Solid start for Atwal, Lahiri two-over

Arjun Atwal continued his fine show as he moved to three-under through 15 holes on the first day of the John Deere Classic here on Thursday.

Atwal, 46, overcame a double bogey as he compiled six birdies, one double and one bogey and had two more holes to play.

Anirban Lahiri did not have a pleasing day as he was two-over through 16 holes, but on the other side of the course, as he started from the first. He bogeyed sixth and 10th and had no birdies.

Last week Atwal made the 3M Open by winning a Monday qualifier and then finished T-23 after being in Top-10 for three days.

Atwal started from the tenth and birdied the 11th but gave back that shot on 13th, where he missed a five-footer for par.

Soon after he was then hit by a double bogey when he went from right rough to left greenside bunker and from there to the greenside right bunker. It was a difficult shot and he was left with 24-footer for bogey, which he missed.

However after that he played brilliantly with three birdies in a row from 16th to 18th and each time he had a great approach shot. He turned in one-under and added to that with birdies on second and fifth to go three-under. He holed a clutch par from 10 feet on seventh, his 16th holes.

Scotsman Martin Laird was the leader at seven-under, but he still had two more holes to play, while Andrew Landry and Austin Cook were both six under after 15 holes, but on opposite sides of the course.

Cook was helped by an eagle-two on par-4 where he holed his second shot from 137 yards.

Last week's winner, Matt Wolff was three-under through while Viktor Hovland and Colin Morikawa, two other young prodigies were two-under each through 10 holes.