Scottsdale: Anirban Lahiri got off to a strong start with a five-under 66 to lie one shot off the leaders at the Waste Management Phoenix Open.

Lahiri was tied fourth and one stroke behind the leading trio of Rickie Fowler, Shane Lowery and last year’s co-runner-up Hideki Matsuyama who carded 65 each.

Lahiri spent a session with putting guru, Dave Stockton, whom he met for the first time on Wednesday and immediately reaped benefits from it. He was perfect inside 10 feet and made seven birdies.

“I was cluttered and needed to get a more systematic process I can follow. I’m not very technical by nature. I like to visualise and feel the shots and that’s not how I putted before,” Lahiri said.

Stockton told him to ‘simplify’ the process and it worked. Lahiri started on the tenth, and after a opening par, he flourished with three birdies in a row from 11th to 13th and then after a dropped shot on 15th, he picked two more birdies on 16th and 17th to turn in four-under.

On his second nine, the back stretch of the TPC Scottsdale, he bogeyed the first but picked birdies on third and sixth and negotiated the rest in pars for a first day’s work of five-under 66 at the par-71 course. Lahiri had seven birdies and two bogeys.

Fowler, who like Lahiri missed the cut at last week’s Torrey Pines in Farmers Insurance Open, opened with a 65 that included three birdies and an eagle in his first five holes.

He cooled slightly but needed just 24 putts, including a dozen one-putts. Fowler had a total of six birdies, an eagle and two bogeys, while Lowry and Matsuyama had eight birdies and two bogeys each.

(PTI)