Lahiri cards 72; Koepka, Spieth lead at Travelers Championships

Anirban Lahiri found a bunch of greens in regulation but did not quite convert them into some solid scoring as he carded two-over 72 to lie T-127th after the first round of the Travelers Championship here.

The Indian was once again left with a task of bringing home a good low second round score to make the weekend action at TPC River Highlands.

Lahiri had just one birdie and was one-under till the 14th hole, before he double bogeyed the 15th and bogeyed the 18th to finish with 72.

Lahiri just could not get any putts between 10 and 15 feet despite getting to the greens in regulation and the two of three times he missed the greens in regulation he paid with dropped shots.

On one of the two par-5s he went into water and managed only a par.

Meanwhile, there was a six-way share for the lead.

Zack Sucher, playing in in the last group of the day, shot six-under 64 to share the lead with Ryan Armour and Bronson Burgoon, who played in the morning, and later MacKenzie Hughes, Abraham Ancer and Kyoung-Hoon Lee joined them.

Paul Casey, who gave up a four-shot lead in the final round a year ago, missed a 17-foot par putt on the 18th and finished in a group of six at 65.

Patrick Cantlay was part of a group of 12 at 66.

Defending champion Bubba Watson opened with a 69, while some of the big names like Brooks Koepka (71), Tony Finau (71), Jordan Spieth (73) were lying way behind as 86 players shot one-under par or better.

Francesco Molinari (69), who defends his British Open title next month, was among those at T-61 and that group included Thai Kiradech Aphibarnrat.

Viktor Hovland shot a 67 in his professional debut. The Oklahoma State junior, who was the low amateur at the US Open, received one of the four sponsor exemptions into the tournament.