Disappointing start for Anirban Lahiri at Genesis Invitational

By PTI

LOS ANGELES: Indian golfer Anirban Lahiri endured a disappointing opening round at the historic Riviera Country Club as he shot 4-over 75 in the Genesis Invitational hosted by Tiger Woods.

Lahiri was at T-105th and he faced an early exit unless he comes up with a low second round.

Starting from the 10th, he birdied 11th, but three were no more birdies after that.

He had five bogeys, two on his first nine and three more on the back nine.

Three times, he missed inside five feet and three more times at 10 feet or under.

Joaquin Niemann of Chile led the field with a stunning 8-under 63 that had nine birdies against one bogey after starting from the 10th.

World No.1 Jon Rahm and Rory McIlroy shot 69 each and were T-22, while Hideki Matsuyama (72) was T-77 and Dustin Johnson (73) was T-87.

Asia’s top star, Chinese Taipei’s CT Pan drove well to fire a solid 4-under 67 and was tied sixth.

After missing two cuts in his last three starts, the 30-year-old was rewarded for some extra hours put at the range as he pencilled down five birdies against a lone bogey to lie four back of early pacesetter, Niemann.

Defending champion Max Homa, Jordan Spieth, Cameron Young and last week’s WM Phoenix Open winner Scottie Scheffler all fired 66s to share second place in the star-studded USD 12 million tournament, which is hosted by Tiger Woods.

The tournament is one of three elevated events on the PGA TOUR.

Korea’s Si Woo Kim shot a 69, countryman Sungjae Im returned a 71 while current FedExCup leader Hideki Matsuyama of Japan, KH Lee and Jaekyeong Lee all posted 72s to leave themselves with some work to make the weekend cut.