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This Article is From Jan 28, 2011

Atwal shoots one-over at Torrey Pines

Atwal shoots one-over at Torrey Pines
California: Arjun Atwal could not hold on to a good start and ended with a one-over 73 in the opening round of the Farmer's Insurance Open played over two courses in Torrey Pines, San Diego.

The Indian ace, who has secured his card through 2012, is lying at 97th after the first round at South Course.

In the second round, he plays in the North Course and would need a good round to make the cut that looks likely at one-under or par.

The field was led by a 24-year-old South Korean rookie, Sunghoon Kang, who blazed the course with a eight-under 64, thus finishing with back-to-back birdies on the North Course to take a one-shot lead over Chris Kirk, Alex Prugh and the highly popular Rickie Fowler.

Atwal opened with a birdie on the first and though he gave away that advantage on fourth, the Indian found back-to-back birdies on the sixth and seventh.

Then he found just bogeys and no more birdies.

A bogey on the eighth meant he turned in one-under, but two more dropped shots on the 14th and 16th saw him end the day at 73.

The tournament has received a lot of attention as Tiger Woods opened his 2011 campaign with a three-under 69 with no bogeys and no birdies on par-fives, usually his target for low scoring.

Phil Mickelson shot 32 on the back nine for a 5-under 67 to match the best score on the tougher South Course.

Also at 67 on the South was John Daly, whose last win came in 2004 at this tournament.

He is the last player to win at Torrey Pines when Woods was in the field.

Woods' game was solid but he still struggled on the greens and sank just two putts longer than three feet  one of them a 10-foot par save on No. 8, and a 25-foot birdie putt on the par-3 sixth.

Woods was paired with Rocco Mediate, whom he defeated in an epic US Open playoff at Torrey Pines in 2008.

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