Indian professional golfer Anirban Lahiri, a seven-time Asian Tour winner continued his impeccable form after firing seven birdies in his last round at Macao on Sunday when he made six straight birdies on his first eight holes at the CIMB Classic golf tournament at Kuala Lumpur on Thursday.
With a bogey-bogey finish on the front nine of the course (which in fact was his second nine for the round) Lahiri finished six under 66 to be tied fifth at the end of the first day at the TPC Kuala Lumpur where he won the Malaysian Open last season. Lahiri was eight-under after 14 holes and was looking to take the lead when he bogeyed the last two holes.
The runners-up at Venetian Macao last week opened up to The Indian Express after thing first round, saying, ”That front nine , I could have done a lot more. To finish the day like that (bogey-bogey) is obviously a bitter taste in my mouth. But it’s still a decent start. I would have liked to definitely be a couple shots better, if not three.”
Lahiri, who is still looking for his win on PGA Tour further added,“I’ve just got to take it one round at a time, whatever happened is behind me, but obviously there’s a good, solid amount of confidence coming into this week and I just need to play with that for the rest of the event.”
Also read: Macau Open: Anirban Lahiri finishes runner-up after an enthralling performance
Honorary member Asian Tour KJ Choi of Korea, and Japanese duo Hideki Matsuyama and Ryo Ishikawa were the next best Asians after Lahiri tied in16th place after recording scores of 69.
The first round leaders were defending champion Justin Thomas along with fellow Americans Derek Fathauer and Keegan Bradley in the US $7 million tournament, which is the only PGA Tour-sanctioned tournament in Southeast Asia.The two other Indians playing in the event, Gaganjeet Bhullar (73) and SSP Chawrasia (74) ended tied-64th and tied-69th place at the end of the first day.
