Johl and Bhandari were joint 10th with Chang Tse-Peng of Taiwan, Japan's Taku Yamanaka and Yurio Akitomi, and Mardan Mamat of Singapore, three strokes behind leaders' Lee Westwood of England and last year's Asian PGA No. 1 Kang Wook-Soon of South Korea, both bettering the course record with superb five-under 66s.

But the other five Indians in the fray fared poorly under windy conditions at the Macau Gold and Country Club to be placed way down the leaderboard.

Top pro Jeev Milkha Singh, who started his second year on European PGA Tour in a whirlwind fashion finishing among top five in the first two events, and Gaurev Ghei were sharing the 64th position at two-over 73 with a big group.

Former Indian Open champion Ali Sher was a stroke behind at joint 84th, Arjun Atwal at 75 was sharing the 95th spot andAmritinder Singh was placed joint 118 at six-over-par 77.