Lahiri makes solid start with two-under, lies 13th in Texas

Indian golfer Anirban Lahiri had an eventful second nine after a solid first nine at the Charles Schwab Challenge as he carded two-under 68 to be placed tied 13th at the end of the first round here.

Lahiri was four shots behind leader Tony Finau, who did not find many fairways, but found a lot of greens as he carded six-under 64.

Lahiri was among those playing in the morning when the conditions were better than afternoon as temperatures reached 90 and the wind was a steady 20 miles per hour. Of the 12 players atop the leaderboard, 11 played in the morning.

Jordan Spieth and Roger Sloan were tied for second spot at five-under and Lahiri's playing partner, Peter Uihlein, J J Henry, Scott Brown, Chesson Hadley, Jonas Blixt, Nick Watney, Trey Mullinax, Jimmy Walker, and Jason Dufner were bunched together at fourth position at three-under.

Lahiri found only six of the 14 fairways but hit 12 of the 18 greens and then putted way better than he has in recent weeks.

His iron play was what carried the day and it showed that he can still turn around what has so far been a modest season.

Lahiri, starting on the 10th, found his birdie on the par-4 12th. He found the fairway fine and then hit his iron to five feet for a birdie.

On 464-yard par-4 14th hole, Lahiri reached the green in two and sunk a 28-foot putt for birdie to get to two-under.

After a drive to the left side of the fairway on the 387-yard par-4 17th hole, Lahiri had a 134 yard approach shot, setting himself up for the birdie.

This moved Lahiri to three-under for the round. He also had a 15-footer for birdie on 16th, but it stopped less than six inches from the cup.

On the 565-yard par-5 first, Lahiri went into the rough and then before getting to the green in four, he two-putted for bogey.

Another bogey followed on the 483-yard par-4 third, where his tee shot went 298 yards to the right rough. From there he found the greenside bunker and came out within nine feet, but could not hole the par putt and dropped a bogey to fall back to one-under.

At the 247-yard par-3 fourth, Lahiri hit a nice tee shot 244 yards and on to the green, he set himself up for the 15-foot putt for birdie to get back to two-under.

A bogey on par-4 fifth, Lahiri went 217 yards to the left rough and then to the left side of the fairway and off his third he was in the greenside bunker. He hit his fourth shot from the bunker to three feet and holed the bogey putt.

He got his final birdie on the 199-yard par-3 eighth, where he hit his tee shot to the green and holed the birdie putt from 18 feet.

Defending champion Justin Rose shot 74 with four bogeys on the back nine.