Singh: Pain
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Co-leader Jeev Milka Singh has revealed he is playing through the pain of an ankle injury at the USPGA Championship.
The Indian shot a two-under-par opening round of 68 at Oakland Hills to take the overnight lead alongside Robert Karlsson of Sweden, after a rain-curtailed first day of the final major of the year finished with Open champion Padraig Harrington still in touch at the head of the European challenge.
That Singh, 36, leads the field while wearing a brace to try and alleviate tendon pain in his right ankle could bode well - given that Tiger Woods won the US Open in June with a cruciate knee ligament damage and a double stress fracture of his tibia and Harrington defended his Open title with an injured wrist that nearly prevented him from playing at Royal Birkdale last month.
Suffering
"I've been suffering with a little tendon running through the ankle on my right foot - it's got a lot of pain," said Singh.
"I've been wearing a brace for the last four weeks. I did injure it just before the French Open - that was about seven, eight weeks ago. I've been getting a lot of physio done, and it gets better. But you hit one of those shots out of the rough, and I'm back to square one."
After suffering the injury, Singh won both the Austrian Open and an event in Japan - but he admits he is playing in Detroit against doctor's orders after undergoing an MRI scan three weeks ago.
"The doctor said I need four weeks off - and the caution I put up to him was, 'Well, does two weeks help?'
"He said 'no'. He said there's a lot of fluid and that means a lot of inflammation in there.
"Then I decided if I'm going to play the PGA Championship I'm going to push myself through to this week and next week - and after that I'm surely taking two weeks off, maybe I'm going to extend it to four.
"It depends how the ankle holds up. It feels fine. But the more drivers I hit, I feel it just kind of comes back ... and you do need to hit a lot of drivers on this golf course."
Singh's injury had restricted his preparations, limiting him to practising on just nine holes in each of the two days before the first round.
"Obviously I would like to practise more, but I can't. I like to hit a lot more drivers on the driving range - but my pain always comes back when I hit a lot of drivers.
Singh's ankle trouble make his two victories since the injury all the more remarkable.
The Indian, from Chandigarh, said his fitness had left him with no expectations coming to Oakland Hills.
"I was just trying to hit shot-by-shot and hope that I can shoot even par. It worked out pretty well - I shot two-under."
