Halfway through the first round at the Northern Trust in the first event of the FedExCup Play-offs, Anirban Lahiri looked set for a good low round despite the swirly wind conditions at the Liberty National Golf Club in New Jersey. However, a missed birdie putt from inside five feet became a bogey as he missed the return putt and finally ended the day at 2-under 69, which still gave him hope for a good week.

“I did feel like I didn't putt very well. I had a lot of chances, gave myself a lot of looks. Probably left two, three shots out there, but all in all, I'm satisfied,” said Lahiri, who ranked seventh in Strokes Gained: Approach to Green but 87th in putting.

Lahiri, who at one stage rose to T-5 when he was 3-under after 14 holes. A late dropped shot on seventh, his 14th hole saw him finish at 69 and T-15.

Justin Thomas, the FedExCup champion in 2017, and Spaniard World No. 1, Jon Rahm carded matching 63s to share the first round lead, with Harald Varner III of the U.S. sitting in third place following a 66.

Playing in his first Play-offs since 2018, Lahiri, 34, needs to jump inside the top-70 this week on FedExCup standings, to get into the next week’s BMW Championships. He started the week at 121st.

“I think I played really well. I hit my irons really good today, and you needed to. I think conditions were extremely hard. So you just have to do everything good. You have to hit it in the fairway to start, and then the course is going to ask you some questions with your mid and long irons, and you just have to answer them, added Lahiri.

Lahiri hit only seven of the 14 fairways but found 13 of the 18 greens in regulation as he finished finish the first day at 2-under for the tournament. However, Lahiri hit a lot of fine approach shots, which gave him a lot of opportunities.

Starting his day on the back nine at the 10th tee, Lahiri had two birdies on the stretch on the 15th and 18th. A superb approach from 196 yards gave him a one foot tap-in for birdie.

On the 490-yard par-4 18th hole, Lahiri’s 181-yard approach shot was inside five for another birdie and he turned in 2-under.

Then came the 10th, where he hit his approach to inside five feet for another birdie, but he not only missed the birdie putt, his par putt also slipped past for a bogey. That meant a birdie became a bogey and possibly two shots were lost.

He hit back immediately on Par-3 second as his tee shot came within seven feet for a birdie chance which he grabbed gleefully and he was back to 2-under for the round. On the par-4 fifth, Lahiri's 150-yard approach to 13 feet gave him another birdie and he moved to 3-under and to T-5. But he gave away a shot on the 18th when his tee shot went into the native area and he ended with a bogey to finish the day at 2-under.

Following a challenging season where he came down with Covid-19 and endured limited starts due to his playing category. Lahiri, a two-time International team member at the Presidents Cup, added, “It's nice. It feels familiar.”

“It feels like home. It feels like where I should be year after year. It doesn't really feel odd or feel new in that sense, but, like I said, I've come into this Playoffs feeling really good about my game. It's been a good place. So I'm trying to just build some momentum as I go through this,” said Lahiri.

Lahiri also said, “I'm just trying to sleep more. The kind of schedule I've been on, the amount of tournaments I've played in, the miles that I've clocked, it's about managing energy for me right now, and that's what I'm focusing on,” he said.

“I am just trying to stay as fresh as possible. A golf course like Liberty National, especially when it gets windy like this, it demands a lot of mental energy. You have to be sharp mentally, and that's what I'm trying to do this week.”

This season Lahiri finished tied third at the Barbasol Championship last month and needed two late birdies on Sunday at the Wyndham Championship to safeguard his top-125 status on the FedExCup points list.

Among those tied at T -15 was Japanese star Hideki Matsuyama, who hit five birdies, one double bogey and one bogey, to card a 69 while the other Asians in the field, K.H. Lee and Sungjae Im of Korea opened with 71s, Si Woo Kim carded a 72 and Chinese Taipei’s C.T. Pan shot a 74.

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