Taipei’s Pan sits T6 at Genesis Invitational, Lahiri off the pace

By a Correspondent

Pacific Palisades, California: Chinese Taipei’s C.T. Pan took advantage of a cooperative driver to fire a solid 4-under 67 for tied sixth place after the first round of The Genesis Invitational on Thursday.

After missing two cuts in his last three starts, the 30-year-old, leading Asian in the field was rewarded for some extra hours put at the range.

Pan racked up five birdies against a lone bogey at the historic Riviera Country Club to lie four back of early pacesetter, Joaquin Niemann of Chile (63).

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 $12 million tournament is hosted by Tiger Woods.

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

Poor start

Anirban Lahiri carded a disappointing 4-over par 75 that included one birdie against four dropped shots.

Lahiri picked up a shot early on in his round but could not maintain the pace thereafter with two bogeys in his outbound nine and a further three on the way back. 

He has so far made two cuts from three starts in 2022 and missed the money rounds at last week’s WM Phoenix Open following rounds of 70 and 75.

Pan, a one-time PGA Tour winner and member of the 2019 Presidents Cup International team, was pleased with his fast start.

“Driving, definitely driving,” said Pan when asked what he was most pleased about his round.

“I put a lot of work into driving because I haven’t driven well the last three events, so it’s good to hit the ball where I want it to be.

“As you know, this course is really demanding so if I can put my ball in a nice place, good position in the fairway, always comes with a pretty good birdie chance out there.”

Longer drives

Part of his growing confidence is also due to marked improvements in his driving distances where Pan said he averages 15 yards longer from off the tee.

He also started using a longer shaft in his driver to gain a better launch angle from off the tee.

“I switched to the Titleist TSI 2 driver last year and started using a longer shaft, 46 inches and it’s helped my launch angle which is now better and much higher.

“I used to launch about 10 degrees or less which is really low for PGA Tour standards but now I can launch it to 12 or 15 degrees. It changes the whole game for me. I feel like the courses I played, compared to last year, feels different,” said Pan.

After a greenside bunker shot to three feet for an opening birdie, Pan rolled in a monstrous 45-foot putt for a second birdie on the eighth.

He then holed further putts from inside of 12 feet on 10, 11 and 17. His only bogey on 14 was via a three-putt.

At the top of the order, Niemann’s opening 63 tied the lowest first-round score in The Genesis Invitational history. (courtesy pgatour.com)

Also read: Anirban Lahiri seeks a return to form at Genesis Invitational