Sharma and Ahlawat have difficult start at Betfred British Masters

Sutton Coldfield (England), Aug 22 (PTI) Veer Ahlawat was the better of the two Indians on the first day of the Betfred British Masters his 1-over 73 was good enough only for Tied-67th place, here.

Shubhankar Sharma with 2-over 74 was T-89 and staring at another missed cut.

Ahlawat started his round on the back nine and shot four bogeys and three birdies at the Belfry Hotel & Resort in Sutton Coldfield. The birdies were made on the third, seventh and 17th holes while the bogeys were made on the first, ninth, 16th and 18th holes.

Indian origin player Aaron Rai shot 1-over 73 on the first day and is also tied 66 on the leaderboard along with Ahlawat.

There is a four way tie for the lead as Marcel Siem, Matthias Schwab, Thomas Aiken and Haotong Li shot rounds of 6-under 66. In tied fifth place and one shot behind the leaders were home hero Matt Fitzpatrick and Keita Nakajima. PTI Corr AT AT