Joshua Shou stood on the eighth tee of the Tanah Merah Country Club Garden Course yesterday with everything against him. The wind was whipping into his face, a steady drizzle was coming down, he was at a whopping six over par and he had not even completed his first nine holes.

But this was the Putra Cup, and there was much at stake - Singapore's chance to reclaim the team title on home ground for the first time in five years.

Despite his disastrous start - a bogey on the par-three third and par-four fourth as well as a quadruple-bogey nine on the par-five fifth after he lost his ball - he told himself: "One shot at a time, just try to fight for every shot. There's still a lot of golf to play."

He then proceeded to send the ball across the water, landing it just six feet from the flag on the island green of the par-three 182m eighth hole. One putt later, he had his first birdie of the day - on whose wings he progressed to four more birdies (9th, 11th, 14th and 17th) in his last 12 holes.

"It definitely made me feel a lot better after the rough start," said the 26-year-old after he finished on only one-over 71. "It just made my day - it made my week, even if I don't play well the next two days.

"Today was definitely one for the books."

Indeed. His score put him at one-under 139 and third in the individual standings, just three shots behind co-leaders Gregory Foo (69), his team-mate, and Thailand's Kammalas Namuangruk (71).

"Joshua Shou played phenomenally to come back from six over par after five holes, and to only shoot one over par shows a lot of mental fortitude," said national coach Andrew Welsford.

"I drove around and filled in all my players with the knowledge of how their other team-mates were playing, and when they all heard that he was on the way back and finished with that score, that gave the whole team a morale boost.

"That effort and that fight and that character is a big thing not just for our team, but personally for Joshua."

Singapore maintained a one-shot lead over defending champions Thailand in the team event, totalling 415. Malaysia are third on 427.