SINGAPORE — Masters champion Sergio Garcia got his 2018 campaign off to a good start at the Singapore Open on Thursday, firing a five-under-par 66 to share the lead. Garcia, who began a spectacular 2017 in Singapore last year, began slowly but picked up the pace around the turn, and fired an eagle and four birdies in his first tournament of the year.

The Spaniard, who won his first Major victory at Augusta last April and was named 2017 European Golfer of the Year, ended the day tied for the top spot with American Kurt Kitayama.

World No. 10 Garcia converted an 18-inch birdie putt at the par-three 17th, then eagled a par-five 18th from three feet. He fired a birdie at the second hole, then picked up another shot at the par-five fourth.

"I'll probably chill a little bit. I did a lot of things right, but I still have lots to work on. I'll try to stay cool, have a nice dinner and get ready for tomorrow," the 38-year-old said. "This is a great tournament to start the year with."

Thailand's Tirawat Kaewsiribandit was threatening to share the lead before play was suspended due to lightning risk with a five-under-par through 16 holes at the Sentosa Golf Club's Serapong course.

Seventy-eight players have yet to complete round one. Play will resume early Friday. Kitayama shot six birdies and was bogey-free for 17 holes before dropping a stroke at his final hole of the day.

Fellow American Casey O'Toole shot the first ace of the 2018 season on the Asian and Japan Tours. O'Toole, Koumei Oda of Japan and former Singapore Open champion Jyoti Randhawa of India carded matching 68s to share second place.

Rahm ready for more

Southern California success

Spain's Jon Rahm is excited heading into the US PGA CareerBuilder Challenge that tees off Thursday on three courses in the Palm Springs, California desert. Last week, he was second at Kapalua in Hawaii, last year's easiest course on tour. This week, he plays the two next-easiest courses from 2017 — the Nicklaus and LaQuinta — as well as the PGA West Stadium Course, all par-72 layouts.

And next week, Rahm defends his first US PGA title at Torrey Pines near San Diego after a long break since a November victory at the World Tour Championship in Dubai. "Oh man, I'm really trying not to think about next week," Rahm said Wednesday. "I'm feeling good. Really good. I feel like those five weeks off after Dubai not doing much was really good for my body. Trying to take things real easy, make sure I'm rested for the year."

Rahm's top goal for the year is an improved showing at the majors. The 23-year-old has yet to crack the top 20 at any of the four top events. "I want to play a little better in the majors," he said. "I don't know why last year things didn't happen in the majors — maybe it was the few weeks a year that I played bad, but hopefully I'll play good on those weeks and maybe see if I can get in contention in one of them.

"Besides that, try to keep things going, try to keep playing good and hopefully do a better year than I did last year."

Rahm was 27th in his Masters debut, missed the cut at the US Open, won the Irish Open ahead of a 44th-place effort at the British Open and was 58th in his PGA Championship debut. Rahm has learned about pacing himself and juggling tour life on the US and European circuits in the past year.

"When I came here last year this I think was my fourth event as a PGA Tour member so everything was still kind of new to me," Rahm said. "I did feel like a rookie, trying to learn as it went.”

Rahm says he plans to keep coming to the early season western US events even if it trims his rest time after Dubai. "There will probably be a year in the future where I do go to Dubai and maybe not play those, but not yet," Rahm said. "In my case, this is way too much fun to miss.” — AFP