Last year’s runaway champion Spieth finished on 67 alongside Adam Scott, Bubba Watson, Bill Haas and Brooks Koepka.
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“The only blemish I can think of is maybe I left a putt short on line, which is a little criminal”, Casey said.
Lahiri, 28, earned his PGA TOUR card for the 2015-16 season and made headlines in 2015 after winning twice worldwide, including the Hero Indian Open.
Successive birdies at six, seven and eight were followed by a superb eagle at the par-five 11th after he followed up two great shots by draining a lengthy putt from across the green.
However, Spieth doesn’t seem to lack confidence and said at some point he may find something he can improve on, per DiMeglio: “When I’ve done some thinking about it, which is not much as of now, that’s more of what December’s for, to re-evaluate and set new goals”.
Japan’s Hideki Matsuyama was the only player in the 18-man field not to go under par as he props up the leaderboard on three over, while Justin Rose is five off the pace following a one-under 71. He won the Vardon Trophy for lowest scoring average (68.94) and was the best putter on Tour; he led in putting average, one-putt percentage (44.26%) and putts per round. This was the fewest number of rounds over par on the first day, and there had been no shortage of rounds in the upper 70s and 80s. Or will Spieth regain his Hero World Challenge crown?
In your golf dreams, when you’re the world No 1, returning to defend the tournament you won by 10 strokes past year, what happens on the first two holes?
He made par efforts on the rest three closing holes to settle for 69.
He responded with three birdies in a row starting at the par-5 sixth, eagled the par-5 11 and added back-to-back birdies at 13 and 14 as well. “I started walking because balls have been sticking on the green so I thought it just stuck, but I guess it just crept forward that extra two feet”, the 22-year-old Texan said. He was happy just to be playing after he cut his right heel coming out of the water from diving on Tuesday.
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If Spieth’s ace was the talk of the opening day’s action, then Lahiri’s cool play also kept the Indian fans glued to his progress on his debut appearance in the event.
