golf. For Anirban Lahiri, it was truly a ‘Car-Nasty’ start

Carnoustie seemed to take a break from its usual image of being ‘Car-Nasty’ as benign and wind-less conditions with gorgeous sunshine greeted the golfers in the morning. That allowed the morning wave to help itself to a bunch of birdies and eagles, too, but the morning wore on it, was sweltering and the wind switched 90 degrees from South-West to South-East and that made if difficult to score.

The same Carnoustie, gentle and benevolent as it may have seemed for a while, hit back every now and then with its infamous ‘Carnoustie sting’ in the tail on the closing 16-17-18 stretch.

As Anirban Lahiri went through a ‘birdie-free’ round of 5-over 76, Kevin Kisner gave the Americans a lot to cheer as he added to their domination of the Majors with his 5-under 66.

Tiger Woods had just begun his round and was 1-under though three while India’s Shubhankar Sharma was even through four.

A bunch of Americans led by Kisner (66) and Tony Finau (67) and a trio of South Africans – Erik van Rooyen (67), Zander Lombard (67) and Brandon Stone (68) who came through qualifying tournaments dominated the leaderboard. Two of the three South Africans won their berths in last two weeks.

Americans have won the last five Majors and 10 of the last 14 and Kisner indicated another strong challenge. He has made his way up after playing on lower rung, Tarheel, Hooters and Web.Com Tours. Now he has two wins on the PGA Tour.

Kevin Kisner, 1-over through five, had an interesting stretch of bogey-eagle-par-birdie from fifth and then had a hat-trick of birdies from 13th to 15th. He survived the treacherous final stretch 16-18th to shoot 66. Earlier Carnoustie Links member Matthew Southgate, a testicular cancer survivor, shot 69 that included eagles on both Par-5s.

‘Birdie-free’ round

Lahiri, playing his sixth Open, put on a brave smile and said, “It was not the day I was hoping for. I didn’t get off to a good start and after 2-3 holes in I started tightening up and had a ‘birdie free’ round. That’s not the phrase I want to be associated with, but that’s what it was.”

He went on, “I missed a lot of shots to the right and that’s not what I do usually. I missed a lot of opportunity early on and didn’t take advantage of the two par-5s and I found too many fairway bunkers.”

In terms of stats, he found only 20 per cent of the fairways, hit only 50 per cent greens in regulation and needed as many as 31 putts and his bogeys came on fourth, ninth and 16th and he double bogeyed the 10th and there were no birdies.

He admitted, “I did not hit many greens in the middle part of the round. I found too many bunkers and realistically, I did not put myself inside 10 feet enough, but I have been making those 15-18 footers, so I should have. I got my speeds on the green a little wrong; left a couple in the jaw and a couple lipped out. So, I need to work on the speed and tempo. Still 5-over is not where I should be.”

Shaking his head and giving a wry smile, he added, “I need to put this round behind me. I still feel I can make a bunch of birdies tomorrow.”

Van Rooyen secured his spot by finishing second to Shubhankar Sharma in Joburg Open; Lombard earned his place with T-6 in Irish Open two weeks ago and Stone shot 60 to win Scottish Open last Sunday to secure his Open berth.

Van Rooyen was flawless and 5-under through 17 holes before he dropped a shot on the tough 18th to finish 4-under. Also getting a taste of the ‘Carnoustie sting’ at the end was Danny Willet, the 2016 Masters Champion, who dropped from 4-under through 16 to 2-under with bogeys on 17-18.

But the worst hit was Jordan Spieth, who as 3-under through 14. Then his title defense seemed to shake as he dropped a double bogey on 15th and further bogeys on 16th and 18th to finish 1-over 72.

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