India’s Anirban Lahiri staged a superb fightback after an early setback to shoot 3-under 69 in the first round of the Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship.
Lahiri had a triple bogey on the second hole and a bogey on the third, and started his recovery soon after with an eagle on the fourth. Still at 2-over, Lahiri had six birdies against just one more bogey on ninth. On his back nine, he had four birdies in the last six holes. He closed with a 69 that made his debut at Corales Puntacana a good one. He was tied 29th.
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India’s other challenger in the field, Arjun Atwal, had a rough front nine with bogeys on first and ninth and a double on eighth, but on the back nine, he birdied three times to finish at one-over 73 for a tied 105th.
Daniel Chopra had four bogeys against just one bogey. He was at 125th.
Four-way lead
Four players shared the lead at 7-under after first round and only one of them, Tyler McCumber, the son of 10-time PGA Tour winner Mark McCumber, reached 8-under at any stage in the Caribbean breeze. He bogeyed 17th and finished 7-under with Sepp Straka, who had a bogey-free round, Hudson Swafford and Scott Harrington.
McCumber, Straka, Swafford and Harrington were one shot clear of Xinjun Zhang and Joseph Bramlett, while Justin Suh, playing on a sponsor exemption, got his season off to a happy start and was among those at 67.
Nearly two-thirds of the 144-man field broke par as scoring was low.
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