approached the course, which played a bit slow, somewhat cautiously.

Scores after first round: 69: Rohtas Singh; 70: Indrajit Bhalotia, Uttam Singh Mundy, Amandeep Johl, Chini Ali; 71: Shiv Prakash, Amritinder Singh,Jyoti Randhawa, Manohar Dike, Pappan; 72: Jeev Milkha Singh, Ali Sher; Vijay Kumar; Vishal Singh; 73: Basad Ali, Mukesh Kumar, Jumman, Vivek Bhandari, Gaurav Ghei, Rafiq Ali, Asgar Ali, Rezwan Ali, Ajkay Gupta, Ranjit Singh; 74: Bunty Randhawa, Bhoop Singh, Binod Pandey, Rajiv Mohta, Prem, Mohd/ Maqbool, Balbir Verma, Hari Ram, Ajay Kumar Yadav.

Amateurs: 77: Vikram Rana and Simarjit Singh; 78: Amit Ahuja, Shiraz Kalra; 79: Kapil Dev; 80: Neeraj Sarin, Jaiveer Singh, Anitya Chand.