Tom McKibbin endured his first challenging day since moving to LIV Golf when he opened with a three-over 74 to trail Dustin Johnson by 11 shots at LIV Singapore.
The Newtownabbey talent (22) tied for 15th on his debut in Riyadh before finishing tied seventh in Adelaide and tied sixth in Hong Kong last week.
But he has his work cut out to continue his strong run, which has left him ranked 11th in the season-long standings.
The Holywood star bogeyed the seventh, double bogeyed the 11th and dropped another shot at the first before making his lone birdie of the day at his final hole, the par-five fourth, to share 46th on three-over.
At the top of the leaderboard, 4Aces GC Captain Johnson fired a bogey-free eight-under 63 to lead by three shots at Sentosa Golf Club from Sebastian Muñoz and by four from an eight-man group featuring Cameron Smith, Brooks Koepka and Jon Rahm.
Johnson’s round was only a minor surprise after he struggled with a shoulder injury in Hong Kong for the first two rounds last week but closed with a 64.
“I couldn’t turn my head to the right,” Johnson (40) explained. “I kind of just pulled when I was on the through swing, so I was hitting everything left. It wasn’t a whole lot of fun.
“Swung it really nicely on Sunday. Obviously, the body loosened back up and I could hit the shots that I wanted.”
As for his 63, he said: “I put a lot of work in the last couple of days on the putter, and it paid off.”
Johnson’s 4Aces leads the team event by two shots on 14 under from Niemann’s Torque GC while McKibbin and his Legion XIII team mates Rahm (67), Tyrrell Hatton (70) and Caleb Surrat (68) are nine strokes behind in joint fifth.
Graeme McDowell was 53rd in the 54-man field after he ran up a triple bogey seven at his final hole and shot 78.
On the Ladies European Tour, Lauren Walsh was five shots off the lead after opening with a one-under 69 in the Australian Women’s Classic at Coffs Harbour Golf Club.
The Carton House star birdied two of her last four holes to end the day tied for 18th behind Welsh rookie Darcey Harry, Sweden’s Moa Folke and Austria’s Emma Spitz after they opened with six-under 64s.
Elm Park’s Anna Foster and Castlerock’s Annabel Wilson played together and also rallied near the end to card one-over 71s.
Foster was four-over after 12 holes before making birdies at the 13th, 16th and 17th to share 42nd with Wilson, who picked up shots at the 13th and 15th.