AUGUSTA -- A Singh topped the Masters Tournament first-round leaderboard.

No, not Vijay Singh.

Jeev Milkha Singh.

Singh, no relation to 2000 Masters champion Vijay, birdied three of his first eight holes Thursday to take a one-shot lead.

Singh led Justin Rose and Brett Wetterich by a shot as of 3 p.m. Thursday at Augusta National Golf Club. Rose was 2-under through 13 holes while Wetterich had the same score through No. 10.

Tim Clark, the 2006 Masters runner-up, led a group of 10 players tied for fourth place, two shots behind Singh. Clark birdied No. 18 to shoot a 1-under 71. Augusta native Vaughn Taylor, 2002 PGA Championship winner Rich Beem and a pair of 50-something former Masters champs, Fuzzy Zoeller and Craig Stadler, joined the group at 1-under.

Singh, a Masters rookie, is the first player born in India to compete in a Masters Tournament. He qualified for the event by finishing 37th in the 2006 Official World Golf Ranking.

Singh won two overseas tournaments last year, including the season-ending Volvo Masters. The victories marked a comeback by the 35-year-old, who showed promise on the Asian Tour in the late-1990s before a wrist injury interrupted his career. He won four Asian events between 1995 and 1999.

Rose burst on the golf scene as a 19-year-old amateur at the 1998 British Open. He finished tied for fourth. He has struggled in the years since, never finishing higher than ninth on the European Tour money list.

Rose posted a victory earlier this year in Europe and also finished third at the PGA Tour's Bob Hope Chrysler tournament.

Rose has played well in the Masters in two career appearances. He led through two rounds in the 2004 tournament only to shoot a third-round 81 and fade to 22nd.

Ian Woosnam withdrew from the Masters before the start of the first round because of soreness in his back. The 1991 Masters champion had missed the cut in the last six Masters.

Large and early-arriving galleries greeted the golfers Thursday. Several thousand patrons arrived at the course before the gates opened to see Arnold Palmer hit the ceremonial first tee shot.

Palmer, who retired from Masters play after the 2004 tournament, hit his drive down the left side of the No. 1 fairway.