September 01, 2018: Anirban Lahiri began the week in Boston needing T12 or better to progress into the 70 player field at the BMW Championship. Currently ranked 97th on the FedExCup standings, Anirban shot three over 74 in the opening round of the Dell Technologies Championship at the TPC Boston.
Justin Rose ploughed to the front of the leaderboard with a forceful 65, one stroke ahead of Russell Knox and Abraham Ancer. Chris Kirk, Beau Hossler, Keegan Bradley and Gary Woodland were all tied in fourth at four under.
Brian Harman, Rafa Cabrera Bello, James Hahn, Webb Simpson, Dustin Johnson, Marc Leishman, Xander Schauffele and Adam Hadwin made a 68 each.
C.T. Pan and Byeong Hun An were flying the flag for Asia, lying T16 with a two-under score of 69. Tiger Woods continues to struggle for rhythm, firing one over 72 in the opening round. Woods got off to a miserable start – conceding three bogeys over his first seven holes through the 16th.
Tiger made amends with birdies at the 17th and then the fourth hole. But after conceding another bogey at the sixth, he needed to put another birdie at the 7th to mitigate any further damage to his card.
Anirban was marginally better than the field with his putter, the strokes gained, 0.150 against the competition. But he was making only 57% fairways and just 61% of the greens in regulation, forcing him to summon his best rescue game on Thursday.
The Indian found the bunker on the 11th, where he conceded a bogey. Anirban nearly scrambled to a par at the 12th, with a monstrous 51 footer, only to miss out narrowly.
A brilliant approach at the 15th left him by the foot of the pin for his first birdie of the day. Anirban was forced to take a drop in the right rough at the 18th as he stumbled to another bogey, his third of the round.
After making the turn at two over, Anirban’s situation worsened at the bend. He made bogeys at the first and third holes – another drop at the first and a miss from inside ten feet at the second, the source of his pain.
Anirban salvaged a birdie at the fourth before coasting home with five straight pars, but the damage had already been done. With a 68 needed just to return to even terms, Anirban will look up to his bag for a low round on Friday to harbour any hopes of staying on in this engaging FedExCup Playoff series.
