Punta Cana (Dominican Republic): 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, who had a triple bogey on the second hole and a bogey on the third started the 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 and closed with a 69 that made his debut at Corales Puntacana a good one. He was tied 29th.
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, 125th.
Left-handed Akshay Bhatia, the 18-year-old Indian-American, who started from the 10th, birdied three in a row from seventh and then dropped a shot on 17th but closed with a birdie for 69 to be tied 29th with Lahiri. Four players shared the lead at 7-under after first round 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. They 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. McCumber, also made eagle on No. 4 and his birdie on the par-5 seventh took him to 8 under. But he dropped a shot on 8th, his 17th hole, pegged him back to 7-under.
Straka’s round was highlighted by a 5-wood to 5 feet for eagle on the par-5 fourth hole early in his round. Suh last year was spoken off in the same way as were Collin Morikawa, who has by now won a Major and another PGA Tour event, and Matthew Wolff and Viktor Hovland, who have a PGA Tour win each. Wolff was also second at the US Open. Suh missed nine out of 11 cuts on sponsor exemptions in PGA TOUR events since turning pro but had an injury, too.
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