Atwal Stumbles to Five-over 75, Lie Tied 120th at Honda Classic

Palm Beach (US), Feb 28 (PTI) Indian golfer Arjun Atwal ran into rough weather to end up with a disappointing five-over 75 in the opening round of the Honda Classic here.

Atwal, who came through a tough Monday qualifier, dropped seven bogeys, a double bogey against two birdies an an eagle to lie at tied 120th. He will need a solid second round to make the cut, which is likely to be around three-over.

Atwal opened with two pars and then had an eagle on Par-5 third, when he holed out his third shot from 72 feet. That was the last he smiled as he bogeyed four in a row from fourth and added two more bogeys on ninth and tenth.

Birdies on 14th and 17th meant little because of a double on 15th and a bogey on 18th as he carded 75.

Tom Lewis and Harris English, who came into the event as sponsor's invites, made good use of that as they shared the lead at the end of the first round.

Both shot four-under 66 at PGA National, while Lee Westwood, also in the field due to a sponsor exemption, was one shot back with Zach Johnson, JT Poston, Brian Stuard and Cameron Tringale.

On a day when winds went above 20 miles per hour, only 22 of the 144 broke par at the PGA National.

English, a two-time winner on the PGA TOUR in 2013, but has no wins since, was great with his short game besides once holing out from about 25 yards on the par-4 11th.

Westwood hit 11 of 14 fairways and was thoroughly pleased with how the day went.

Lewis had a bogey-free round.

Brooks Koepka, in his hometown tournament, made a triple bogey and a double bogey in a four-hole span on the front side on his way to a 74.

Defending champion Keith Mitchell finished birdie-birdie and still shot 75. Rickie Fowler, winner of The Honda Classic in 2017 and second last year with Koepka, made one birdie in his 76.

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