Lahiri races to tied 7th , Woods 14th

AKRON(US): Indian golfer Anirban Lahiri shot a fine 5-under 65 to position himself in tied-7th place after the opening day of the Wgcbridgestone Invitational at Firestone Country Club here.

Landing six birdies against one solitary bogey, Lahiri was three shots behind the leader and two-time WGC winner, Ian Poulter, whose 8-under 62 tied the record for lowest first-round score in the Wgc-bridgestone Invitational. India’s other player in the field, Shubhankar Sharma shot 2-over 72 and was T-63rd in the 71-man field. Sharma had two birdies against four bogeys in his third WGC appearance.

Tiger Woods, T-6 at the Open last month, and an eight-time winner at Firestone, opened with a 66 to sit at T-14. Woods beginning on No. 10, sank a 50-foot birdie putt from off the green at No. 18 to make the turn in 3-under 32. His only bogey of the day came at his last hole, No. 9.

Englishman Poulter produced his lowest round in eight years with eight birdies and no bogeys as favourable scoring conditions resulted in a lot of low scores. Poulter’s 62 was his best since 2010 UBS Hong Kong Open, where he had a second-round 60 enroute to lifting the trophy.

HULLAR MOVES TO 5TH

NATADOLA BAY (FIJI): Indian golfer Gaganjeet Bhullar recovered from a shaky start to card threeunder 69 for a share of the fifth spot at the midway stage of the Fiji International tournament here. Bhullar stands five-under overall. He is six shots behind the runaway leader Kiwi Ben Campbell, who shot 67 after his first round 66 to get to 11-under.

Of the four Indians in the field, Ajeetesh Sandhu (73-73) was the only other one to make the cut, while Shiv Kapur (80-72) and Chiragh Kumar (77-80) missed out.