The Indian star shot a two-under-par opening round of 68 yesterday to take a share of the overnight lead with the towering Robert Karlsson of Sweden, after rain curtailed the first day of the final major of the year.

Play was initally suspended by an electrical storm in mid-afternoon, but then called off due to darkness at 20h39 local time with 18 players still out on the course.

Significantly one of them, Argentina's Andres Romero, is at 2-under and will hold a share of of the lead when he resumes his first round with two holes to play at around 08h00 this morning (Friday)

In the meantime, the fact that Singh, 36, leads the field while wearing a brace to try and alleviate tendon pain in his right ankle could bode well for him - 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.

"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."

From Simon Lewis, PA Sport in Bloomfield Township

LATEST SCORES
(USA unless stated, par 70):

Note: The first round was suspended and 18 players still need to finish. They will complete their 1st round on Friday morning

68 Jeev Milkha Singh (Ind), Robert Karlsson (Swe)

69 Sergio Garcia (Spa), Sean O'Hair, Billy Mayfair, Ken Duke

70 Rodney Pampling (Aus), Brian Gay, Angel Cabrera (Arg), Phil Mickelson, Charlie Wi (Kor), Anthony Kim, Michael Allen, Ryan Moore

71 Peter Hanson (Swe), Frank Esposito, Ernie Els (Rsa), Briny Baird, Henrik Stenson (Swe), Nicholas Thompson, Steve Stricker, Brendan Jones (Aus), Steve Elkington (Aus), Aaron Baddeley (Aus), J.B. Holmes, Jim Furyk, Mark Calcavecchia, Richard Green (Aus), Carl Pettersson (Swe), Brandt Snedeker, Padraig Harrington (Irl)

72 Rory Sabbatini (Rsa), Paul Azinger, Retief Goosen (Rsa), David Toms, John Mallinger, Charles Howell III, Paul Casey (Eng), Boo Weekley, D.J. Trahan

73 Pat Perez, Michael Campbell (Nzl), Steve Flesch, Ben Curtis, Geoff Ogilvy (Aus), Simon Dyson (Eng), Steve Marino, Justin Rose (Eng), Niclas Fasth (Swe), Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spa), Alastair Forsyth (Sco), Rich Beem, Jay Haas, Rocco Mediate

74 Tim Weinhart, Graeme McDowell (NIrl), Steve Lowery, Tom Lehman, Heath Slocum, Nick O'Hern (Aus), Peter Lonard (Aus), John Daly, Daniel Chopra (Swe), Justin Leonard, Paul Goydos, Ian Poulter (Eng), Camilo Villegas (Col), Mark Brooks

75 Anders Hansen (Den), Chris DiMarco, Soren Kjeldsen (Den), Martin Kaymer (Ger), Bubba Watson, Stewart Cink, Darren Clarke (NIrl), Don Yrene, Bob Tway, Richard S Johnson (Swe), Fredrik Jacobson (Swe), Corey Pavin

76 Kevin Sutherland, Todd Hamilton, Peter Hedblom (Swe), Chad Campbell, Vijay Singh (Fij), Prayad Marksaeng (Tha), Stuart Appleby (Aus), Hennie Otto (Rsa), Zach Johnson, Colin Montgomerie (Sco), Louis Oosthuizen (Rsa), Parker McLachlin, Fred Couples, J J Henry, Robert Allenby (Aus), Trevor Immelman (Rsa), Tim Clark (Rsa)

77 Adam Scott (Aus), Ross Fisher (Eng), Charl Schwartzel (Rsa), Bart Bryant, Soren Hansen (Den), Davis Love III, Nick Dougherty (Eng), Mark Brown, Hiroyuki Fujita (Jpn), Ryan Benzel, Scott Verplank, Brad Martin, Lee Westwood (Eng), Stephen Ames (Can)

78 Steve Webster (Eng), Vaughn Taylor, Rick Leibovich, Oliver Wilson (Eng), Greg Kraft, Sonny Skinner, Chez Reavie, Curt Sanders, KJ Choi (Kor), Jeffrey W Martin

79 Jim Estes, Kenny Perry, Jerry Kelly, Woody Austin, Toru Taniguchi (Jpn), Tommy Armour III

80 David Long, Ryuji Imada (Jpn), Pablo Larrazabal (Spa), Scott Hebert

81 Tim Thelen, Hunter Mahan, Mathew Goggin (Aus), Jeff Quinney

83 Cliff Kresge

86 Bradley Dean

87 Eric Dugas