By Rahul Banerji
Anirban Lahiri survived a rocky start at the 2020 Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship and was in tied 29th place in the Dominican Republic on Thursday.
Lahiri was four shots behind the leaders on 3-under par 69 and had to work hard to get there at the $4 million event.
Playing alongside, Arjun Atwal also started slowly but was well down the field on 1-over 73.
Four players shared the lead on 7-under 65s on a day there were as many as 11 bogey-free rounds.
Lahiri had a roller-coaster start, triple-bogeying the par-3 second and dropping a fourth shot on the third.
An eagle 3 and two birdies were topped off with a further bogey as he made the turn 1 over par and then picked up pace.
A clean run for home included four birdies, three in a row on 13, 14 and 15, was topped off with another gained shot on the 18th.
Happy chappie
“Still in it,” he tweeted with some event relief after Thursday’s round.
Atwal dropped four shots on his outbound nine but was able to retrieve some ground on his way home with three birdies to put a 73 against his name on a day a bagful of players went low.
Among them was 18-year-old Indian-American Akshay Bhatia, who is tied with Lahiri on an opening 69.
The lanky left-hander earned his slot at Punta Cana after making his first cut in eight starts at the Safeway Open since turning pro last year.
Young gun
On Thursday, he had four birdies against one dropped shot and told pgatour.com, “It’s always nice anytime you get a chance to play the PGA Tour.
“It’s a great way to enjoy things because this is the life I want to have and I have to get a taste of it.
“Earning my spot here was a different feeling for me and I’m just excited to get it going.”
At the top of the order, it was a four-way tie between Austria’s Sepp Straka and three Americans, Scott Harrington, Hudson Swafford and Tyler McCumber, son of 10-time PGA Tour winner Mark McCumber.
Of the Asians in the field, Xinjun Zhang was the best placed, a shot behind the leaders on 6-under 66 that included eight birdies and two dropped shots.
He was followed by Lahiri, Thailand’s Kiradech Aphibarnrat (70) and Sangmoon Bae (71) of South Korea.
Also read: India’s golf stars are back in action across the globe
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