U.S. Open champion Webb Simpson also had a good Thursday, opening up with 65 to sit two shots behind Singh alongside Argentina's Andres Romero and South African Garth Mulroy.
Even before the causeway was built around 70 years ago, children were able to wade through the shallow waters of Mulroy Bay on stilts to get to school on the mainland.
"As is often the case, our ability to impose a solution provides an incentive for parties to agree, even if at the last moment, " said June Mulroy, a director at the regulator.