ADARE, Ireland -- Richard Green birdied three of the last five holes for a 6-under 66 Thursday and a share of the lead after the first round of the Irish Open on the European Tour. Jeev Milka Singh of India, was tied with Green, a left-hander from Australia, at the Adare Manor.

Bradley Dredge (68) birdied two of the last three holes and shared third place with Marcel Siem, Johan Edfors and Michael Lorenzo-Vera.

Peter Lawrie birdied four of the last six holes for a 71.

Nobody could accuse Singh of having had a dull year so far -- and eventful was certainly the way to describe his opening 66.

In the space of 30 minutes, the 36-year-old went from having a near-albatross to tangling with a bush with one hand in his pocket and salvaging par with a 40-foot putt. It was the sort of rescue act that Colin Montgomerie and defending champion Padraig Harrington were unable to produce.

Montgomerie, whose 88th position on the world rankings represents his lowest standing in the game since 1990, managed only a 75 after running up a double-bogey 7 on the 528-yard seventh.

Harrington, meanwhile, returned a 72 that included a bogey 6 on the long 18th after he hooked his drive into the River Maigue.

Darren Clarke also shot 72, Paul McGinley 73 and Lee Westwood 75, but 19-year-old Northern Irishman Rory McIlroy is well in touch following his 70.

Former Volvo Masters champion Singh hit a 3-wood to a foot on the seventh for his eagle, but found the bushes behind the green with his pitch to the 631-yard ninth.

"The first thing was to get a ref to make sure I didn't break any rules," he explained. "You can't touch anything and that's why I put my hand in my pocket and took it out when I had to grip the club.

"My backswing was about a foot and a half and I was more worried about just hitting the ball," he said. "It could have gone anywhere."

He was happy enough with getting it on the green and making the 40-footer was just icing on the cake.

Singh, son of an Olympic running star, has already finished second twice on the European Tour this season, losing a playoff to Graeme McDowell in Korea a week after a freak accident when his caddie drove a golf cart into a palm tree.

"I never thought that carts could be that dangerous. I went flying, banging my head against the windscreen and bouncing out."

Green is playing his first event since missing the cut at Augusta, but has been practicing hard at home in Melbourne and it showed with four birdies in his first seven holes and then three more in the last five.

"I concentrated on concentrating hard and it worked out pretty well," he said.

Harrington strapped his arm because of some trouble with tennis elbow and said: "I've just been struggling to get on top of it, but it's not affecting my golf whatsoever.

"I made a few mental errors and seemed to drift away a bit," he added. "I suppose 72 doesn't look that good when you see 6 under, but that won't have played me out (of contention) at this stage.

"But it was probably the easiest day you'll ever get on this course in terms of weather and so there was an opportunity out there," he said. "I just have to play my best golf over the next three days."

Clarke was openly critical of the set-up of the Adare Manor course on Thursday after his opening 72.

"The course was ridiculously difficult this afternoon," said the Ulsterman. "It was disappointing. It's a fantastic design and then you have new tees and all of a sudden we are hitting 3-irons to flags that are completely inaccessible.

"It takes all the fun away and it takes the ability to shoot a good score away," he added. "People come in to watch us make birdies and unfortunately that's just not happening.

"The greens are rock hard. They are designed to be hit by much shorter clubs than we were having to hit," he explained. "I'm very pleased with my score. I could have let it get away from me and I didn't."

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