Tiger Woods in Shanghai on Thursday. (AP)

Shanghai: Next year’s European Tour card in his pocket and a huge burden off his shoulders, Jyoti Randhawa carded a sparkling four-under 68 to lie tied ninth even though none of his compatriots could manage sub-par cards in the first round of the WGC-HSBC Champions golf tournament here Thursday.

Among others, top ranked Indian Jeev Milkha Singh carded one-over 73 to lie tied 48th, while youngsters C. Muniyappa and Gaganjeet Bhullar shared the 57th place at two-over 74 in the $ 7million event.

Randhawa went into the tournament not in the best of form and the 2002 Asia number one was particularly unhappy with his swing.

“I got my swing back into the groove after a long time and it felt good. I putted well, just coming in I wished I made a few more putts as the greens were fast and true but it’s the best that I’ve hit it in the past two or three months. I’m really happy,” said Randhawa.

Entering the week in 115th place on the European Tour, Randhawa knows that his card will be locked up after this week’s event which has no halfway cut and that allowed him to play with a free mind.

Randhawa got off to a superb birdie-birdie start and but for the 15th hole bogey, did not put a foot wrong, draining three more birdies on his way back.

Jeev, a 10th tee starter, was one-under after the back nine before things went haywire in the other nine where he bogeyed the three of the first six holes to go two-over before minimising the damage with the eighth hole birdie.

Indian Open champion Muniyappa birdied the second hole to go one-under but dropped four strokes over the next four holes and could not recover from there.

Bhullar’s round included three birdies, a couple of double bogeys and a bogey.

Meanwhile, Nick Watney made an immediate impression by tying the course record with an 8-under 64 to build a two-shot lead. As hundreds of cameras inside and outside the ropes tagged along to see Tiger Woods open with a 67, Watney quietly went about his business on a sunny afternoon with an accidental eagle and four straight birdies.

He was 9 under through 13 holes until settling into a string of pars and ending his round with a three-putt bogey from the fringe. “The greens are so good that if you hit a putt on line, it’s definitely going to go in,” Watney said. “I was putting very well.”

Ryan Moore was in a group at 66 that included Shane Lowry of Ireland and Martin Kaymer of Germany, who is second in the Race to Dubai and facing a big week at this $7 million World Golf Championship.

Lin Wen-tang of Taiwan stirred the Chinese crowd with a 67, which left him tied with Woods, Anthony Kim and Paul Casey.

Still, it was Woods they came to see — and to photograph. It started on the opening hole, with hundreds of fans surrounding the tee. Woods was flinching as he swung his 3-wood and dropped the club at impact. The shot was so short and to the right that his caddie, Steve Williams, had to walk 40 yards to find the yardage. “The guy in the grandstand basically did almost a photo sequence,” Woods said.

Woods is ultra sensitive to cameras, and handled this day better than most. More frustrating was not knowing which way his ball was going, although he managed to take care of the par 5s and make enough putts for his 67.