St. Andrews (Scotland), Oct 1 (Golf news) Indian golfer Shubhankar Sharma rallied after a rough start to finish the day at tied 55th place at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship here..

Coming off a fine Top-10 finish at BMW PGA two weeks ago, he was 2-under 70.

Sharma has had three Top-10s and a few Top-20 and Top-30 results this season as he looked for a Top-60 finish on the Race to Dubai rankings.

Starting on the 10th, Sharma opened with a birdie but gave away a triple bogey on 11th and had another bogey on 16th, at which point he was 3-over for the tournament.

His recovery started from the 18th where he got a birdie and added four more on his second nine, the front side of the Old Course at St. Andrews. He birdied the second, third, fifth and seventh and finished with a presentable 2-under 70.

Ajeetesh Sandhu, also starting on 10th, began with two bogeys and ended the day with a bogey on ninth. In between he had four bridies for a card of 1-under 71 at Kingsbarns and was tied 79th.

Tyrrell Hatton opened his bid for a third Alfred Dunhill title with a perfect start, producing a stunning back nine of 29 at Carnoustie Golf Links to join a four-way tie for the lead after round one.

Coming from Europe's Ryder Cup defeat in Wisconsin last week, he started with an opening 8-under par round of 64 to join Spaniard Adri Arnaus, Nicolas Colsaerts of Belgium and China's Li Haotong at the top of the leaderboard.

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship, which Hatton won in 2016 and 2017.

The six-time European Tour winner is teeing it up alongside his father Jeff in the unique event that sees professionals and amateurs playing across three iconic links courses at Carnoustie, Kingsbarns and the Old Course St Andrews.

Arnaus and Colsaerts were both playing the Old Course, while Li found form in spectacular style with a bogey-free round at Kingsbarns Golf Links.

Ryder Cupper Colsaerts has two top-10s at this event and shot his lowest ever score at the Old Course having played just 18 holes of golf since the BMW PGA Championship.

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News source : PTI